1 in 10 Americans think HTML is an STD, study finds

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 4, 2014, 10:40 a.m. | Salvador Rodriguez

[Olog-hai]

If you’re talking tech with Americans, you may want to avoid using any jargon. A recent study found that many Americans are lost when it comes to tech-related terms, with 11% saying that they thought HTML—a language that is used to create websites—was a sexually transmitted disease. […]

Besides HTML, there were some other amusing findings:

• 77% of respondents could not identify what SEO means. SEO stands for “Search-Engine Optimization”.
• 27% identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America. A gigabyte is a measurement unit for the storage capacity of an electronic device.
• 42% 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% thought an “MP3” was a “Star Wars” robot. It is actually an audio file.
• 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal. It is a disc format typically used to store high-definition videos.
• 15% said they believed “software” is comfortable clothing. Software is a general term for computer programs.
• 12% said “USB” is the acronym for a European country. In fact, USB is a type of connector. …

[caver]

I did not know what SEO means.

[Gay State Conservative]

What could you *possibly* know about STDs,sweet cheeks?

[al baby]

Most people have no idea what AM & PM actually stand for.

Oh please its a place to get gas and snack food

[DuncanWaring]

Ante Meridian, Post Meridian.

[Olog-hai]

Or stood for “Universal Savings Bank” or suchlike.

[Darksheare]

Well, that’s a “duh” moment for the day for me.

[potlatch]

I know all the computer related ones but acronyms can be bothersome when people post them and you sit and try to figure them out, lol.

[cynwoody]

OK. I missed SEO.

SEO is a good one. Even after you learn the acronym expansion (search engine optimization), you might think it means making search engines work better (what Google, Bing, Yandex, etc. strive to do), to make them so good they appear to read your mind and cough up exactly the relevant result for the most ignorant query.

But that's not what it means at all. What it really means is making your stinkin' web site appear high in search engine rankings for relevant terms. That's what you hire a search engine optimization consultant or service to do. They will employ various strategies to game the search engine companies' algorithms to rank your site more highly than it deserves. In other words, SEO is all about making search engines work worse, at least from the internet user's point of view. Meanwhile, Google and the rest are hard at work fine tuning their algorithms to penalize sites that use SEO. More power to them!

[familyop]

Well, look at the demographic. ;-)

"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."

[And SEO would more honestly be SES: search engine spam.]

[potlatch]

Thumb drive is commonly used for USB.

[Olog-hai]

To reverse things, it would be interesting to find out how many people don’t know that words like “Laser”, “Radar” and “Sonar” are actually acronyms.

[cynwoody]

Most people have no idea what AM & PM actually stand for.

Just use 24-hour, as my computer does.

$ date
Tue Mar  4 18:03:54 EST 2014

[potlatch]

I remember when ‘blink’ worked here and you could post a blinking “WINK”. Back further I believe marquee did work here but it can really make a mess without the closing tag!

[potlatch]

Well, I’ll admit that I had forgotten that myself. We get so used to using them because they sound like ‘words’.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

These stories are amusing but Americans don’t need to know a lot of this stuff, quite frankly. Some is important but some isn’t. These questions strike me as technical jargon that isn’t critical knowledge, notwithstanding what tech geeks think.

[muir_redwoods]

Ante meridiem and post meridiem

Before the mid day and after the mid day

[Tijeras_Slim]

Plenty of FReepers were willing to risk it with classygreeneyedblonde until they found out....

[Lx]

Looks like a Window’s activation code down the side of that bus but it’s only four digits each.

[CrazyIvan]

How many still know what LSMFT stands for?

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Loose straps means...