UK consumers confused by tech-jargon

UK consumers like gadgets and the Internet but are still baffled by the every increasing amount of technical jargon. 

One in seven said they don’t know what an iPod is and while 52 per cent of online Britons think the Net and digital technology make life easier, half admit that they can’t keep up with all.

The survey, The 21st Century UK Digital Consumer, by Neilsen/NetRatings set out to draw a picture of typical UK digital and online consumers.

For instance, although 42 per cent know what podcasting is, 35 per cent have heard of it but don’t know what it is and a quarter of people have never heard of it. The acronyms not understood by most people include VOD (video on demand), Wikis (technology for editing Web sites), IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and PVR (personal video recorder).

“In the relentless quest for the next big thing when it comes to new forms of digital consumption, there is a significant tendency for the industry to over-estimate consumer’s knowledge and understanding of the seemingly limitless new terms and products out there,” commented Alex Burmaster, European Internet analyst with Neilsen/NetRatings.

The survey found that new activities like ‘blogging’ and ‘podcasting’ are talked about as though they are as commonplace as watching TV, but half of the UK’s online population do not know what they are. Interestingly, women are twice as likely as men never to have heard of blogging.