What different terms mean the same thing (or don't, but people think they do)?
- by Matthew Jones
One of the pitfalls I run into on a daily basis is customers saying one thing while meaning another. Usually, this is just due to a miscommunication somewhere, but occasionally they are, in fact, saying the same thing I am just using a different term.
For example, one of my customers the other day mentioned a feature he called, "find as you type." Being a little confused, I asked him what he meant, and he described the feature in Google where, once you start typing a search query, Google suggests other, popular queries that match the letters you have typed.
Click! He meant AutoComplete! He was not wrong, it is just that I had never heard that term before.
In the spirit of reducing confusion, what terms can you think of that are different but mean, essentially, the same thing?
Also, what terms do people think mean the same thing, but don't. Please differentiate between the two.
Please only one set of terms per answer, so we can vote on the best ones.