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Top 10 buzzwords of the past 10 years

By Marguerite Reardon

Working in the online world during the late 1990s was like entering a new country. The customs were different (long hours but lots of zany perks), the clothes were different (casual Friday every day) and even the language was different. Dot-commers needed a whole new way to describe their fast-paced world, so they came up with a unique lexicon of trendy buzzwords to distinguish themselves from their old-economy friends. Most of the words would make a grammar purist scream in terror, but that didn't stop many people from using them in a meeting with a straight face.

Click on the links to see the 10:

Take me to: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10

1. Dot-bomb
Few other phrases epitomize the heady dot-com era like dot-bomb, simply because so many hyped Internet start-ups went that way. The recipe was simple: First, come up with any idea involving the Web (sell aluminum siding over the Internet!); then, raise millions from overeager venture capitalists, run spectacular marketing campaigns and hire hordes of enthusiastic twenty-somethings who are willing to work long hours in exchange for inflated stock options, free drinks, and an office foosball table. Mix it all together, for a couple years at most, and you're left with an essentially hollow concoction that dramatically implodes like a collapsed soufflé. Voilà, your dot-bomb is served.

 

 

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