Tech Buzzwords Foreign to Americans

The average American does not know what the terms "phishing," "podcasting," or "RSS feed" mean according to the results of a study recently released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. While some terms were familiar to users, it showed that American consumers are slow to grasp the significance of new technologies.

Out of the seven terms read to respondents, the most well known term was "spam," with 88 percent of respondents having a good idea of what the term meant. The least known term was "RSS feeds," with only nine percent of respondents knowing what the term meant.

RSS is a file format that allows syndication of Web content, including blog postings, to those who have subscribed to the material.

Other terms that respondents had a good knowledge of were "firewall" and "spyware" of which 78 percent had an good idea of what those terms meant, and "cookies," was recognized by 68 percent.

Consumers seemed more unsure of the term "adware" however, with 52 percent knowing what it is and 48 percent either not sure or never having heard the term before. Adware is software that is bundled with free files and programs that are loaded on a computer and can use information about a computer user's preferences to provide targeted advertising to them.

Another security related term respondents struggled with was "phishing," which are unsolicited emails that attempt to acquire an Internet user's sensitive information, such as credit card numbers by pretending to be a trustworthy person on business. Only 29 percent knew what the term meant, versus 55 percent not being sure and 15 percent never having heard the term before.

Also, "podcasting" is still not a recognizable term to most consumers with only 13 percent able to provide the definition.

The survey interviewed 2,001 adults from May 4 to June 7, and had a margin of error of 2.3 percent.