Nofo or NoNoFo? That is a question.
But is it NoNoFo ?
As time progresses and technology adds to the way we live our lives, new words and phrases emerge. Some stay for a while, some become a part of everyday conversation, and some turn out to be no more than a passing fad.
Often, the creation and subsequent adoption of new words is driven by a lack of any word to describe an intangible concept.
Within our industry, Search Marketers have been forced to find new ways to understand and explain many of the concepts we deal with, that didn’t exist 5 or 10 years ago. Some were not even a concern to us the week before last.
When Google foisted the concept of nofollow-ed links upon us, the name instantly became an everyday part of the Search Marketers vocabulary. Of course, what we are generally interested in are the ‘links which do not have nofollow applied to them’ – a phrase said almost often enough that a term was bound to emerge sooner or later.
And indeed it did, in a Distilled Skype conversation sometime in July 2008. When we started talking about links with nofollow on as nofo links, then the obvious next step was to refer to their link-juice passing cousins as nonofo links
New Media, New Language
There are other phrases that have crept into our language because of technology and the internet that wouldn’t make sense a decade ago:
- “I get 100 free minutes a month.” – Is that all? How busy are you?
- “I have a lot of friends in the blogosphere” – We have Bill Quick to thank for that one.
- “lol” – You’ve not truly embarrassed yourself until you’ve accidental said this as an aside in a real-life conversation
- “Rob keeps sending me spam” – maybe he thinks you look underfed?
So, today’s topic for discussion: Do you have any favourite terms that fell out of favour or don’t get used anymore? (and don’t you dare say nonofo 
)
NoNoFo Squirl photo by richardlowkes.
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Christophe on Fri (28 Nov) @ 4:56 am
Let me think about it….
well… nonofo ?
(okay, okay, I’m out)
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Eddie on Fri (28 Nov) @ 9:37 am
NoNoFo(llow)…. wouldnt it be simpler to call it a followed link?
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Tom Critchlow on Fri (28 Nov) @ 9:42 am
I really hope this catches on – with or without the squirrel…
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Stuart Turner on Fri (28 Nov) @ 9:53 am
Everytime I think your brainmeat has reached it’s capacity for bizarre thoughts, I am proved wrong Tom. This is like the underground street talk of the search marketing industry – I think you’ll see it on the Urban Dictionary before it’s in OED.
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Rob on Fri (28 Nov) @ 12:50 pm
Stuart – thanks for idea; should be on UD soon.
As for terms that I miss – the ‘information superhighway’ never really caught on. I think it disappeared around the time we stopped referring to ‘internet’ and started using ‘the internet’.
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Gareth Davies on Fri (28 Nov) @ 12:57 pm
Mmmm its kind of a double negative the ‘nonofo’ thing… It may be adding more syllables to the word than perhaps it needs? Perhaps as followed links are the central point of reference then followed links could just be called ‘fo’ links. It’s short (if nothing else) and sounds kinda of neat in a martial artsy sort of way?
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Ben McKay on Fri (28 Nov) @ 1:53 pm
lol – done that one…ashamed, so ashamed…
It’s difficult to think of terms that are odd, when I expect they seem so natural to me. It does make me worry though…mmm…thinking back to my last few meetings maybe that’s what explained the twisting facial expressions as I’m trying to explain something using the ‘Search Engine Marketing Urban Dictionary’?
…SEMUB
Unsurprisingly SEMUB domains are still available. Fancy a project Rob, you could build the Search Eengine Marketing Urban Dictionary into a new empire…and like with all good brands, it just rolls off the tongue.
Now, do you see what you’ve just made me do…I’ve just been rambling and not actually contributing anything of value. I’m blaming the post.
Cheers, Ben
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Stuart Turner on Fri (28 Nov) @ 2:08 pm
No worries Rob – it’s a goldmine!
‘Cyberspace’ is one that should disappear, that’s so 90s…
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Ben McKay on Fri (28 Nov) @ 2:12 pm
To recover from my ramblings, I’ve just found a new term: “SCASI”…SERP Click After Site Inspection…kind of helpful regarding BrowseRank.
See Blackhat:
http://seoblackhat.com/2008/11/27/not-a-bounce-but-a-scasi/
Ben
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Matt Siltala on Sat (29 Nov) @ 3:44 am
I can’t resist – what about changing it to a nonofo’mofo’ – now that’s a term I can get used to….
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Stuart Turner on Tue (2 Dec) @ 5:38 pm
‘Rep-man’ It’s so 1980s – I think it could be a winner…
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Mobile Internet - Users Studied In The Wild « Northern Bullet on Sun (7 Dec) @ 11:23 am
[...] on mobile search, how a mobile searcher might differ from a non-mobile search (what may become mobs and a nomobs if Rob has anything to do with it) and the potential criteria for producing a mobile search [...]
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Jane on Fri (19 Dec) @ 5:36 pm
Yay! I love conversations like this. It’s amazing how technology has changed how we do things. I called my mum this morning, and she told me that she often looks to see if I’ve been doing anything on Facebook in the mornings. It lets her know that I’m up and that she can call me without waking me up. Imagine explaining that, even to her, ten years ago
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Andrew Melchior on Tue (27 Jan) @ 7:12 pm
I think the “shizzles” need to go, although I’m guilty of using a foshizzle every now and then.
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no nonofo mofo fo' show on Mon (23 Feb) @ 5:49 pm
Just wrote a blog post about this topic, nonofo-mofo does have a lovely ring to it … am trialling nonofo on my blog at the moment, it’s probably not popular enough to give out significant stats, but we’ll see.
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no nonofo mofo fo' show on Mon (23 Feb) @ 5:51 pm
Am trialling this on my blog at the moment. Not really popular enough to produce significant stats on whether nonofo is a good idea, but we’ll see.
Nonofo mofo does sound t’awesome, fo shizzle.