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HTML STD
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:35 pm
by Gob
If you're talking tech with Americans, you may want to avoid using any jargon.
A recent study found many Americans are lost when it comes to tech-related terms, with 11 per cent saying they thought HTML – a language used to create websites – was a sexually transmitted disease.
The study was conducted by Vouchercloud.net, a coupons website, as a way to determine how knowledgeable users are when it comes to tech terms.
"Technology is a huge interest for our user base," a company spokeswoman said. "It seems that quite a few of us need to brush up on our tech definitions."
Besides HTML, there were some other amusing findings:
•77 per cent of respondents could not identify what "SEO" means. SEO stands for "search-engine optimisation".
•27 per cent identified "gigabyte" as an insect commonly found in South America. A gigabyte is a unit of measurement for the storage capacity of an electronic device.
•42 per cent said they believed a "motherboard" was "the deck of a cruise ship". A motherboard is usually a circuit board that holds many of the key components of a computer.
•23 per cent thought an "MP3" was a Star Wars robot. It is actually an audio file.
•18 per cent identified "Blu-ray" as a marine animal. It is a disc format typically used to store high-definition videos.
•15 per cent said they believed "software" is comfortable clothing. Software is a general term for computer programs.
•12 per cent said "USB" is the acronym for a European country. USB, or Universal Serial Bus, is a type of connector.
Despite the incorrect answers, 61 per cent of the respondents said it is important to have a good knowledge of technology in this day and age.
The study involved 2392 people aged 18 years and over. The subjects were not told the study was specifically looking into their knowledge of tech terms. They were presented with both tech and non-tech terms and asked to choose from three possible definitions.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digi ... z2v2IlTx88
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:58 pm
by Lord Jim
And what are the percentages for Australians?
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 12:07 am
by Gob
Buggered if I know, probably the same one would imagine.
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:07 am
by Lord Jim
That would be my guess too, which is why I found the headline for this article rather snarky...
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:22 am
by Long Run
which is why I found the headline for this article rather snarky
Is that the technical term for that?
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:29 am
by Lord Jim
No, it isn't, but what do you expect? I'm an American...
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:32 am
by Gob
Lord Jim wrote:That would be my guess too, which is why I found the headline for this article rather snarky...
Well then Jim, why not blame the originators of the article?
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:50 am
by Lord Jim
Interesting...
The snarky line:
If you're talking tech with Americans, you may want to avoid using any jargon.
Doesn't appear in the original
LA Times article...
Apparently it was added by somebody at
The Sydney Morning Herald...
So the blame for the snarkiness properly rests with the Aussie copywriter who decided to add that...
And the Taffy who decided to use it as the headline for the post...
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:22 am
by Gob
Pssst, Jim, it's the first line in the LA Times article, as it was in the SMH..........
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:18 am
by MajGenl.Meade
That's technically correct Gob. This explains why LJ, along with 38% of other USians, couldn't identify it.
Now I must object that 77% not knowing what SEO means is surely way low? I would have thought more like 99%. All the other terms are something one would expect to show up fairly often in the life of anyone using the interwebnets which is reflected in the far lower 'ignorance' factors for those. But SEO? I've never seen that before and don't expect to do so ever again outside this thread.
It's rather like castigating Christians for not knowing who Yael was. Or (word redacted) for having no comprehension of manners.
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:03 pm
by Lord Jim
I stand corrected...
I was looking at the first text part beneath the headline, "1 in 10 Americans think HTML is an STD, study finds"
at the respective links, and assumed that to be the start of the article...
But upon closer examination I scrolled down and discovered that the article didn't actually start till well below the headline...
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:09 pm
by Lord Jim
SEO? I've never seen that before and don't expect to do so ever again outside this thread.
That's part of the business services I offer so I deal with it all the time. And it's a never ending struggle because the search engine algorithms, (what's appealing to the major search engines...particularly Google... for indexing and search ranking purposes) are frequently changed.
Fortunately I have a couple of good tech nerds I outsource this work to who are really good at keeping with this stuff.
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:14 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
Lord Jim wrote:
But upon closer examination I scrolled down and discovered that the article didn't actually start till well below the headline...
It's a bit of a new idea - article below the headline - could catch on
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:53 pm
by Lord Jim
Check out the links again, Captain Snarky....
There's text
beneath the headlines
before you get to the article....
I thought the text immediately below the headline was the start of the article, (which is normally the case)
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:53 pm
by Gob
Lord Jim wrote: SEO? I've never seen that before and don't expect to do so ever again outside this thread.
That's part of the business services I offer so I deal with it all the time. .
Added a SEO app to my blog.
(I don't have a fucking clue what it does...)
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:24 pm
by Lord Jim
Gob wrote:Lord Jim wrote: SEO? I've never seen that before and don't expect to do so ever again outside this thread.
That's part of the business services I offer so I deal with it all the time. .
Added a SEO app to my blog.
(I don't have a fucking clue what it does...)
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:30 pm
by Lord Jim
(I don't have a fucking clue what it does...)
Well in the case of your blog, if it's done properly, when someone does a Google search for , "really bad music" you should pop up on page one...
Re: HTML STD
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:51 pm
by Gob
Brill!!!