Browse our complete collection of questions and answers.
A core update is a broad change to Google's ranking systems, rolled out several times a year and announced in advance. They are not penalties, and understanding that distinction determines how you
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. It comes from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, the document given to the human contractors who assess search result
A content audit is a systematic inventory and assessment of everything published on a site, evaluating each page against performance data and business purpose, then deciding what to keep, improve,
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ad inventory through software, replacing the negotiated deals that dominated media buying historically. Real-time bidding (RTB) is the
Performance marketing aims to produce a measurable action now. Brand marketing aims to build memory and preference that makes future actions more likely and cheaper. Performance marketing is search
Churn is the rate at which customers stop paying you over a period. It is the counterweight to acquisition, and it determines whether growth compounds or leaks away. Two measures, and the difference
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is what it costs, on average, to acquire one paying customer. Payback period is how long that customer takes to earn the money back. Calculating CAC. Total sales and
The pattern has changed more dramatically in two decades than in the preceding century, and the research documenting it is unusually clear. The headline finding. Work by Michael Rosenfeld and
Because accepting one requires holding two things at once — agreeing with a positive statement about yourself, and doing so in front of someone — and several psychological and social pressures make
The famous finding has not held up well, and the story of its unravelling is a good illustration of how research gets corrected. The original study. In 1987, Robert Zajonc and colleagues published
They are distinct emotions that plain usage conflates, and the difference is about how many people are involved. Envy involves two parties. You lack something another person has, and you want it.
The evidence is reasonably good — better than most people assume — with important qualifications about which approaches, and about timing. What the research shows. Meta-analyses of couples therapy
Because several psychological processes push in the same direction at once, and none of them requires either person to be acting in bad faith. Negativity bias. Negative information is weighted more
The term has two distinct meanings, and conflating them causes confusion — including among people using it. The original academic meaning. Sociologist Arlie Hochschild coined emotional labour in 1983
Ghosting is ending a relationship by abruptly stopping all communication with no explanation. Research into it has grown, and the reasons people give are more varied than the assumption that they
Three properties recur consistently across studies, though the picture is more complicated than the popular summaries suggest. Averageness. Composite faces — produced by digitally averaging many
Attachment theory proposes that early relationships with caregivers shape expectations about closeness and availability that carry into adult relationships. It is among the more empirically grounded
The honest answer is that it has no agreed definition, and the term is used to mean several different things — some useful, some purely marketing. The defensible meaning: training that transfers to a
A deload is a planned period of reduced training stress — typically a week — intended to allow accumulated fatigue to dissipate so that the adaptations from previous training can be expressed. The
For most people, most of the time, no. Electrolyte products are marketed far beyond the circumstances where they provide a benefit. What electrolytes are. Minerals carrying an electrical charge in
The evidence says no — and in fact points the other way. Recreational running is associated with lower rates of knee osteoarthritis than a sedentary lifestyle. What the research found. Multiple
Muscle tremor during effort is usually normal and reflects how the nervous system recruits muscle fibres, not a sign that something is wrong. The main mechanism: motor unit fatigue and firing
Flexibility is how far a joint can be moved passively. Mobility is how far you can move it actively, under control. The gap between the two matters more than either number alone. Flexibility is a
RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion — a subjective scale rating how hard an effort feels. It is used to prescribe training intensity based on your actual state on the day, rather than on a
Creatine is among the most researched supplements in existence, and the evidence for both effectiveness and safety in healthy adults is unusually strong — which distinguishes it from almost
The distinction is which energy system dominates, and that depends on intensity and duration rather than on the activity itself. Aerobic means "with oxygen". At moderate intensity, your body meets
VO2 max is the maximum rate at which your body can take in, transport and use oxygen during intense exercise, expressed in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min). It
They describe different things and are used interchangeably in a way that obscures what is actually happening. A bot is an automated account run by software rather than a person in real time. Bots
A parasocial relationship is a one-sided bond in which someone feels they know a media figure who does not know they exist. The term was coined by Horton and Wohl in 1956, studying how television
No. Deleting an app removes the software from your device and nothing else. Your account, your data and — critically — any subscription continue exactly as before. This is one of the most common and
A dark pattern — increasingly called a deceptive design pattern — is an interface deliberately designed to make you do something you did not intend, by exploiting how people actually behave rather
Astroturfing is creating a false impression of grassroots support — hence the name, artificial grass. It disguises coordinated activity by an organisation, company or state as spontaneous public
An API (application programming interface) lets external software interact with a platform programmatically. Platforms have progressively restricted, priced or closed theirs, and the reasons are
It depends on why it closed and what the terms said, and the range of outcomes runs from an orderly export window to everything disappearing without warning. A planned shutdown — the better case.
They are entirely separate systems, and conflating them causes a great deal of confused argument about "free speech" online. The law sets what is illegal — defined by legislatures, enforced by courts
Through a layered system combining automation and human review, because the volume makes anything else impossible. Major platforms process billions of items daily. The layers: Automated detection at
It depends entirely on the platform, and the meaning changed fundamentally in 2023 — which is why the badge now conveys much less than most people assume. What verification originally meant.
They describe increasing levels of rework, and publishers use the terms loosely enough that the distinction is worth knowing before buying. A port moves a game to a different platform with minimal
They are content classification systems indicating the minimum age a game is considered suitable for, plus content descriptors explaining why. The two systems cover different regions and work
The emulator itself is generally legal; obtaining the games usually is not. That distinction is the core of the answer and is frequently blurred. The emulator. An emulator is software replicating
Whatever the category rules say — which is the whole point. Speedrunning has no single definition of a valid run, because different categories deliberately permit different things, and the rules are
Because cheats operate at that level too, and software can only reliably detect and block things running at the same privilege level or lower. The privilege model. Operating systems separate user
Games as a service (GaaS) describes games designed to be operated continuously over years rather than sold once and finished, with ongoing content updates and ongoing revenue. The contrast is the
A battle pass is a seasonal progression system: players complete challenges and earn experience to advance through a track of rewards, usually with a free tier and a paid premium tier unlocking more.
Netcode is the collective term for how a multiplayer game synchronises state between players across a network. It is one of the hardest problems in game development, because information takes time to
Procedural generation creates content algorithmically at runtime or build time rather than having a designer author it by hand. Rules and randomness produce levels, terrain, items, quests or entire
A game engine is the underlying software framework a game is built on, providing the systems every game needs so developers do not rebuild them from scratch. What an engine provides: A rendering
The UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 give individuals a set of specific, enforceable rights over their personal data. They are more powerful than most people realise and cost nothing to exercise.
A non-disclosure agreement is a contract restricting what one or both parties may disclose. It is generally enforceable as a contract — but there are significant limits, and some uses are void or
Both are forms of defamation — publishing a false statement that harms someone's reputation. The difference is the form the statement takes. Libel is defamation in a permanent form — writing, print,