In the realm of second language acquisition, investigations of the efficacy of multimedia annotations for learning unknown lexical items has attracted considerable interest during the past decade. This commentary discusses the story of my first contribution to the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) 14 years ago. In particular, it sheds light on motivating factors that led me to do so and also presents the intellectual and practical contributions of my study. The commentary concludes by describing some important technological and pedagogical factors that should be considered to fully exploit the potential of an electronic glossary. Within the domains of technology and pedagogy, I identify specific points that cover a wide range of issues and highlight their implications.