6 July 2007

A new survey has revealed that certain words drive web users mad and can put them off from reading a website.

According to YouGov, 'Blog', 'netiquette' and 'cookie' are some of the most hated words the web has produced. The word that came top of the poll was 'folksonomy' - the term for a web classification system.
'Blog', 'netiquette' and 'cookie' are some of the most hated words the web has produced. But the word most likely to make people 'wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard' was 'folksonomy' - the term for a web classification system.

'Blogosphere' and 'blog' were second and third respectively, while 'netiquette' was fourth, and 'blook', a book based on a blog, fifth.

YouGov conducted the poll on behalf of web publisher Lulu.com.

Most hated web terms: that list in full:

  1. Folksonomy: an ad hoc online classification system;
  2. Blogosphere: the collective term for the online blogging community;
  3. Blog: an online journal or web-log;
  4. Netiquette: internet etiquette;
  5. Blook: a book based on a blog;
  6. Webinar: an online seminar;
  7. Vlog: a video blog;
  8. Social networking: the use of the web to form virtual communities;
  9. Cookie: a text file stored on your computer from a website you visited.

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