All the major tech companies -- including Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google -- have been investing millions of dollars in VoIP, an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, which is a fancy term for making phone calls over the Internet. But a new survey from market researchers Harris Interactive suggests the average consumer doesn't know his VoIP from his elbow. The poll, commissioned by Verizon, found that out of 1,006 American adults, 20 percent believed VoIP was a hybrid automobile from Europe and 10 percent thought it was a low-carbohydrate vodka. Respondents were offered those choices in addition to the real definition of VoIP. Overall, 87 percent got the answer wrong.

Verizon, which offers Internet telephony services, figured that terminology associated with the technology might be putting people off.

``The acronym VoIP and the term `Voice over Internet Protocol' can be intimidating for many consumers, because it sounds like something that only tech-savvy people can understand and use,'' said Michelle Swittenberg, Verizon's executive director of consumer VoIP services.

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