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Blog, Facebook, YouTube - What Language Is This, Anyway? |
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It's a whole new world out there! Remember the first time someone told you they were going to "Google" something, and you weren't sure whether to laugh or be embarrassed? There are so many new words related to the Internet, it's no surprise that it seems like an entirely different language. Most of the new terms refer to websites or file types, so here's a short primer to get you up to speed: Google: When people want to search the internet for information, they often use the search service located at www.google.ca (Canadian information only) or www.google.com (world-wide). It's such a commonly used service that people have turned it into a verb - "Googling". Blog: The word "blog" is short for "web log": a specialized website that saves entries like a diary. People "blog" about anything, including technical, business, and personal topics. Since blogs are usually just opinions, be wary of their information until you've verified it. Most blogs let you add your own comments about the topics that are being discussed. You can also subscribe, so that you'll be automatically notified if there's a new entry. FaceBook: FaceBook (www.facebook.com) is a "social networking" website where people can share personal information and photos. It's a way for people to meet each other, and keep up to date with their friends' activities. When you join, the information that you can view is restricted to your network, or to groups where you have been confirmed as a friend. Other similar sites are Flickr for photo sharing (www.flickr.com) and LinkedIn for business networking (www.linkedin.com). YouTube: YouTube (www.youtube.com) is a website where you can share videos for other people to view. Anyone can watch the videos, but you must register in order to put your own videos on the site. As you can imagine, there is a huge variety of content on the site, some amazing, some amusing, some awful, and everything in between. FTP: FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol, and it's a way that computers communicate when transferring files to and from the internet. You can install special programs on your computer to help you upload and download files to and from websites using FTP. PDF: PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Because documents may look different when viewed on various computers, PDF is a file format that was developed so that documents would look the same on all computers. To show a PDF file, your computer uses a "reader", which is a program that can be downloaded for free from Adobe (www.adobe.com). If you want to create PDF documents, you need to purchase Adobe's Acrobat software, or else download one of many other free or minimal-charge software PDF creators. Information on the Internet changes at the speed of
light. What's brand new today will be commonplace tomorrow, and
obsolete the day after. The good news is that human beings are an
amazingly adaptable species, and we can keep up - with a little help
from our friends! By: Diane Henders, Bright Ideas Personalized Learning Inc. For more information or computer training services, please call Bright Ideas Personalized Learning at (403) 692-2255. |
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