Online Services to learn about Common Abbreviations

In our daily life we use a number of terms to express our feelings (LOL, ROFL, FTW, AFAIK, ASAP etc.) or to describe something (FIR, FIFA, USB, SATA, HDD etc.). But those who are not so accustomed with this terms may find it difficult to catch the meaning. So today I will inform you about four Online Services to to quickly find these information.

1. FullForms.com

• This service is in Beta.
• It shows suggestion(s) as you type. Minimum characters for showing suggestion(s) is 2.

• You can suggest new Full Form.

http://fullforms.com/add_new_entry.php

• In addition to the full form it also describes the meaning of that term. You can suggest a new description of that term, share the term in Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus or save in Delicious. If available it also shows external reference (e.g. Wikipedia).

• It lists each searches in a category but there is no option to view all abbreviations in those categories. If you have multiple results you can see results from a certain category.
• When there are multiple results, only the most popular one described. But others can be seen too by clicking on the results. Each result has associated popularity indicator and a flag, mouse hovering on which shows the country where the particular abbreviation is most popular.

2. ABBREVIATIONS

• It cannot show suggestions while typing.
• Three types of search is possible. You can search for

1. Abbreviation » Term
2. Term » Abbreviation
3. Word in Term

• It lists each result into categories and sub-categories. You can even view all abbreviations in those categories. In the category search by hovering mouse on a particular result will show following options:

1. Add to My List
2. Other definitions
3. Search on Amazon.com
4. Search on the web via Google

Other definitions show all the results of that abbreviation.

• Searching for a particular abbreviations, lists all the results. Mouse hovering on a particular result shows following options.

1. Add to My List
2. Search on Amazon.com
3. Search on the web via Google

• "Add to My List" adds particular results to your saved items.

• You can enter new abbreviations by signing up as an editor.

http://www.abbreviations.com/signup.php

• You can also share the results via various sharing platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc.

3. Full-Form.in

• Uses Google Custom Search to search its database. So it cannot show suggestions while typing.

• Lists results in categories. You can even view all abbreviations in those categories.

• It lists all results (if available).

• It also shows suggestions for more similar results.

4. Acronym Finder

• It shows suggestions while typing.

• Lists results using "category filter". By default it shows "All definitions".

• You can also view each entries in detail.

• You can edit existing entries or add new entries.
• You can also share the results via various sharing platforms like Delicious, My Yahoo, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Facebook. You can also add it to your bookmark and iGoogle.

My Verdict

1. Abbreviations.com certainly has large database and is most flexible.
2. Things I liked in FullForms.com are the search suggestions during typing, the detailed explanations about each term and easy way to submit new "Full Forms".  The service is still in beta and needs some tweaks.
3. Acronym Finder is somewhat similar to FullForms.com but has better database. It do not show detailed explanations about each term.
4. Full-Form.in has least features and least database. So, you can ignore it at this time.

Cheers !!