Definitions of internet marketing terms | Internet Marketing Glossary

The following are internet marketing terms and definitions you will face in your online marketing venture.

Ad click rate ; Sometimes referred to as click-through, this is the percentage of ad views that result in an ad click.

 

Ad clicks ; Number of times users click on an ad banner.

 

Address ; A unique identifier for a computer or site online, usually URL for a website or marked with an @ for an e-mail address. This is how your computer finds a location on the information super highway.

 

Ad views (impressions) ; number of times an ad banner is down loaded and presumably seen by visitors. If the same as appears on multiple pages simultaneously, this statistic may understate the number of ad impressions, due to browser caching. Corresponds to net impressions in traditional media. There is currently no way of knowing whether an ad was actually loaded. Most servers record an ad as severed even if it was not.

 

Affiliate marketing ; A system of advertising in which site A agrees to feature buttons from site B, and site A gets a percentage of any sales generated for site B. It can also be applied to situations in which an advertiser may be looking for marketing information, rather than a cash sale. Popular among startups with very small marketing budgets.

 

Affiliate program ; An arrangement in which a company pays you a percentage of the sale for every online customer they get though a link from your website to yours.

 

Affinity Marketing ; Marketing efforts - including e-mail promotions, banners, or offline media - aimed at consumers on the basis of establishing buying patterns. (For example, "Dear Cowpoke, as a valued cattle-restraint equipment customer, you're invited to a special Webcast sneak peek of our newest product: the Heifer Holder. Act now!")

 

Anchor ; A word, phrase, or graphic image, in hypertext, it is the object that is highlighted, underlined, or "clickable" that links to another site.

 

Applet ; an application program written in Java that allows viewing of simple animations on Web pages.

 

ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) ; the U. S. Department of Defense agency that, in conjunction with leading universities, created ARPAnet, the precursor of the Internet.

 

ASP (application server provider) ; third-party vendors that develop and host Internet and intranet applications for customers, tailoring the applications to the customer's business requirements and process.

 

ATM (asynchronous transfer mode ) ; A high-speed switching technique that uses fixed-size cells to transmit voice, data and video.

 

Auditor ; Third-party company that tracks, counts and verifies ad banner requests or verifies a website's as reporting system.

 

Avatar ; A digital representation of a user in virtual reality site.

 

Backbone ; A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a large pathway within a network. The term is relative to the size of network it is serving. A backbone in a small network would probably be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

 

Bandwidth ; How much information (text, images, video, sound) can be sent through a connection. Usually measured in bits per second. A full page of text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move approximately 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motions full-screen video requires about 10,000,000 bits per second, depending on compression.

 

Banner ad ; A banner is the small boxed message that appears atop commercial websites (usually the home page) - o on the first page of an e-zine - and are usually hotlinked to the advertisers site.

 

Beta ; this term has migrated from computer and software development, and is usually used as "beta site." It means test site or test version. Beta is not the final version of a product or website, but it's close enough to show in public and work the bugs out.

 

Bookmark ; A bookmark is an easy way to find your way back to a website - just like a bookmark helps you keep your place in a book you are reading.

 

Bounce ; this is what happens when an e-mail returns as undeliverable.

 

Branding ; A school of advertising that says, "If the customer has heard of us, we've done our job." Fortunately for agencies, rand value is extremely difficult to measure, so branding campaigns can be easily defended with grandiose predictions of future glory.

 

Broadbrand ; A data-transmission scheme in which multiple signals share with bandwidth. This allows the transmission of voice, data, and video signals over simple medium.

 

Browser ; an application used to view information from the Internet. Browsers provide a user-friendly interface for navigating through and accessing the vast amount of information on the Internet.

 

Browser caching ; To speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on a user's disk. If a site is revisited, browsers display pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the server. As a result, servers undercount the number of times a page is viewed.

 

Browsing ; a term that refers to exploring an online area, usually on the World Wide Web.

 

BBS (bulletin board system) ; Software that enables users to log into e-mail, Usenet, and chat groups via modem.

 

Buttons ; Objects that, when clicked once, cause something to happen.

 

Cache ; A storage area for frequently accessed information. Retrieval of the information is faster from the cache than from the original source. There are many types of cache, including RAM cache, secondary cache, and cache memory, to name a few.

 

CD-ROM ; Compact Disk-Read Only memory, a storage medium popular in modern computers. One CD-ROM can hold 600 MB of data.

 

Centrex ; A central office-based business communications system that provides direct dialing capability and advanced calling features normally found only on an onsite PBX.

 

CGI (common gateway interface) ; An interface-creation scripting program that allows Web pages to be made on the fly based on information from buttons, checkboxes, text input, and so on.

 

Chat room ; an area online where you can chat with other members in real time.

 

Click ; The opportunity for a visitor to be transferred to a location by clicking on an ad, as recorded by the server.

 

Click-through rate ; the percentage of people receiving an e-mail who will click on a URL embedded in the message to reach a specific Web page.

 

Cookie ; A file on your computer that records information where you have been on the World Wide Web. The browser stores this information, which allows a site to remember the browser in future transactions or requests. Since the Web's protocol has no way to remember requests, cookies read and record a user's browser type and IP address, and store this information on the user's own computer. The cookie can be read only by a server in the domain that stored it. Visitors can accept or deny cookies by changing a setting in their browser preferences.

 

CPC ; cost per click.

 

CPL ; cost per lead.

 

CPM ; CPM is the cost per thousand for a particular site. A website that charges $15,000 per banner guarantees 6000,000 impressions has a CPM of $25 ($15,000 divided by 600).

 

CPT ; cost per transaction.

 

CPTM ; cost per targeted thousand impressions.

 

CPU (central processing unit ) ; The central processing unit I the main "brain" of the computer, where the information is processed and calculations are done.

 

Coverage ; the percentage of a population group covered by the Internet.

 

Creative ; the technology used to create or develop an ad unit. The most common creative technology for banners is GIF or JPEG images. Other creative technologies include Java, HTML, or streaming audio or video. These are commonly referred to as rich-media banners.

 

Cyberspace ; Coined by author William Gibson in his 1984 novel Neuromancer , cyberspace is now used to describe all of the information available through computer networks.

Demographic overlay ; Adding demographic data to a prospect or customer list running it through the computer and matching it against other lists that already contain the data.

 

Direct response ; The school of advertising that says, "The Internet is an interactive medium. If the consumer interacts with our marketing efforts, we've done our job." Unfortunately for agencies, there's nowhere to hide with interactive campaigns, as they produce precise success or failure measurements.

 

Domain ; Part of the DNS (domain naming system) name that specific details about the host. A domain is the main subdivision of Internet addresses, the last three letters after the final dot, and it tells you what kind of organization you are dealing with. There aresix top level domains widely used in the U.S. : .com (commercial), .edu (education), .et (network operations), .gov ( U.S. government), .mil ( U.S. military), .org (organization). Other, two-letter domains represent countries, thus, .uk for the United Kingdom , and so on.

 

Domain consolidation level ; Data reflect the consolidation of multiple domain names and/or URLs associated with the main site.

 

Drill down ; a term used to express what a surfer does as he or she goes further into a website - deeper into the back pages, deeper into data. Make certain that when someone takes time to "drill down" into your site that they come back with information worth digging for.

 

Dynamic rotation ; Advertisements rotate on a timed basis.

 

E-commerce ; Using electronic information technologies on the Internet to allow direct selling and automatic processing of purchases between parties.

 

E-list ; A direct mail list containing Internet addresses and used to distribute promotions messages over the Internet.

 

E-mail ; An abbreviation for electronic mail, which is a network service which allows users to send and receive messages via computer. Once confined to a closed group within a particular network, the Internet and common message protocols make it possible to send and receive messages world wide.

 

Emoticons ; The online means of facial expressions and gestures. Examples: J Tip your head to the left and you will see the two eyes and a smiling mouth. Use them where applicable in chats and e-mail. Other emoticons include: L sad :0 surprised 0 J innocent.

 

E-maillennium ; The era, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when direct marketing evolved from paper mail to electronic delivery over the Internet.

 

E-zine ; a part-promotional, part-informational newsletter or magazine distributed on the Internet.

 

FAQ (frequently asked questions) ; FAQ is a commonly used abbreviation for "frequently asked questions." Most Internet sites will have a FAQ to explain what is in the area and how to use its features.

 

Firewall ; A security barrier placed between an organization's internal computer network - either its IS system or intranet - and the Internet. It keeps your information in, and unwanted people out. It consists of one or more routers, which accept, reject, or edit transmitted information and requests.

 

Flame ; 1. An intentionally crude or abusive e-mail message or Usenet post. Rule: Don't do it. Ever. Not only is it bad netiquette, you leave a trail. 2. A complaint message from a spam recipient sent over the Internet to the advertiser.

 

Forms ; the pages in most browsers that accept information in text entry fields. They can be customized to receive company sales data and orders, expense reports, or other information. They can also be used to communicate.

 

Frames ; The use of multiple, independent sections to create a single Web page. Each frame is built as a separate HTML file, but with one "master" file to identify each selection. When a user requests a page with frames, several pages will be displayed as panes. Sites using frames may report one page requests with several panes as multiple page requests. Most audit firms count only the maser HTML page request and therefore can accurately report the page requests.

 

Frame relay ; A form of packet switching that allows high-speed, statistically multiplex connectivity over shared network. The technology depends on high-quality transmission facilities and makes the intelligent end-points responsible for the integrity of the data.

 

Freeware ; Shareware or software that can be downloaded off of the Internet for free.

 

Frequency ; the number of times an ad is delivered to the same browser in a single session or time period. A site needs to use cookies in order to manage ad frequency.

 

FTP ; File transfer protocol, a protocol that allow the transfer of files from one computer to another. FTP can also be used as a verb.

 

Gateway ; A link from one computer system to a different system.

 

GIF (graphic interchange format) ; GIF is a graphics format that can be displayed on almost all Web browsers. It is a common compression format used for transferring graphic files between different computers. Most of the "pictures" you see online are GIF files. They display in 256 colors and have a built-in compression. GIF images are the most common form of banner creative.

 

GIF89a (animated GIF) ; a GIF animation tool that creates sequences of images to simulate animation and allows for transparent background colors. Animated GIFs can generate higher response rates than static banners.

 

Gross exposures ; Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log as a "hit." Hits are generated for every element of a requested page 9including graphics, text, and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded - one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server's workload. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

 

Hacker ; Originally used to describe a computer enthusiast who pushed a system to its highest performance through clever programming.

 

Helper application ; this term refers to software programs that run along with browser programs, enabling them to perform additional functions. Good examples are Shockwave for downloading and viewing moving images, and RealAudio for hearing sounds and music online.

 

History list ; Most browsers have a pull-down menu that displays the sites you've recently visited so you can return to a site instantly or view your last surfing session. The same mechanism makes it possible for servers to track where you were before visiting a particular site - better viewing habit information than television networks ever dreamed of providing.

 

Hit ; The sending of a single file, whether text, graphic, audio or other type of file. When a page request is made, all elements or files that comprise the page are recorded as hits on a server's log file. While there is no accurate formula for determining the number of visitors to a page or site based on the number of hits - one visitor could go back and forth twenty times, or twenty people could visit a single time each - a hit at least indicates somebody was there. Thus, hits can be far more valuable than the tracking devices in any other media.

 

Home page ; the page designated as the main point of entry of a website (or main page) or the starting point when a browser first connects to the Internet. Typically, it welcomes you and introduces the purpose of the site, or the organization sponsoring it, and then provides links to the lower-level pages of the site. In business terms, it's the grabber. If your home page downloads too slowly, or it is unclear or uninteresting, you will probably lose customers.

 

Host ; An Internet host used to be a single machine connected to the Internet (which meant it had a unique IP address). As a host, it made certain services available to other machines on the network. However, virtual hosting now means that one physical host can actually be many virtual hosts.

 

Hotlists ; These can be pull-down or pop-up menus on browsers that contain new or popular sites. Major browser and search engine home pages also contain updated hotlists, and there are entire sites, such as Cool Sit O' the Day.

 

HTML (hypertext markup language ) ; Is a coding language used to make hypertext documents for use on the Web. HTML resembles old-fashioned typesetting code, where a block of text is surrounded by codes that indicate ho wit should appear. HTML allows text to be "linked" to another file on the Internet.

 

HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) ; A standard method of publishing information as hypertext in HTML format on the Internet, HTTP is he format of the World Wide Web. When a browser sees "HTTP" as the beginning of an address, it knows that it is viewing a WWW page.

 

HTTPS ; HTTP with SSL (secure socket layer) encryption for security.

 

Hyperlink ; this is the clickable link in text or graphics on a Web page that takes you to another place on the same page, another page, or whole other site. It is the single most powerful and important function of online communications. Hyperlinks are revolutionizing he way the world gets information.

 

Hypertext ; electronic documents that present information that can be read by following many different directions through links, rather than just read linearly like printed text.

 

Impression (ad impression or page impression) ; The ad impression is the metric a site uses for measuring inventory. Different definitions exist for this term: 1. The viewing of a page or ad by the user. The assumption is that the page or ad images were successfully downloaded and the ser viewed the page or ads. 2. The request for a page or ad. Agencies usually collect a fee for every thousand impressions (hence the term CPM, cost per thousand).

 

Infopreneur ; Someone who starts up a business in information technology or online communications.

 

Interactivity ; If your Web site is not interactive, it's dead.

 

Internet ; 1. A collection of approximately 60,000 independent, interconnected networks that se the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from ARPANet of the '60s and early '70s. "The Net" is a world wide system of computer networks providing reliable and redundant connectivity between disparate computers and systems by using common transportation and data protocols. 2. Generally, any network made up of two or more interconnected local or wide area networks.

 

Internet domain name ; The unique name that identifies an Internet entity.

 

Interstitial ; Mean "something in between" and is a page that is inserted in the normal flow of content between a user and a site. An interstitial as is an "intrusive" ad unit that is spontaneously delivered without specifically being requested by a user. Blocking the site behind it, interstitial ads are designed to grab consumers attention for the few nanoseconds it takes to close the window. Interstitials can be full pages or small daughter windows. Also referred to as "pop-ups." 2. A banner appearing in a location other than a homepage or near that masthead of an e-zine.

 

Intranet ; Intranets are private networks, usually maintained by corporations for internal communications, which use Internet - usually Web- protocols, software, and servers. They are relatively cheap, fast, and reliable networking and information warehouse systems that link offices around the world. They make it easy for corporate users to communicate with one another, and to access the information resources of the Internet.

 

Inventory ; The number of ads available for sale on a website. Ad inventory is determined by the number of ads on a page, the number of pages containing ad space, and the number of pages requested.

 

IP address ; Internet protocol address. Every system connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which consists of a number in the format A.B.C.D. where each of the four sections is a decimal number from 0 to 255. Most people use domain names instead, and the resolution between domain names and IP addresses is handled by the network and the domain name servers. With virtual hosting, a single machine can act like multiple machines (with multiple domain names and IP addresses).

 

IRC (internet relay chat ) ; A facility that allows people - from many different places in the world at one time - to chat in real time. The chats, forums, are typed remarks, and that can be either public or private. This, understandable, is a wildly popular consumer are of the Internet. A sort of "ham radio" for today, it offers intimacy combined with autonomy. Many celebrities are also talking to the public at preannounce times, so IRC has commercial publicity uses, too. Business meetings can be conducted in the same way.

 

ISDN (integrated services digital network) ; ISDN lines are high-speed dial-up connections to the Internet. That's good. What's bad is that their cost and availability are determined by local telephone companies which means in some places that are available, in other places, not and sometimes they're cheap and at other times wildly expensive. It is a lot of commotion for a connection roughly four times faster than a 28.8 modem. (Te joke among communications experts is that ISDN stands for "It still does nothing.") Wait for fiber optic lines, which will be thousands of time faster - that's the future.

 

ISP (Internet service provider) ; 1. A business that provides access to the Internet. It's services are available to either individuals or companies, and include a dial-in interface with the Internet. Software supply, and often a website and intranet design. There are currently more then 3,000 ISPs in the U.S. alone. It's a growth business, and, as a result, pricing is a highly competitive, so shop around. 2. A company that, for a fee, provides business and consumers with access to the Internet.

 

IVR (interactive voice response ) ; A communication device that provides interactive menus for callers to use to input data using a touch-tone telephone keypad.

 

Java ; Java is an object-oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems that supports enhanced features such as animation, or real-time updating of information. If you are sing a browser that supports Java, an applet (Java program) embedded in the Web page will automatically run.

 

JPEG (joint photographic experts group ); JPEG is a graphics format newer than GIF that displays photographs and graphic images with millions of colors. It also compresses well and is easy to download. Unfortunately, not many browsers currently support it, so don't use it for your logo.

 

Keyword ; A word or phrase to focus an online search.

 

Killer app ; a term that migrated from software development to online. It is nothing more than tech-talk for the eternal search for next big idea.

 

Lag ; the amount of time between making an online request or command and receiving a response. Until lag time becomes no time at all, the Internet will not be consumer-friendly, and its profit potential will remain limited.

 

LAN (local area network) ; a computer network - which for some reason is pronounced "land" - limited to a certain area, usually a single floor or building. The Web is network, but not a LAN.

 

Link ; An electronic connection between two websites (also called hotlink). When an item on one Web page is clicked on, the user is transferred to another page or another area on the same page.

 

Listserver ; A program that automatically sends e-mail to a list of subscribers. It is the mechanism that is used to keep newsgroups informed.

 

Load ; Usually used with upload or download, it means to transfer files of software - to "load" - from one computer or server to another computer or server. In other words, it's the movement of information online.

 

Log or log files ; File that keeps track of network connections.

 

Login ; the identification or name used to access - log into- a computer, network or site.

 

Mailing list ; an online mailing list is an automatically distributed e-mail message on a particular topic going to certain individuals. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to a mailing list by sending a message via e-mail. There are many good professional mailing lists, and you should find the ones that concern your business.

 

Metatags ; Used to identify the creator of a Web page, what HTML specs the page follows, and the keywords and description of the page.

 

MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extensions ); A method of encoding a file for delivery over the Internet.

 

Modem ; A contraction for "modulation/demodulation," it is the device that converts a digital bit stream into an analog signal (and back again) so computers can communicate across telephone lines.

 

Modem speeds ; The speed at which you connect to the Internet through your computer's modem. They include 14.4, 28.8, 33.6 and ISDN. T1 and T3 are high-speed connections that don't require a modem.

 

Mosaic ; Developed by the NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Urbana , this is the breakthrough browser that revolutionized the Internet. It brought clickability an graphics to a hard-to-navigate, text-heavy information system and made the Web - and its vast commercial possibilities - a reality.

 

MPEG ; The file format that is used to compress and transmit movies or video clips online.

 

Multimailing ; Direct mail campaign using both e-mail and postal direct mail.

 

Netiquette (Internet etiquette) ; The rules of how to behave on he Internet. The most important one relevant to e-mail marketing is not to send promotional or commercial messages to anyone you don't know or who has not agreed to receive them.

 

Netizen ; an active Internet user.

 

Net monthly circulation ; the number of unique Web users in the panel that visited the site over the course of the reporting period, expressed as a percentage of the in-tab.

 

Network (ad network) ; an aggregator o broker of advertising inventory from many sites, for example, 24/7 Media.

 

Newbie ; A term to describe anyone new to an area, whether it be a particular forum online or the Internet.

 

Newsgroup ; A discussion group on Usenet devoted to talking about a specific topic. Currently, there are over 15,000 newsgroups. Also called usenets, newsgroups consist of messages posted on electronic bulletin boards. Many of them cover professional subjects and societies and a rich sources of business information; others are junk and contain little but mindless drivel.

 

Online ; It's where you are right now - and where the rest of the world is heading to get its information and entertainment, to communicate, and to buy products and services.

 

Online service ; A business that provides its subscribers with a wide variety of data transmitted over telecommunications lines. Online services provide an infrastructure in which subscribers can communicate with one another, either by exchanging e-mail messages or by participating in online conferences (forums). In additional, the service can connect users with an almost unlimited number of third party information providers. Subscribers can get up-to-date stock quotes, news stories hot off the wire, articles from many magazines and journals - in fact, almost any information that has been put in electronic form. Of course, accessing all this data carries a price.

 

Opt in ; To agree to receive promotional e-mails when registering on a particular website from the site owner and other companies to whom he or she may rent your e-mail address to.

 

Opt out ; To request that an e-list owner take your name off of the list or at least make sure you are not sent any promotional e-mails.

 

Page ; All websites are a collection of electronic "pages." Each Webpage is a document formatted in HTML that contains text, images, or media objects such as RealAudio player files, QuickTime videos, or Java applets. The home page is typically a visitor's first point of entry and features a site index. Pages can be static or dynamically generated. All frames and frame parent documents are counted as pages.

 

Page requests ; The opportunity for an HTML document to appear in a browser window as a direct result of a visitor's interaction with a website (IAB). The page request is for a browser to "get" a page from a site and is recorded by the server log.

 

Page views ; Number of times a user requests a page that may contain a particular ad. Indicative of the number of times an ad was potentially seen, or "gross impressions." Page views may overstate ad impressions if users choose to turn off graphics (often done to speed browsing).

 

Pay-per-click ; an advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies based on how many consumers clicked on a promotion. Condemned by advertisers and agencies alike for its many marketing vagaries and technical loopholes.

 

Pay-per-impression ; An advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies based on how many consumers see their promotions.

 

Pay-per-sale ; An advertising pricing model in which advertisers pay agencies based on how many consumers actually buy something as a direct result of the promotion. Despised by agencies for the wretched accountability it brings to their lives.

 

PCMIA ; An acronym for a Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association. Many laptop computers use these devices as modems.

 

PDF (portable document format) ; Word processing software, business applications lie the originals. Must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.

 

PDF files ; Adobe's portable document format (pdf) is a translation format used primarily for distributing files across a network or on a website. Files with a .pdf extension have been created in another application and then translated into .pdf files so they can viewed by anyone, regardless of platform.

PID (personal information destination) ; There are millions of pages of information on the web, but if you are looking for a specific item, there is only one page - or very few - that contains exactly the information you need. That's your PID. Think o fit as a needle in a haystack.

 

Pug-in ; A program application that can easily be installed and used as part of a Web browser. Once installed, plug-in applications are recognized by the browser, and its function is integrated into the mail HTML file being presented.

 

POP (point of presence) ; POP is a service provider's location for connecting to users. Generally, POPs refer to the location where people can dial into the provider's host computer. Most providers have several POPs to allow low-cost access via telephone line.

 

Pop-up ; ant screen, box, or message that suddenly appears on the computer screen during a session.

 

Portal ; A website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mails, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.

 

POTS (plain old telephone service) ; Unless you are reading this at a high-tech company or large corporation with ISDN or T1 lines, chances are you accessed over POTS, copper wired that transmit at about 28.8K - which means surfing for you is a fairly slow business.

 

PPP (point to point protocol) ; The language that enables a computer to use telephone lines and a modem to connect to the Internet. Gradually replacing SLIP as the preferred means of connection.

 

Protocol ; A set of rules that governs how information is to be exchanged between computer systems. Also used in certain structured chat rooms to refer to the order in which people may speak.

 

Push ; Is the delivery ("pushing") of information hat is initiated by the server rather than being requested ("pulled") by a user. Pointcast is the best-known push service that pushes information based on the user's profile.

 

Query ; A request for information, usually to a search engine.

 

Rank ; An ad's standing in comparison to other ads, based on the graphical click-through rate. Rank provides advertisers with information on an ad's performance across sites.

 

Reach ; Unique Web users who visited the site over the course of the reporting period, expressed a percentage of the universe for the demographic category. Also called unduplicated audience.

 

Real time ; Events that happen in real time are happening virtually at that particular moment. When you chat in a chat room or send an instant message, you are interacting in real time since it is immediate.

 

Real Audio ; a commercial software program that plays audio on demand without waiting for long file transfers. For instance, you can listen to National Public Radio's entire broadcast of "All Things Considered" on the Internet.

 

Registration ; A process for site visitors to enter information about themselves. Sites use registration data to enable or enhance targeting of ads. Some sites require certain registration in order to access their content. Some sites use voluntary registration. Fee-based sites conduct registration in the form of a transaction (taking a credit card to pay for the content). A registered user is a user who visits a website and elects, or is required, to provide certain information. Nonregistered users may be denied access to a site requiring registration.

 

RFP ; request for proposal.

 

RFC (request for comment) ; The documents that contain the protocols, standards, and information that define the Internet. Gathered and published by the Internet Engineering Task force, a consensus-building body made up of institutions and corporations involved with online communications, they are preceded by RFC and followed by a number. RFC archives can be found at InterNIC.

 

Rich media ; Interactive multimedia presentations on Internet direct mail, banner ads and Web pages.

 

ROI ; return on investments.

 

Router ; The hardware or software that handles connection between networks online. In other words, it tells your computer where to go.

 

Screen name ; The name you use to represent yourself online.

 

Search engine ; A program that searched documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is a really general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like AltaVista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and Usenet newsgroups.

 

Server ; Servers are the backbone of the Internet, the computers that are linked by communication lines and "serve up" information in the form of text, graphics, and multimedia to online computers that request data - that's you. (When a server "goes down" it loses its online link and the information it holds cannot be accessed.)

 

Session ; A series of transactions or hit made by a single user. If there has been no activity for a period of time, followed by the resumption of activity by the same user, a new session is considered started. Thirty minutes is the most common time period used to measure a session length.

 

Shareware ; Software programs that are openly available and usually can be downloaded online. They are often free, though not always.

 

Shovelware ; Is the software that is inflated in value by "shoveling" in all kinds of information, usually free to anyone and generally worthless. The term is being expanded by usage to the Web, where a lot of irrelevant information is shoveled onto many sites.

 

Shockwave ; A plug-in that allows for a multimedia movies to play through a browser.

 

SIC (standard industrial classification) codes ; Classifies establishments by the type of activity in which they are engaged.

 

Signature file ; A personal footer that can be automatically attached to e-mail .

 

SLIP (serial line Internet protocol) ; SLIP refers to a method of Internet connection that enables computers to use phone lines and a modem to connect to the Internet without having to connect to a host.

 

SMDS (switched multimegabit data services) ; A high-speed data transmission service that provides wide area connectivity through the public telephone network.

 

Snail mail ; A term for traditional land and air mail services, which takes days to deliver a message versus seconds for delivery of e-mail.

 

Spam ; the use of mailing lists to blanket Usenet groups or private e-mail boxes with indiscrimination, unsolicited messages of a promotional nature. Very bad netiquette. Even worse, it's bad business. The future of marketing online is about customizing products and information for individual users. Anyone who tries to use old mass-market techniques in the new media environment is bound to fail.

 

Spider ; A term used to describe search engines such as Yahoo! and AltaVista, because of the way that cruise all over the World Wide Web to find information. It is a software program that combs the Web for new sites and updated information on old ones, like a spider looking for a fly.

 

Splash page ; A bridge between a banner advertisement and an advertiser's website that provides product information and hotlinks. Splash pages are replacing many homepages - particularly on site more involves with news and publishing - as gateways into Web content. They start with a bigger "splash," more graphics, and timely information, and change often, like the cover of a magazine.

 

Static rotation ; Advertisements rotated based on the entry of users into a screen. Regardless of the amount of time a user spends with a screen. Advertisements will remain on the screen for the entire time and will not change.

 

Stickiness ; a measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining individual users. The term is typically used in promotional material when traffic numbers are too low to be effective in lauding a site's performance. Never mind the quantity, feel the stick. Sticky refers to a website people want to stay on and frequently revisit.

 

Surfing ; Exploring the World Wide Web. Commonly seen as "Surfing the Net."

 

SYSOP ; The person responsible for the day-to-day operations of a computer system or network. In large corporations, this person can be the head of the IS (information systems) department.

 

T-1 ; A high-speed (1.54 megabits/second) network connection.

 

T-3 ; An even higher-speed (45 megabits/second) network connection .

 

Targeted marketing ; Banners or other promotions aimed, on the basis of demographic analysis, at one specific subsection of the market.

 

TCP (transmission control protocol) ; TCP works with IP to ensure that packets travel safely on the Internet. This is the method by which most Internet activity takes place.

 

Throughput ; The amount of data transmitted through the Internet connectors in response to a given request. The more "throughput" you deliver to your customers, the better (if you're charging enough).

 

Undernet ; An alternative IRC that is accessed through a normal, or public chat area. Its access is limited, and it is usually used for private conversations. But be warned: unless you are behind a sophisticated firewall, little on the Net is truly private.

 

Unique users ; The total number of different users, or different computer terminals, that have visited a website. This is measures using advanced tracking technology or user registration.

 

Upload ; To send a file from one computer to another via modem or other telecommunication method.

 

URL (uniform resource locator) ; An HTTP address used by the World Wide Web to specify a certain site. This is the unique identifier, or address, of a Web page on the Internet. URL can be pronounced "you-are-ell" or "earl." It is how Web pages, FTPs, gophers, newsgroups, and even some e-mail boxes are located.

 

Usenet ; Internet message boards, also known as newsgroups. Each board has a theme, and there are tens of thousands of usenets concerning every imaginable topic. Many of them cover professional subjects and societies and are rich sources of business information; others are junk and contain little but mindless drivel.

 

Valid hits ; A further refinement of hits, valid hits that deliver all information to a user. Excludes hits such as redirects, error messages, and computer generated hits.

 

Viewer ; Another name for a help application.

 

Viral marketing ; any advertising that propagates itself. When Hotmail users send e-mail, they unwittingly infect the recipient with the tagline at the bottom of the message.

 

Virus ; A virus is a program that can be downloaded onto your computer or network from the Internet. Some are harmless, while others are programmed to destroy your system, trash your files, and disable your software. No kidding. So be careful. Use antivirus programs. They take a few extra minutes everyday to use, but the protection is worth it.

 

Visits ; a sequence or requests made by one user at one site. If a visitor does not request any new information for a period of time, known as the time-out period, then the next request by the visitor is considered a new visit. To enable comparison among sites, I/PRO uses a thirty-minute time-out.

 

Visual mail ; E-mail containing graphics, animation, and sound, pioneered by E-PostDirect.

 

VRML (visual reality modeling language) ; This is an online programming language for creating three-dimensional programs. Looks pretty, but at current bandwidths it's pre-e-e-etty slow..

 

WAIS (wide area information server) ; WAIS, pronounced "ways," search for data through online gopher databases. Unless you are looking for scientific information, look somewhere else.

Webmaster ; the individual assigned to administering a corporation or organization's website. This person lays out the information trees, designs the look, codes HTML pages, handles editing and additions, and checks that links are intact. In addition, he or she monitors, routes, and sometimes responds to e-mail generated by the site.

 

Web page ; An HTML document on the Web, usually one of many together that make up a Web site.

 

Website ; A collection of files that are arranged on the World Wide Web under a common address and allows retrieval via a browser.

 

World Wide Web (WWW or Web) ; The Web computer users to access information across systems around the world using URLs to identify files and systems, and hypertext links to move between files on the same or different systems. The Web is a client/server information system that supports the retrieval of data in the form a text, graphics, and multimedia in a uniform HTML format. Allowing hypertext links and interactivity on an unprecedented level, its introduction transformed a sleepy, academic communications system into a powerful marketing tool linking businesses and customers around the world.

 

'zine ; Magazines that are published digitally, rather then on paper. Same are mainstream, while others are oddball and cover almost every topic imaginable.