Most of us have probably heard the term “internet meme” but weren’t exactly sure what it meant.

At it’s most basic, it refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly via the internet. (usually through blogs and social media sites) What makes a “meme” different than just a “viral video” is that a meme inspires lots of emulation or duplication by other people. You could think of a meme as a giant “in-joke” that most of the world happens to be in on.

Some are quite famous like putting mentos in soda bottles, or LOL cats – where people put funny phrases over cat pics.

There’s also  Chuck Noris Facts, or Nic Cage as Everyone, Photo Crasher Squirrel (also available as an app) People Playing Chess on Roller coasters, and a bunch of other lesser known memes, like the above Serious Cat (this one is neat because it revolves around just one cat.)

KNOW YOUR MEME.com researches and archives all of the big (and most of the small) internet memes. It’s a great reference site and it’s incredibly up to date so check back often.

For more details, Here’s the wikipedia entry for internet meme.

This looks pretty neat, and when I say neat it has the possibly being a gamechanger in how you can contribute and interact with web pages that you don’t have control over. You’ll need to grab the Google toolbar for Firefox to get the goods.

Read the article from the Google blog.

Get Google Sidewiki

Wordnik.com, a dictionary that evolves as language does. On Wordnik, users can add new words and meanings, tag words with related expressions, see real-time search results for words from Twitter and Flickr, discover how many Scrabble points each word is worth — all on one page.

http://www.wordnik.com/

The founder of Wordnik, Erin McKean’s, gave an inspiring TED Talk on her vision of the lexicography and the evolution of dictionaries. See the presentation on TED.