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Facebook Building Dictionary of Modern Slang, Indicates Patent

Facebook Building Dictionary of Modern Slang, Indicates Patent

By Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: 10 March 2016 09:41 IST

Social media giant Facebook is reportedly working on a software that will be capable of building a dictionary of slang terms used on the social networking website.

The software will scan for unique words used in Facebook posts and comments, and determine if these words have a particular meaning among a small group of people, The Verge reported.

According to the patent filing, "The software will look for the repeated use of particular words among users who share certain attributes, like language and location. Once the software has determined that a neologism isn't yet largely associated with a particular definition, it will add the word to a glossary of terms."

If a word starts shrinking in popularity, it would be removed. Words could also be added to the glossary based on user polls.

The patent filing also mentioned the possibility of an interface that would allow users to add, remove, and edit words in the dictionary, however, the glossary thing is just a concept and Facebook may never build it.

Earlier this month, researchers said the social networking giant will become the world's biggest virtual graveyard by the end of this century as there will be more profiles of dead people than of living users.

"Social media website Facebook, which currently has 1.5 billion users worldwide, will turn into the world's biggest virtual graveyard by 2098," statistician Hachem Sadikki from University of Massachusetts said. This will happen because the website refuses to delete dead users and instead turns the account into a "memorialised" version.

"Facebook's refusal to automatically delete dead users and the plateauing membership of the site means that the living will be outnumbered sooner than you might think," the report said.

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