Internet Acronyms and Emoticons, HTH :-)

Acronyms
In webpages, email, newsgroups, and chatrooms, you will frequently run into abbreviations that may be confusing at first. BRB? IMHO? Has the Internet spawned another language altogether? Not quite, but our listing of common Internet acronyms can assist you in deciphering Internet jargon.

AFAIC - As far as I'm concerned
AFAIK - As far as I know
AFK - Away from keyboard
BBIAF - Be back in a few
BBIAW - Be back in a while
BBL - Be back later
BTW - By the way
BRB - Be right back
FWIW - For what it's worth
HTH - Hope this helps
IDK - I don't know
IIRC - If I recall correctly
IMHO - In my humble (or honest) opinion
IYKWIM - If you know what I mean
IOW - In other words
IRL - In real life
LOL - Laughing out loud
TBH - To be honest
TTFN - Ta ta for now
TTYL - Talk to you later
ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing

Emoticons
What is an emoticon? If you've been on the Internet for more than half an hour, you've probably already run across a few. And without recognizing them or tilting your head to the left, you may have just assumed that the author was typing gibberish! An example of an emoticon would be the popular "smiley":

:-)

If you tilt your head to the left, you'll see that it's a smiley face with two eyes, a nose, and smiling mouth. Once you get it, you never really have to tilt your head to see it again (or else we'd all be walking around with our heads to the side!)

Why do people use emoticons? Well, for starters, the Internet is largely a text-based medium. Sometimes it can be hard to convey sarcasm or sincerity with only written words in email or chat. An emoticon placed after a statement can give it the inflection it needs to make your point, just as it would if you made that face in person.

More common emoticons you'll see on the Internet (there may be variations of each; some may have noses, some may not, etc):