Dictionary of Internet and eMarketing Terms
Part II
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E-commerce
Selling, trading, bartering and conducting transactions over the Web.
Economies of Scale
A decrease in cost as supply increases.
E-Customer Relationship Management The application of CRM to an e-business's strategy and includes the personalization and customizing of customers' experiences and interactions with a Web site, call center or any other method of customer contact with e-business.
E-Marketing
Any marketing effort that contains a website URL. This could range from direct
mail programs, magazine ads, radio to business cards.
E-Merchants
Companies that sell products or services directly through their Web site.
E-merchants that target end consumers (as opposed to other businesses) are
sometimes called e-tailers, short for e-retailers.
E-Tailer
A business that sells only online.
Ear Ad
A small banner ad usually found in the corner of a Web page.
Earned Rate
A discounted media rate, based on volume or frequency of media placement.
EFT
Electronic Funds Transfer.
Egosurfing
Egosurfing is looking to see how many places on the Web your name appears.
Eighty-Twenty Rule
A rule-of-thumb that, for the typical product category, eighty percent of
the products sold will be consumed by twenty percent of the customers.
Electronic Communication
Network
Provided an electronic network for trading securities by revealing order size
and prices and connecting buyers and sellers.
Electronic Data Interchange
Business forms are standardized so that companies can share information with
customers, vendors and business partners electronically.
Electronic Order Form
An online document filled in by customers to indicate the items they want
to purchase. Less sophisticated than shopping cart and checkstand software,
it may or may not calculate totals.
Em
A unit of type measurement, based on the "M" character.
Encryption
Coding of confidential, personal, or financial information for secure transmission.
End-User
The person who actually uses a product, whether or not they are the one who
purchased the product.
Entry Page
See Gateway Page.
EShelf
A CrossCommerce.com feature. A rectangular-shaped allotment of on-screen real
estate on an affiliate Web page, into which CrossCommerce delivers real-time
product information. Affiliates can hand-pick products and have prices updated
automatically, or they can have CrossCommerce update which products appear
based on rules defined by the affiliate (such as top-selling golf clubs).
Euroseek
A search engine which concentrates on information relating to Europe. The
URL is http://www.euroseek.com.
Excite
Regarded as one of the best search engines, with an index of 55 million pages.
It can be slow to index new sites. The URL is http://www.excite.com. Sites
using frames must have a NOFRAMES section in order to be listed. Some spamming
has been noticed. Excite previously ignored the DESCRIPTION meta tag, but
is now using this in its listings (although the contents do not affect relevancy,
which is based mainly on the title and body text). The use of gateway pages
and hidden text is allowed. Excite has an audio/video search facility which
is a branded component of RealNetworks' RealPlayer G2.
Exposures
The number of times that an advertisement is viewed. Commonly used interchangeably
with impressions.
Extranet
Wide area network with Web like operations.
Eyeballs
Web industry jargon that refers to visitors, impressions, or site traffic
in general.
E-Zines
Electronic magazines that are published and distributed solely online.
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Factory pack A premium attached to a product, in or on the packaging.
Fairness Doctrine Until the mid-1980s, a Federal Communications Commission policy that required broadcasters to provide time for opposing viewpoints any time they broadcast an opinion supporting one side of a controversial issue.
Fake Copy Listings
Sometimes a malicious company will steal a web page or the entire contents
of a web site, re-publish at a different URL and register with one or more
search engines. This can cause a loss of traffic from the original site if
the search engines position the copy higher in the listings. If you find that
someone has stolen your site in this way, write to the company concerned and
ask them to remove the stolen content. Also contact the hosting service used
by the company, any company that benefits from the theft and any search engine(s)
concerned. If the thieves refuse to remove the material or ignore you, obtain
legal advice. It is also well worth having printed evidence to support your
claim that your copy of the material was there first, and that you have the
copyright! See also Mirror Sites.
False Drop
A web page retrieved from a search engine or directory which is not relevant
to the query used. This could be for one of the following reasons:
The web page contained the keywords entered, but used in the wrong context,
with a different meaning or with a different inter-relationship to that expected.
The web page is an attempt at spamdexing.
The search engine has a fault in its database or a bug in its query program.
Family Brand A
brand name that is used for more than one product, i.e., a family of products.
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. Appear often on news groups, mailing lists, forums, and technical support sites.
FAST FAST is a coalition of the Internet Advertising Bureau (), the ANA, and the ARF that has recommended or is working on guidelines for consumer privacy, ad models and creative formats, audience and ad impression measurement, and a standard reporting template together with a standard insertion order. FAST originated with Proctor and Gamble's Future of Advertising Stakeholders Summit in August 1998. FAST's first guideline, available in March 1999, was a guideline on "Basic Advertising Measures." Our definitions in this list include the FAST definitions for impression and click.
Filtering Filtering is the immediate analysis by a program of a user request to determine which ad(s) to return in the requested page. A Web page request can tell a Web site or its ad server whether it fits a certain characteristic such as coming from a particular company's address or that the user is using a particular level of browser. The Web ad server can respond accordingly.
Finger Finger is a program that tells you the name associated with an e-mail address. It may also tell you whether they are currently logon at their system or their most recent logon session and possibly other information, depending on the data that is maintained about users on that computer. Finger originated as part of BSD UNIX. To finger another Internet user, you need to have the finger program on your computer or you can go to a finger gateway on the Web and enter the e-mail address. The server at the other end must be set up to handle finger requests. A ". Plan" file can be created for any user that can be fingered. Commonly, colleges, universities, and large corporations set up a finger facility. Your own Internet access provider may also set up information about you and other subscribers that someone else can "finger." (To find out, enter your own e-mail address at a finger gateway.)
Fixed-Sum-Per-Unit Method A method of determining an advertising budget, which is based directly on the number of units sold.
Flame Send online communication involving personal attacks and/or derogatory remarks.
Flash Page
See Splash Page.
Flat-Fee Program A program that pays affiliates a predetermined amount (as opposed to a percentage) for every visitor (or first-time visitor) they send to the program-provider merchant's site.
Flat Rate A media rate that allows for no discounts.
Flight An advertising campaign on a specific Web site for a Specific time period. Also, to send out a creative to a Web site.
Fold "Above the fold," a term borrowed from print media, refers to an ad that is viewable as soon as the Web page arrives. You don't have to scroll down (or sideways) to see it. Since screen resolution can affect what is immediately viewable, it's good to know whether the Web site's audience tends to set their resolution at 640 by 480 pixels or at 800 by 600 (or higher).
Font A typeface style, such as Helvetica, Times Roman, etc., in a single size. A single font includes all 26 letters, along with punctuation, numbers, and other characters.
Font and Background
Spoofs
Various techniques used to place invisible text in a web page, to improve
positioning without affecting the appearance of the page. These are mostly
based on setting the font and background colours to the same value (e.g. white).
Most search engines now detect these tricks.
Form Part of a Web page containing one or more fields for visitors to enter their e-mail address (and/or additional information) accompanied by a Submit button that visitors click on to transfer their e-mail address and other information to you as e-mail or that automatically adds the information to your e-mail database.
Forum
Open, nonsimultaneous discussion on an online service or Web site. Operates
like new groups on the Net.
Four Ps Stands for Product, Price, Place (i.e., distribution), and Promotion.
Frames
An HTML technique for combining two or more separate HTML documents within
a single web browser screen. Compound interacting documents can be created
to make a more effective web page presented in multiple windows or sub-windows.
A framed web site often causes great problems for search engines, and may
not be indexed correctly. Search engines will often index only the part of
a framed site within the <NOFRAMES> section, so make sure that the <NOFRAMES>
section includes relevant text which can be indexed by the spiders. If your
site uses frames, consider providing a gateway page or adding navigational
links within the framed pages. Submit the main page - the one containing the
<FRAMESET> tag to the search engines. If you use a gateway page, submit
this separately.
Front-End Systems The portion of your e-business that is visible to the consumer.
FTC Federal Trade Commission. The federal agency primarily responsible for regulating national advertising.
FTP File Transfer Protocol, Method used to upload and download files between a computer and Internet servers.
Full-Service Agency An agency that handles all aspects of the advertising process, including planning, design, production, and placement. Today, full-service generally suggests that the agency also handles other aspects of marketing communication, such as public relations, sales promotion, and direct marketing.
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Gateway Page
A web page submitted to a search engine (spyder) to give the relevance-algorithm
of that particular spyder the data it needs, in the format that it needs it,
in order to place a site at the proper level of relevance for the topic(s)
in question. (This determination of topical relevance is called "placement".)
A gateway page may present information to the spyder, but obscure it from
a casual human viewer. The gateway page exists so as to allow a web-site to
present one face to the spyder, and another to human viewers. There are several
reasons why one might want to do this. One, is that the author may not want
to publicly disclose placement tactics. Another is that the format that may
be easiest for a given spyder to understand, may not be the format that the
author wishes to present to his viewers for aesthetics. Still another may
be that the format that is best for one spyder may differ from that which
is best for another. By using gateway pages, you can present your site to
each spyder in the way which is known or thought to be best for that particular
spyder. Also known as bridge pages, doorway page, entry pages, portals or
portal pages.
An example gateway page:
http://www.isquare.com/gateway.htm
Generic Brand
Products not associated with a private or national brand name.
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format. A compressed, bit-mapped graphics format most
often used to display photographic designs on the Web.
Go.com
A portal partnership between Infoseek and Disney, with search capabilities
based on the Infoseek index, at http://go.com/.
GoTo
A search engine, powered by Inktomi, which only returns one URL per domain
in its search results. Operates a "pay per click" scheme where websites can
pay to increase their relevancy. The URL is http://www.goto.com.
Gravure
A printing process that uses an etched printing cylinder.
Green Advertising
Advertising that promotes a product or service's ability to help or, more
likely, not hurt the environment.
Grid Card
A broadcast media rate card that lists rates on a grid, according to the time
periods that might be selected for the ad.
Gross Audience
The audiences of all vehicles or media in a campaign, combined. Some or much
of the gross audience may actually represent duplicated audience.
Gross Iimpressions
Total number of unduplicated people or households represented by a given media
schedule.
Gross Rating Points
(GRPs)
Reach times average frequency. This is a measure of the advertising weight
delivered by a vehicle or vehicles within a given time period.
Gross Exposures
This is another term used to define an advertisement that is viewed.
Gulliver
The name of the Northern Light Search Engine's spider.
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Hardwired
Manner of placing an ad in a fixed position on a particular Web page so that
it is delivered each time the page is downloaded.
HDML
Handheld Device Markup Language.
Heading
Many search engines give extra weight and importance to the text found inside
HTML heading sections. It is generally considered good advice to use headings
when designing web pages and to place keywords inside headings.
Hidden Text
Text on a web page which is visible to search engine spiders but not visible
to human visitors. This is sometimes because the text has been set the same
colour as the background, because multiple TITLE tags have been used or because
the text is an HTML comment. Hidden text is often used for spamdexing. Many
search engines can now detect the use of hidden text, and often remove offending
pages from their database or lower such pages' positioning.
Text can also be hidden using agent name delivery or IP delivery either to
present different text to different search engine spiders or to hide the real
HTML source from competitors. The Stealth META Tag CGI Script probably uses
this technique and is available at http://www.OutRank.com/stealth.shtml. Another
software product which hides HTML source is called Psyral Phobia and is available
at http://www.merlesworld.com/software.htm.
Hit
In the context of visitors to web pages, a hit (or site hit) is a single access
request made to the server for either a text file or a graphic. If, for example,
a web page contains ten buttons constructed from separate images, a single
visit from someone using a web browser with graphics switched on (a "page
view") will involve eleven hits on the server. (Often the accesses will not
get as far as your server because the page will have been cached by a local
internet service provider).
In the context of a search engine query, a hit is a measure of the number
of web pages matching a query returned by a search engine or directory.
Hierarchy-of-Effects
Theory
A series of steps by which consumers receive and use information in reaching
decisions about what actions they will take (e.g., whether or not to buy a
product).
Homepage Main page or welcome image for a Web site. Often shows a table of contents or refers to documents on other pages.
Hotbot
One of the largest search engines, indexing 110 million pages. Powered by
Inktomi, new submissions appear to be taking two weeks or longer to appear.
The URL is http://www.hotbot.com.
Host
To store a Web site or other data on a machine (a Web server) and deliver
(serve) its content via the Internet whenever a user requests it (by visiting
the site).
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language. Used to to author Web documents containing links,
graphics, and multimedia.
HTTP
Hyper Text Transport Protocol. Method used to transmit hypertext files.
Hyperenablement
A possible future scenario in which every function on the value chain from
manufacturer to consumer can be outsourced to a third party who participates
in a revenue share. A hyperenabled e-commerce industry would allow any company
(or person) to appear to operate an e-commerce site of grand scale.
Hyperlink
Same as link.
Hypertext
Any document with a link or links to other documents.
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ICANN
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The international organization
that manages top-level domain assignments on the Internet.
Image Advertising
Promoting the image, or general perception, of a product or service, rather
than promoting its functional attributes. Commonly used for differentiating
brands of parity products (e.g., "This is a woman's cigarette").
Image Map
A set of hyperlinks attached to areas of an image. This may be defined within
a web page, or as an external file.
If the image map is defined as an external file, search engines may have problems
indexing your other pages, unless you duplicate the links as conventional
text hyperlinks.
If the image map is included within the web page, the search engines should
have no problem following the links, although it's good practice to provide
text links too, to aid the visually impaired and those accessing the web with
graphics switched off or using text only browsers.
Impression
According to the "Basic Advertising Measures," from FAST, an ad industry group,
an impression is "The count of a delivered basic advertising unit from an
ad distribution point." Impressions are how most Web advertising is sold and
the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
Imprinted Product
A promotional product, this is a product with a company logo or advertising
message printed on it.
Inbound Link
A hypertext link to a particular page from elsewhere, bringing traffic to
that page. Inbound links are counted to produce a measure of the page popularity.
Searches for the inbound links to a page can be made on Altavista, Infoseek
and Hotbot.
Incentive
A reward, typically non-cash that an affiliate receives for sending visitors
to the program-provider merchant's site.
Incentive Catalog Company
A company that creates an incentive program for sales people, and provides
them with a catalog from which they can select their prize or premium.
Incubator
A company that specializes in the development of Internet businesses.
Independent Contractor
A person who is hired by a company, but works for himself/herself. The company
is a client, rather than an employer.
Independent Station
A broadcast station that is not affiliated with a national network of stations.
Independent Site
Not affiliated with a network.
Index
See Directory. Also refers to the database of web pages maintained by a search
engine or directory.
Industrial Advertising
A form of business-to-business advertising.This is advertising aimed at manufacturers.
Infind
A meta search engine. Found at http://www.infind.com.
Information Architecture Emerging field concerned with creating user friendly Web sites that load quickly and make it easy for visitors to locate desired information.
Information Technology
Department or subject concerned with managing business processes and information.
Informediary
A third-party content syndication or aggregator who coordinates the flow of
content created at many sources and distributed to many outlets.
Infoseek
One of the largest search engines. New sites are normally added very quickly,
within one or two business days. The URL is http://www.infoseek.com. Infoseek
is one of the few search engines to treat singular and plural forms as the
same word. Very sensitive to page popularity in its positioning algorithm.
Inktomi
The database used by some of the largest search engines, including Hotbot.
Inktomi is also used by Yahoo when no matches are found in Yahoo's own database.
Inline Ads
Either graphical, HTML-based, or a mixture of the two. They generally reside
within the flow of a page's content, although they may be placed outside the
right margin of a page. They are usually vertically oriented and may be quite
long.
Inquiries
Consumer response to a company's advertising or other promotional activities,
such as coupons. Used for measuring the effectiveness of some promotions.
Insertion Order
An insertion order is a formal, printed order to run an ad campaign. Typically,
the insertion order identifies the campaign name, the Web site receiving the
order and the planner or buyer giving the order, the individual ads to be
run (or who will provide them), the ad sizes, the campaign beginning and end
dates, the CPM, the total cost, discounts to be applied, and reporting requirements
and possible penalties or stipulations relative to the failure to deliver
the impressions.
Intensive Distribution
Distributing a product through a wide variety of outlets.
In-Pack Premium
A premium included in the packaging of another product (e.g., buy a can of
shaving cream and get a free razor in the same package). The term "Package
enclosure" is also used.
Intellectual Property
The protected ownership of rights in ideas or the expression of ideas, specifically
trademarks, service marks, copy rights, and patents.
Intelligent Agent
A software program that performs a human-style processing task, e.g., upselling
customer by suggesting additional products.
Internal Link A link within a Web site between pages, files, images, or paragraphs.
International Advertising
Advertising a product or service in a country other than where it originates.
Internalization
Involves restructuring the software used by an e-business so that it can process
foreign languages, currencies, data formats and other variations involved
in conducting business globally.
Internet Marketing
Campaign
Applying traditional marketing techniques to the Internet and incorporating
Internet-only marketing techniques such as banner advertisements and e-mail
into your marketing strategy. Marketing research advertising, promotions and
public relations all should be addresses.
InterNIC
Internet Network Information Center. Maintains the master database for domain
name registration.
Interstitial
An online display ad that appears between two destination pages.
Intranet
Internal network with Web like operations.
Inventory
Inventory is the total number of ad views or impressions that a Web site has
to sell over a given period of time (usually, inventory is figured by the
month).
IP Delivery
Similar to agent name delivery, this technique presents different content
depending on the IP address of the client. It is very difficult to view pages
hidden using this technique, because the real page is only visible if your
IP address is the same as (for example) a search engine's spider.