Independent online advertising sales house w00t!media is celebrating today after its moniker was officially crowned more popular than the term ‘Facebook’ by US dictionary authority Merriam-Webster.

We should explain: ‘w00t,’ which is an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday following an online vote. Visitors to Merriam-Webster's web site were asked to vote for one of 20 words and phrases, which included the most frequently looked-up words on the site and those suggested by users.

‘Facebook’ was runner up, and defined by the dictionary as a new verb meaning to add someone to a list of friends or to search for people on the social networking site.

w00t!media Director Austen Kay said: “This is fantastic news for us. The crowning of ‘w00t’ as word of the year has been picked up by global news sources including Reuters and Yahoo!

The company name is purposely meant to reflect the cult, underground websites we represent. However, as many people had never come across the phrase I think they assumed we made it up! Now they realise we were ahead of our time…Long live w00t!

The word ‘w00t’ is usually spelled with two zeros