Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

'Most Confusing' Tech Terms Still Baffling Brits

by Warren Riddle on April 30, 2009 at 11:08 AM



Keeping up with the latest Web and tech trends can be particularly difficult, especially for casual surfers who get easily confused and frustrated by the constant inundation of new terms and devices. To help lower the language barrier, according to the BBC, the master statisticians at Gadget Helpline surveyed 5,000 U.K. residents, and compiled England's 10 most confusing tech-related terms.

We thought that a few of the list's terms, like 'Digital TV,' 'desktop,' and 'phone jack,' have already become entrenched in our discourse, so how could they be so confusing. Others, however, like 'dongle' (another word for those little USB sticks you put into your computer), might seem to have salacious second meanings, so we can understand the mixups. Being barraged with such strange words can be intimidating, so Peter Griffiths of the Plain English Campaign told the BBC, "We need to pull our heads out of the digital clouds and use plain English." To combat tech-illiteracy, his campaign and the Gadget Helpline suggest compiling a glossary of terms to help explain gizmo lingo.

No offense, guys, as this seems like a beneficial survey conducted with good intentions, but apparently news of Webopedia.com, an online tech dictionary, hasn't made it across the pond yet. Interestingly enough, none of the U.K.'s most confusing terms cracked Webopedia's Top 10, indicating a significant techno-babble barrier between the U.S. and the U.K. Maybe that's why our version of 'The Office' is so much funnier than theirs. [From: BBC]

Tags: gadget helpline, GadgetHelpline, lingo, luddites, Plain English Campaign, PlainEnglishCampaign, tech terms, techno-babble, technorati, TechTerms, top, uk

Comments

2

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular