At a recent family gathering, I overheard a conversation between two of my teenage cousins and couldn't help but marvel at how the English language has changed since I was a teen. I immediately found myself feeling old and wondering just when I had become so out of touch with today's slang. After trying to make sense of their dialogue, I gave up and left the room. The confusion and frustration I felt is what I imagine inexperienced Internet users must feel when they first enter an online chat room. Since new words and acronyms seem to crop up almost every day, even Net users who aren't entirely clueless might find themselves questioning some of the latest lingo.
Abbreviations are especially popular in chat rooms and message boards.
In fact, with the Net's emphasis on instant communication, it's sometimes difficult to find anything written out. Luckily, the Web is home to several sites that relate the latest terminology and let you search for unfamiliar terms. One of the most helpful sites I've seen was launched last year by instant messaging company Tribal Voice. If you come across an abbreviation but don't feel like browsing through the entire list of entries, simply enter the term into the site's search engine. A feature that I found particularly impressive is the ability to enter a definition into the search engine to find a corresponding abbreviation or emoticon.