Tweet For most of history, “tweet” has been the sound a bird makes. However, with the advent of Twitter, the word “tweet” has taken on a whole new meaning. A tweet is an online posting, or “micro-blog” created by a Twitter user. The purpose of each tweet is to answer the question, “What are you …
Twitch Twitch is a live streaming service that enables individuals to stream video content online. It began as a platform for gamers to stream their matches in real-time, but has expanded into other categories. Examples include Just Chatting, Music, and Creative channels. Anyone with a computer and a high-speed Internet connection can stream on Twitch. …
Twitter Twitter is an online service that allows you to share updates with other users by answering one simple question: “What are you doing?” In order to use Twitter, you must first sign up for a free account. Once you have created your account, you can post your own updates and view the updates others …
Unfriend When you “friend” a user on a social networking website, you add that person to your list of online friends. When you remove a person from your friend list, you “unfriend” that user. Unfriending may be done for many reasons. For example, if an online friend is contacting you too often or writing on …
Unicast A unicast is a real-time data transmission from a single sender to one recipient. Examples include a video stream, audio stream, or online presentation shared with a single user over the Internet. It is considered “one-to-one” communication since there are only two parties involved. Unicasting is often contrasted with multicasting and broadcasting — both …
Upload Uploading is the sending of data from one device to another over a network or other connection. It is the opposite of downloading, which is the act of receiving data. A network connection can upload and download data at the same time. Many home Internet connections upload data at a slower speed than they …
Usenet Usenet is collection of online discussions that are organized into newsgroups. Users may create their own discussion topics or contribute to existing threads within a topic. Some newsgroups provide forums for questions and answers, while others are designed primarily for file sharing. Usenet started in 1980 as a medium for discussing topics online, similar …
Veronica Short for “Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index to Computerized Archives.” Veronica was a tool developed in the early 1990s for searching Gopher servers. The “rodent-oriented” acronym reflects how Veronica enabled keyword searches across Gopher, an information network structured as menus and text files. The Gopher system, developed at the Univerity of Minnesota, grew to …
Vlog Vlog is short for “video blog” and is pronounced “vlog” (one syllable). A vlog is a blog, or web log, that includes video clips. It may be entirely video-based or may include both video and written commentary. Several types of vlogs are available on the Web, including instructional videos, travel updates, and personal commentaries. …
Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a term that was introduced in 2004 and refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web. The term “2.0” comes from the software industry, where new versions of software programs are labeled with an incremental version number. Like software, the new generation of the Web includes new features …