If you’re reading any article, advertisement, blog, facebook entry or e-mail, you must be up-to-date on all the latest acronyms, initials and lingo we use on the world wide web. There isn’t a complete listing for someone to memorize and refer to for assistance because new applications and concepts are being discovered and added to this socially acceptable communication vocabulary on a daily basis.

We use a lot of acronyms, initialism and slang lingo to communicate as a part of our every day language and just assume that many people know what we’re talking about. For example, the term “blog” and “world wide web” were used in the first paragraph. If you didn’t already know, a “blog” is shortened combined letters that stand for “web log” and “world wide web” is usually referred to as “www”.

Acronyms and initialisms are two different parts of vocabulary used in a similar way. An acronym is an abbreviation of a word and is defined as a word formed from the initial parts (letters or syllables or arbitrary part) of a name. Examples include CAPTCHA, Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart; CD-ROM, compact disc read-only memory.

Initialism is also an abbreviation defined as a group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression, each letter being pronounced separately. Examples include FYI, for your information; IM, instant messaging; and LOL, laughing out loud. The key difference between the two is that an acronym forms a new word while an initialism does not.

Here are a few more examples of commonly-used acronyms and initialisms used in our technology world.

WiFi – Wireless Fidelity HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
URL – Uniform Resource Locator JPEG – Joint Photographic Expert Group
PDF – Portable Document Format IP – Internet Protocol
MP3 – Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 3A VGA – Video Graphics Array
GIF – Graphics Interchange Format GPS – Global Positioning System
TESCO – Technical Service Company NTFS – New Technology File System

Slang lingo is usually acceptable to the social group of people you are communicating with. If you are talking about “twittering” then this application has it’s own set of shortcut lingo that propels conversations among it’s community members.

We will never fully know of all the acronyms, initialisms or slang lingo used to communicate in today’s world. I recommend a site called Acronymsonline.com for a more thorough listing of technology abbreviations.

Our 21st century language is typically non-formal, funky and experimental. We embrace changing up the traditional meanings and grammatical rules to accommodate our individuality, culture and style. Our technology-based society is empowering people to personalize their communication based on their history, life experiences, joys and fears. And viola! A new language is rapidly surfacing.

By Deborah Munger

If you have an opinion (and don’t we all??) or just want to share facts about a topic you feel passionate about, Squidoo is the perfect format for doing just that. It’s a community website where members create free web pages called “lenses” for a variety of topics. These lenses can then be linked together so similar topics or authors can be found.

If you’re asking “What is Squidoo?” you may be in the minority. In fact, Squidoo is ranked in the top 500 most visited websites in the world and is in the top 300 most viewed by people in the United States. In 2009, Squidoo grew an unprecedented 91% with an impressive 900,000 people-built lenses as of February 1, 2009.

Squidoo is not published in an ezine format and it isn’t a blog. It’s just pages of information where you can spin whatever you want, about whatever you wish. The lenses are very easy to make with a menu-driven application. So even (or maybe especially) if you’ve never built a website or written a blog before you can have your lens up and running in a very short time and sharing your opinion with the rest of the world.

When you create a lens with Squidoo, you have the choice to add different modules to your web page. There are modules for adding content, photos, featured lenses, YouTube videos, Amazon and Ebay auctions, and others.

Links to other websites are allowed on the lenses so you can even promote products as an affiliate marketer…do I smell profits? Yes indeed, Squidoo offers you a chance to collect income from your lens. Squidoo earns money from affiliate advertising with Google AdSense, Amazon, Ebay and other sites and keeps track of the earnings of each module then splits the profits with you 50-50. Wow! As if that weren’t enough, here’s another cool thing about Squidoo: it can help you feel good about yourself. Yup, you not only get to say what you want while standing on the world’s biggest soapbox, but Squidoo allows you to set up your page to donate your profits to charity, if you choose.

So if anybody asks you, “What’s Squidoo?” you can tell them it’s a great website that allows you to create a web page about your interests, passions and causes for free. It also allows you to contribute to charity or make money for yourself. So, “share what you care about, get found, get followed and get influential.” (Quoted from Squidoo.com). What could be better?

By Deborah Munger