Dictionary

lazyweb en · PROPN

Etymology

From lazy + Web, coined by British designer and co-founder of Dopplr Matt Jones in 2002, and later popularized as a hashtag added to questions on Twitter, peaking around 2008.

Meanings

1. (Internet, humorous, informal) The Internet, personified as a being that will answer the questions of those who are too lazy to do their own research.
   • Victor proves the first rule of the lazy-web ("if you wait long enough, someone will write/build/design what you were thinking about")[…] 2002 June 11, Matt Jones, “Make me think.”, in blackbeltjones.com, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2002:
   • The lazyweb hashtag is rarely used anymore—it peaked in 2008 and has been declining with increasing rapidity over time—but people still turn to Twitter when they want to outsource a question. 2011 July 7, Nicholas Jackson, “Infographic: Twitter, Lazyweb Expose the Limits of Google”, in The Atlantic:
   • If the phrase doesn't exist, you can offer a definition, or it asks the ‘lazyweb’ for one by tweeting it. 2011, Tim Phillips, Talk Normal: Stop the Business Speak, Jargon and Waffle, Kogan Page Publishers, →ISBN, page 175:
   • For instance, a lazyweb request on Twitter is likely to be successful if the requester has either responded previously to such requests […]. 2011, Martin Weller, The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice, London: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, pages 102–103:
   • Some might want a little widget for their weblog that does something cool. Talk about it online for a bit—through the magical power of the LazyWeb—and they may well get it. 2003 January 16, Ben Hammersley, “Web-sharing the lazy way”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Relateds

wisdom of the crowd · bleg · given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow · crowdsourcing