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I am working on a website where visitors can buy a specific place on it. The places are numbered and there are only 1024 of them.

In the text of the website I am currently calling these places "spots" (e.g. "There are only 1024 spots available"), however I started wondering recently if the word "slot" wouldn't be more appropriate.

Do both "spot" and "slot" are appropriate in my context? If not, which one is correct and why?

(here is the website, if needed for additional context)

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Personally I'd associate slot with time slot, i.e. a particular span of time available for things (ads, TV shows, announcements etc.). Usually that's associated with broadcast media (so the slot is a specific time during the broadcast) but I suppose you could have something similar with on-demand streaming, if you make specific slots available at certain ad breaks around a specific show. Either way, the association is with a designated, specific "space" that you can insert (slot) your ad into.

Spot feels like something a little more special - an ad spot is usually where you make space for one, so possibly an extra-long ad (making time for it), or inserting one where you wouldn't normally get an ad, or maybe a full promotional tie-in where everything on a site is branded. I'm not saying ad spot has to mean this kind of thing, but I associate it more with that kind of bespoke, special effort.

Ad space is the most general term I think - there's space for ads, it can be space in a website layout or it can be the "space" between songs on a music streaming service. Though I would say, it has a feel of a general resource (space to put advertising) and lacks the specificity of a slot or a spot, which both feel more like you have some control over where the ad will be, in a specific place or time.

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There is little difference between "slot", "spot" and "space" for the use wanted in the question. On trying to find differences:

  • "spot" might refer to something isolated or separated from other similar things and hence the word is less useful for you.
  • "slot" might refer to a gap within something. Think of a coin-slot in a vending machine. However the use in the question can also be regarded as being gaps into which some information can be placed.
  • "space" is used in the question title and is my preferred word. I cannot explain why I prefer it, maybe it is just my slightly negative views of the other two words.
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Both terms are grammatically correct.

However, “spot” is commonly associated with advertising, at least in broadcast. It is industry lingo. For example, you might hear “Pepsi spent $5 million on a twenty-second spot!” after the Super Bowl.

Another poster mentioned that “slot” was also associated with broadcast. In my experience this that would be commonly used for the actual programming, not the advertisements. For example, “the series was cancelled and so the network needed to find a new show for the 8:30 slot.”

Lastly, “space” is a also a perfectly good choice. It might even work best for your use case, because you are talking about visual space that is getting filled.

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