'Big Data' the most confusing tech term

AUSTIN, Texas, March 15 (UPI) -- The Texas-based Global Language Monitor has named "big data" and "the cloud" as the most confusing tech words of the decade thus far.

The Austin-based organization said "big data," an unclear term for large amounts of data, and "the cloud," which the Global Language Monitor called a "nebulous" term related to cloud computing, are the top two most confusing tech buzzwords since 2010.

"High tech terms have long spilled into popular culture and this is nowhere more evident that at SXSW [the South by Southwest technology and pop culture festival] where the digital world intersects with those of music and the movies," said Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. "To a large and growing extent, high tech buzzwords are fueling the growth of English, which now serves as the Earth's means of global communication."

The group said its list of unclear tech terms from this decade also include "the next big thing," "social discovery," "Web 2.0," "solid state" and "CERN," the acronym for the European Organization for Nuclear Research.