Web 2.0 Word Builder

by Miraz on 23 March 2008

The Internet is abuzz with a whole new vocabulary: memes and tags, posts and mashups, LOLcats, tweets and RSS. Friends, characters, flag, subscribe and interesting have a whole new meaning. This article helps you find your way in the new Web 2.0 world.

characters: letters, numbers, symbols, or spaces. When you send a txt message with a cellphone or a tweet through Twitter, you’ll be cut off after about 140 characters.
flag: Seen a photo on Flickr or a YouTube video that you find offensive? Flag it for the staff to review.
Flickr: An online service for storing and sharing photos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all photos from friends. Search or explore by many criteria.
friends: On social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn a friend is anyone you set up a connection with, whether you know them personally or not.
interesting: Flickr calculate an ‘interestingness’ score for each photo, based on tags, clicks, comments and so on. Explore the most interesting photos.
LOLcats: pictures of cats, with humorous captions, written to a certain style. LOL is short for ~~‘Lots of Laughs’~~ ‘Laugh out Loud’ (thanks Che for the reminder). Example: www.lolcats.com/view/55.
mashups: putting information together from more than one source. For example, combining crime statistics and Google maps CSI-style.
memes: An idea, saying or activity that takes hold and becomes popular. For example, LOLcats.
posts: Articles and other contributions to blogs, forums, etc.
RSS: Automatically delivers information from websites and other sources. For example, subscribe to the RSS feed for a particular person’s Flickr photos and any new photos appear automatically in your reader. Example National Library (NZ) photo feed.
subscribe: Usually free of charge. When you subscribe to something you add it to a list of items you will check regularly or receive automatically. For example, you might subscribe to the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel.
tags: Words that help describe something. A photo might be titled ‘Solace in the wind’, but have tags such as: wellington, waterfront, sculpture, statue, and so on.
tweets: Messages sent through the Twitter service.
Twitter: A service for broadcasting short text messages. People use it as a way to keep in touch and up-to-date with friends and colleagues, or news. Example: twitter.com/StuffNZ_World.
User generated: this means that you do the work. If you visit a website you may leave comments, upload images or movies, add information; that is all ‘user’ or ‘consumer’ generated.
Web 2.0: Websites and services that make it easy for people to connect with one another by rating items, marking favourites, sharing, commenting and so on.
YouTube: An online service for storing and sharing short videos. Add comments and tags. Subscribe to an RSS feed to automatically catch all new videos from a given topic. Search or explore by many criteria. Example, WildlifeDirect.