Web World Words

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Here comes the “hyper-local Internet”!

And what does that mean?

First let’s backtrack and look at some words that originated in Webspeak.  How about viral?  To go “viral” means that your Web site/product/idea catches on and spreads like a virus.  Can anyone engineer a “viral marketing campaign”?  There are a whole slew of sites out there willing to tell you how to do so–if you pay them a high enough fee.

Give me a break.

My educated guess, along with my experience with all things Web, leads me to believe that anything going “viral” is the result of luck as much or more so than any other factor.  (Remember the Pet Rock?)

The Princess Di and Anna Nicole Smith phenomena are as much viral and generated from the public itself as they are created by the media.  The media just jumped in front of the parades.

Okay, now for our new term, “hyper-local Internet.”  What this evidently means is that a Web site focuses on reaching people below even a city level, perhaps at individual zip code, neighborhood, even street locations.

Beyond that definition, I’m not going to pursue this much further.  The point is that Webspeak can lead to some unique words and phrases that usually are of no interest to the general public–and of little use to the English language.

Categories: Grammar Sucks

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