sciencetech-blog

comments

It's a question that internet communities have fought over for eons: is 'gif' pronounced like the world 'gift', or 'jif', as the maker recently said it should be said?

Thankfully the public consensus on this and 43 other tech-related words of phrases has been revealed in a survey of 1,000 people by eBay Deals.

From the most popular terminology for a portable computer to the way most people describe the internet itself, some surprising results are revealed in the survey.

Interactive results below

In a survey of 1,000 people eBay Deals asked how they say popular tech words and phrases, such as the correct terminology for an animated image (pictured). Other questions revolved around how they refer to the internet and also what the correct word for a portable computer is

Taking a look at some of the most intriguing results, the correct terminology for a data stick that plugs into a computer was up for debate.

While 60.8 per cent described it as a flash drive, 8.39 per cent called it a memory stick and 6.65 per cent a jump drive.

Portable computers were less contentious – 91.89 per cent agreed they were called a laptop.

The correct terminology for a device to change the channel on a television was another interesting battle.

In this instance 65.45 per cent opted for remote, 21.97 per cent said remote control and 5.83 percent went for clicker.

Elsewhere the influence of Apple was evident in what people called a mobile digital media player.

While 47.30 per cent referred to it as an MP3 player, 48.57 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed said they called it an iPod.

The pronunciation of some words may seem to be set in stone - internet for example - some people still insisted on different ways to say it, perhaps comically - in this instance 'interwebs'.

Click on the arrows above to browse through different categories such as remote controls, the internet and Wi-Fi to see what people call them

Is it a remote, a remote controller, a clicker or a controller? In the survey 65.45 per cent of people opted for remote, 21.97 per cent went for remote control, 5.83 per cent said it was a clicker and another 5.83 per cent said it was a controller

Meanwhile 54.88 per cent referred to '@' as the 'at' symbol, while 33.73 per cent said tag and 9.3 per cent said it was a mention, as seen on Twitter.

Google's domination of the search market was evident, with a huge 83.14 per cent saying 'Google it' was the correct phrase to use when searching for something online.

Using 'Ask Jeeves' was preferred by just 1.82 per cent of respondents.

The correct terminology for a personal phone seemed to indicate the majority of survey respondents were American - 58.8 per cent said it was a cell phone and just 5.01 per cent referred to it as a mobile phone.

And finally, the correct way to pronounce the word meme also proved controversial.

While 47.63 per cent opted for 'meem', 30.93 per cent of people surveyed went for 'me-me' and 20.44 per cent went for 'mem'.