By Alan Gahtan - September 2000
Above the fold –
The part of a Web page that is visible once the page has loaded (normally the
top part of the page). The term
originates from the newspaper industry where it is used to refer to the4 top
half of the front page.
Acquirer or
acquiring bank – The financial institution where a merchant has an account to
process credit card transactions.
Aggregator – An
e-commerce business model whereby the aggregator’s web site brings together
products, services or content which it does not actually produce or own.
ASP / Application
Service Provider – A company which provides access to software applications
over the Internet for a monthly subscription fee.
Asymmetrical –
Refers to different bandwidth being allocated to transmissions in one direction
as compared to the opposite direction. For
example, a communication circuit which is capable of transmitting 1,000,000 bits
of data per second (bps) may be configured to transmit data in one direction at
900,000 bps (for example, a user’s computer which will typically be
downloading rather than uploading data) and 100,000 bps in the opposite
direction.
B2B / Business to
Business – A business model where a business’ customers are other
businesses.
B2C / Business to
Consumer – A business model where a business’ customers are non-business
consumers.
Backbone – A
high capacity communications circuit through which a high proportion of Internet
traffic flows.
Bandwidth – Used
to describe a communication circuit’s information carrying capacity.
The more bandwidth, the more data that can be transferred per unit of
time.
Banner Ad – An
advertisement place on a web page, usually in the form of a horizonal graphic
image. When clicked, it usually is
programmed to transfer the user to the advertiser’s web site.
Bricks &
Mortar – Traditional businesses with a physical infrastructure.
Bluetooth – A
wireless protocol designed to permit automatic networking between portable
personal devices (such as laptops, cell phones, palm organizers and even
watches) over short distances.
Brochureware – A
web site which contains little more than the online equivalent of a printed
brochure. The term is sometimes used
in a derogatory manner to refer to a web site will little content or little
interactivity.
Certification
Authority – An entity which vouches for the identity of the holder of a
digital certificate.
CGI / Common
Gateway Interface – A small program written in a script program such as Perl
which acts as an interface between the web and other programs on the web server
(such as databases).
Click & Mortar
– Nickname for the integration of online commerce with physical assets such as
warehouses and retail outlets.
Clickstreams –
The paths taken by individual users as they navigate a web site or the web.
Click-wrap
Agreement / Web-wrap Agreement – The online equivalent of a shrink-wrap
licensing agreement. An agreement
which is formed by clicking on an “I Agree” button.
Dedicated line –
A phone line which is reserved for use solely to connect a computer with another
or the Internet.
Disintermediation
– A term which refers to the bypassing of the middleman which is made possible
by the Internet.
Domain Expert –
Someone who is knowledgeable about a particular subject area.
DSL – A
communications standard that facilitates the transmission of high speed data
over (and simultaneous with) regular telephone lines.
Electronic Data
Interchange / EDI – Refers to the exchange of documents which contain data
stored in a structured form so that the recipient system can automatically read
the information which is contained in such documents.
Exchange or
Marketplace – A service which electronically connects buyers and sellers in a
particular industry. These services
hope to reduce administrative costs, facilitate quicker information exchange
(and thereby reduce excess inventory) and introduce greater competition.
An example is Covisint, an exchange which will connect the major car
makers with their suppliers.
Firewall – A
combination of hardware and software which is used to protect and isolate an
organization’s internal network from unauthorized external users.
First Mover
Advantage – The competitive advantage that is obtained by the first entrant in
a new market (for instance, Amazon.com).
Frames – A
feature in HTML which permits web designers to split up the window of a browser
into distinct rectangular sections.
Frequently Asked
Questions / FAQs – Documents which list and contain answers to the most common
questions on a particular topic.
Infrastructure –
The equipment, such as routers, that powers the Internet made by vendors such as
Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems.
Internet Time –
A reference to the rapid rate of innovation and change that is occurring and the
corresponding need for participants to do business in an accelerated time frame.
Graphic
Interchange Format / GIF – A commonly used file format for images or graphics
used on web pages.
Hits – A term
which indicates the number of requests that a particular web server processed.
Each element on a web page, as well as the web page itself, would count
as a hit when viewed by a particular user.
Home Page – The
introductory or menu page of a web site which provides the entry point for
visitors to the site.
HTML / Hypertext
Markup Language – A page format language which contains tags that provide
instructions to browsers on the size, shape, colouring and placement of text and
graphics on a web page.
Hyperlink – A
word or graphic within a web document, which is usually highlighted or
underlined, and which takes a user to another page or to a different location on
the same page, when it is clicked.
Impressions –
The number of times a banner advertisement is viewed.
Issuer – A
financial institution that issues credit cards to end users.
Internet Protocol
(IP) address – A unique numeric identify which is used to represent each
device attached to a network.
Interoperability
– The ability of various hardware and software to work together.
Intranet – A
private Internet operating on an organization’s internal network.
Java – A
programming language created by Sun Microsystems which can be used to run
programs (for instance, to implement special effects) on web pages without
regard to the equipment being used to access the Internet.
JPEG / Joint
Photographic Experts Group – A file format frequently used for images
displayed on the web.
Killer Application
– A new application, such as a software program, which creates a mass market
for a new technology. Lotus 123 has
been described as a killer application for early IBM PC computers.
The world wide web has been described as a killer application for the
Internet.
Meta Tags – A
special set of HTML tags which are not displayed but which contain information
which is read and used by search engines to index web pages and to offer a short
description of such pages.
Metcalfe’s Law
– The value of a digital network increases with the square of its number of
nodes. Therefore, a network with 100
nodes is 100 times as valuable as a network with 10 nodes.
Mirror Site – A
web site that contains an identical copy of the contents stored on another web
site. Mirror sites are used to
reduce the load on popular web sites or to provide quicker responses to queries
from users located across slow speed links to popular web sites.
Netiquette –
Rules or standards regarding the use of a particular Internet service such as
e-mail or usenet.
Network Effect –
The effect that is observed with certain types of businesses, such as auction
sites (eBay) or web marketplaces, where the more people that use the service,
the more useful it becomes. See also
Metcalfe’s Law.
Non-Repudiation
– A process used to make sure customers cannot deny having made a particular
transaction.
Open Source –
Software that is distributed in source code format and which can be modified and
enhanced by users or groups of users. An
example is LINUX.
PDF / Portable
Document Format – a format used by Adobe’s Acrobat program, which can be
used to create documents that will retain their original format and appearance
when printed using different computers, operating systems and printers.
Pixel – The
smallest unit of measurement in a computer graphic image.
Also refers to the individual dot which makes up such an image.
PKI / Public Key
Infrastructure – A foundation to support the authentication of message senders
and recipients, confidentiality of messages and confirmation of their receipt.
P2P / Path to
Profitability – The strategy by which an Internet company will generate
profits.
Portal – A super
web site which provides access to a variety of services or resources.
Scalability –
The ability to expand a particular business to handle additional customers
without adding excessive costs or delays.
Space – Market
or industry.
Sticky – A web
site which holds onto visitors for a substantial amount of time.
Traffic – The
amount of visitors a web site receives and which may be expressed as the number
of visitors, impressions, hits or page views.
URL / Uniform
Resource Locator – A web site’s address, which consists of the access method
(such as http), the domain name and the subdirectory/file name which is used to
access a particular resource.
Viral Marketing
– A strategy of using a company’s customers to help attract new customers.
Vortal / Vertical
Portal – A portal which is focused around a particular industry.
VPN / Virtual
Private Network – A secure communications channel which is created on top of
an insecure communications medium, such as the Internet, using encryption and
authentication technology.
WAP / Wireless
Application Protocol – A communications protocol for accessing the web using
wireless devices such as cell phones.
XML / Extensible
Markup Language – A successor to HTML, the language in which web pages are
written, which facilitates the exchange of formatted information between
different systems.
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