5 ms·

Ask HN: What are some of yesteryear's buzz words that no-one cares about today?

9 points by kleiba 6y ago

I'd go for "information super-highway" but I'm sure there are better terms that once were all the rage but now evoke nothing but crickets and tumbleweed.

mtmail 6y ago
web 2.0 / web 3.0
mtmail 6y ago
Widgets used to be hot. First Konfabulator (which became https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets), then Apple and Windows added them, too. Can't remember when I last used one. https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/4/18652971/apple-macos-catalina-dashboard-widgets-removed-feature https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/4/18652971/apple-macos-catal...
steerpike 6y ago
Folksonomy Webmaster XHTML Clearfix Ajax(?) Dhtml Yql
- imhoguy 6y ago
  Flash, J2ME
mindcrime 6y ago
Convergence Portals (web) Directories Mobile Code P2P Data Portability Groupware
dalke 6y ago
"Documentation" used to be a hot buzzword before it was replaced by "information science". See the first page of "Libraries and Documentation" by Godet (1939) at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/614452?journalCode=lq https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/614452?jou... . > Exactly what is the meaning of this word "documentation" which is used in so many different senses? ... Messrs. Lafontaine and Otlet took possession of the word, and at the beginning of the century gave it a wider meaning when they advocated "the systemic organization of information and of documentation." To read Otlet in the original French, see «Traité de documentation: le livre sur le livre, theéorie et pratique» (1034) https://archive.org/details/OtletTraitDocumentationUgent https://archive.org/details/OtletTraitDocumentationUgent or http://user.textus.io/examples/trait%C3%A9-de-documentation.pdf http://user.textus.io/examples/trait%C3%A9-de-documentation.... . As part of this excitement, in the 1930s a number of people interested in microfilm as a form of documentation preservation and dissemination, started American Documentation Institute, with the journal "The Journal of Documentary Reproduction" and after WWII "American Documentation". The explosion of different types of "documentation" lead to new journals, like the "Journal of Chemical Documentation" in 1961. However, "documentation" as a term became passé. The ADI renamed itself in 1968 to "American Society for Information Science", its journal to "The Journal of the American Society for Information Science", and J. Chem. Doc. became first the Journal of Chemical Information (in 1975) and Computer Sciences and then Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (in 2005). As another example of its former hotness, see Taube's Documentation, Inc. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Taube#Documentation%2C_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Taube#Documentation%2.... ) which did the documentation management for NASA.
mimixco 6y ago
Paradigm shift 6 Sigma CASE (now called "no code") Client-Server (now called "serverless!") Interactive
mimixco 6y ago
Some that are on the way out: Web app Browser-based Online/offline Mobile-first development Synchronization Collaborative Cloud Distributed Blockchain SaaS
- el_dev_hell 6y ago
  I don't think "Browser-based" is really a buzz word. It seems more like the factually correct version of web app.
open-source-ux 6y ago
The word "innovative" is still in common usage but for a while it was sprinkled into every product description and every conversation with developers when they described their product or service. Today, "innovate" has lost some of it's sheen and passed into the pantheon of generic, meaningless words. Everyone uses it unthinkingly regardless of whether they believe in it or not (the word "inuitive" is another example). There was a time once when it was for other people to hail or judge a product as "innovate" - rather than today when you proclaim your product as "innovate".
neapolisbeach 6y ago
Big data
- kleiba 6y ago
  Hm, this still seems to be a relevant buzz word today... for some definition of "relevant", of course.
ShaniceWilliams 6y ago
Disrupt. Whatchu disrupting home girl? Ain't nobody disrupting the market anymore. it's a normal to "disrupt" nuthin special hunny
rawgabbit 6y ago
Y2K Digitization Mobile I am really dating myself here. Many years ago I worked for an airline. At the time we looked at how to replace the 20 pounds of flight manuals pilots were required to carry on the airplane. At the time we concluded no technology existed that was reliable enough and affordable enough to replace paper. Now pilots use iPads. Lol.
p0d 6y ago
The venerable 'sysadmin'

9 points by kleiba 6y ago

I'd go for "information super-highway" but I'm sure there are better terms that once were all the rage but now evoke nothing but crickets and tumbleweed.

mtmail 6y ago

web 2.0 / web 3.0

mtmail 6y ago

Widgets used to be hot. First Konfabulator (which became https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets), then Apple and Windows added them, too. Can't remember when I last used one. https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/4/18652971/apple-macos-catalina-dashboard-widgets-removed-feature https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/4/18652971/apple-macos-catal...

steerpike 6y ago

Folksonomy Webmaster XHTML Clearfix Ajax(?) Dhtml Yql

imhoguy 6y ago
Flash, J2ME

mindcrime 6y ago

Convergence Portals (web) Directories Mobile Code P2P Data Portability Groupware

dalke 6y ago

"Documentation" used to be a hot buzzword before it was replaced by "information science". See the first page of "Libraries and Documentation" by Godet (1939) at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/614452?journalCode=lq https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/614452?jou... . > Exactly what is the meaning of this word "documentation" which is used in so many different senses? ... Messrs. Lafontaine and Otlet took possession of the word, and at the beginning of the century gave it a wider meaning when they advocated "the systemic organization of information and of documentation." To read Otlet in the original French, see «Traité de documentation: le livre sur le livre, theéorie et pratique» (1034) https://archive.org/details/OtletTraitDocumentationUgent https://archive.org/details/OtletTraitDocumentationUgent or http://user.textus.io/examples/trait%C3%A9-de-documentation.pdf http://user.textus.io/examples/trait%C3%A9-de-documentation.... . As part of this excitement, in the 1930s a number of people interested in microfilm as a form of documentation preservation and dissemination, started American Documentation Institute, with the journal "The Journal of Documentary Reproduction" and after WWII "American Documentation". The explosion of different types of "documentation" lead to new journals, like the "Journal of Chemical Documentation" in 1961. However, "documentation" as a term became passé. The ADI renamed itself in 1968 to "American Society for Information Science", its journal to "The Journal of the American Society for Information Science", and J. Chem. Doc. became first the Journal of Chemical Information (in 1975) and Computer Sciences and then Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (in 2005). As another example of its former hotness, see Taube's Documentation, Inc. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Taube#Documentation%2C_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Taube#Documentation%2.... ) which did the documentation management for NASA.

mimixco 6y ago

Paradigm shift 6 Sigma CASE (now called "no code") Client-Server (now called "serverless!") Interactive

mimixco 6y ago

Some that are on the way out: Web app Browser-based Online/offline Mobile-first development Synchronization Collaborative Cloud Distributed Blockchain SaaS

el_dev_hell 6y ago
I don't think "Browser-based" is really a buzz word. It seems more like the factually correct version of web app.

open-source-ux 6y ago

The word "innovative" is still in common usage but for a while it was sprinkled into every product description and every conversation with developers when they described their product or service. Today, "innovate" has lost some of it's sheen and passed into the pantheon of generic, meaningless words. Everyone uses it unthinkingly regardless of whether they believe in it or not (the word "inuitive" is another example). There was a time once when it was for other people to hail or judge a product as "innovate" - rather than today when you proclaim your product as "innovate".

neapolisbeach 6y ago

Big data

kleiba 6y ago
Hm, this still seems to be a relevant buzz word today... for some definition of "relevant", of course.

ShaniceWilliams 6y ago

Disrupt. Whatchu disrupting home girl? Ain't nobody disrupting the market anymore. it's a normal to "disrupt" nuthin special hunny

rawgabbit 6y ago

Y2K Digitization Mobile I am really dating myself here. Many years ago I worked for an airline. At the time we looked at how to replace the 20 pounds of flight manuals pilots were required to carry on the airplane. At the time we concluded no technology existed that was reliable enough and affordable enough to replace paper. Now pilots use iPads. Lol.

p0d 6y ago

The venerable 'sysadmin'