The Ten Most Hated Internet Words

I have a confession to make. An especially sinful one, considering my position with an online marketing firm. Children, please turn away for a moment, while I let this out. I dislike the term blog.

I always have. Back when I wrote my first “online journal” it was an exciting technology. A method to record one’s lessons and experiences in a format that can be readily consumed by others for the edification of all.

I quickly grew tired of the “online journal” format, maybe because nobody ever cared what I had to say, or maybe because I found more important things to worry about.

Fast forward a handful of years, and the internet came abuzz with a “new” technology: the weblog had been born.

Some people called it a blog, but what did they know; it was an online journal. I could almost accept weblog, but blog was just offensive for its brevity. Only a difference of 2 keystrokes (TWO!) managed simultaneously to remove all semantic meaning from the word. Next, came bloggers, blogrolls, and the blogosphere. Apparently, my programmer sense can’t compete with the ability of marketers to find a concept with staying power.

Why would I choose to blog (heh) a rant such as this, seemingly without provocation, today? What might have happened that could reawaken the fires of this sleeping dragon? Well, I was reading through the news yesterday, and came across an article at Ars Technica: The ten most hated words on the Internet.

While I had never heard of one of the terms (yes, i had to wiki up the Blook), and some of the words score highly on my must keep list (cookie, netiquette, and wiki), I was very happy to see, that at long last, someone agrees with my long
held dislike of the term blog.

From the other side of the coin, do I ever actually think that blog will find itself extinct? Not for as long as there are blogs and bloggers who continually add useful, (occasionally interesting) content to the blogosphere.

Until next time, which, rather than a trite commentary piece, I will bring you another useful Tools of the Trade post.