Dictionary of Internet and eMarketing Terms

Part III

 

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Java
A computer programming language whose programs can run on a number of different types of computer and/or operating systems. Used extensively to produce applets for web pages.

Javammercial
An online ad containing Java script for animation or other rich media.

Javascript
An simple interpreted computer language used for small programming tasks within HTML web pages. The scripts are normally interpreted (or run) on the client computer by the web browser. Some search engines have been known to index these scripts, presumably erroneously.

Keyword
A word which forms (part of) a search engine query.

Keyword Density
A property of the text in a web page which indicates how close together the keywords appear. Some search engines use this property for Positioning. Analysers are available which allow comparisons between pages. Pages can then be produced with the similar keyword densities to those found in high ranking pages.

Keyword Domain Name
The use of keywords as part of the URL to a website. Positioning is improved on some search engines when keywords are reinforced in the URL.

Keyword Phrase
A phrase which forms (part of) a search engine query.

Keyword Purchasing
The buying of search keywords from search engines, usually to control banner ad. placement. All the major search engines (except EuroSeek and GoTo) insist that keyword purchasing is only used for banner ad. placement, and doesn't influence search results. The display of banner ads. for bought keywords can be studied using a service called Bannerstake from Thomson and Thomson at http://www.namestake.com. which returns the banner ads. displayed when particular queries are used.

Keyword Stuffing
The repeating of keywords and keyword phrases in META tags or elsewhere.

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Lanham Act
Federal trademark law.

Lead Generation
The use of marketing tools, devices, or techniques to generate leads to new customers or contacts.

Learning Corporations
Relationship marketing term that describes firms that customize their products or services on the basis of their customers' preferences and previous purchases.

Legacy Site
A previous implementation of a web site with which a new site must remain compatible.

Legitimate Business Interest
Determines whether a business had reasonable interest in invading an employee's privacy.

Link
A technique in HTML that allows a user to jump from one location on the Web to another. Can occur within a site or between sites. Begins with <a href=

Link Checker
A link checker is a program that tests and reports on the validity of the hypertext link on the pages in a Web site. More advanced link checkers test links to other Web sites as well as links between pages on the same site. A link checker may be a separate program that specializes in this service, part of a larger program that provides a range of Web site publishing services, or provided periodically as a service from a remote application server.

Link Popularity
See page popularity.

Listsbot
Cross between list and robot. A type of mailbot that automatically processes requests, sending out information.

Listserver
Software that manages mailing lists on mailing list servers. Listserv and Majordomo are two of the primary mailing listservers.

Live Banners
Ads that allow users to take an action without clicking through to another site.

Local Advertising
Advertising to a local merchant or business as opposed to regional or national advertising. (2) Advertising placed at rates available to local merchants.

Local Rate
An advertising rate charged to a local advertiser, typically a retailer, by local media and publications, as distinguished from a national rate that is charged to a national advertiser, typically a manufacturer.

Localization
The customization of a Web site for different countries and/or languages.

Log File
A text file that records all activity on a server: the items that are requested (Web pages, graphics, etc.), the times they are requested, the browser used by the surfer, and other information. Traffic analysis software crunches log files to produce traffic reports that are easy to understand and use as a basis for measuring Web site success.

Logo
Name-only, paid advertisement on the Web, usually smaller and less expensive than a banner. May not link to named site.

Logotype (logo)
A brand name, publication title, or the like, presented in a special lettering style or typeface and used in the manner of a trademark.

LookSmart
A medium-sized directory. The URL is http://www.looksmart.com.

LossLeader
An item priced below the retailer's cost, meaning the merchant loses money on each unit sold. In both traditional as well as Web commerce, loss leaders are offered to draw customers into the store; where in theory they will also buy enough profitable items (during that visit or future visits). In this way, the merchant makes more money on the whole than if the customer had never stopped by.

Lurk
To participate in a news group or forum by monitoring traffic without contributing.

Lycos
One of the largest search engines, Lycos appears to be moving towards becoming a directory and is using the Open Directory for some search results. It can be slow to index new sites. The lycos spider ignores meta tags in pages. Lycos can be found at http://www.lycos.com.

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Macromarketing
A type of marketing in which a company adapts itself to uncontrollable factors within the industry.

Mailbot
Cross between mail and robot. A program that responds automatically to routine e-mail.

Mailing List
List of participants who exchange electronic mail messages regularly, usually focused in a particular topic or concern.

Mall
Virtual area on a server or online service where people can sell or advertise their good or service.

Marginal Analysis
Technique of setting the advertising budget by assuming the point at which an additional dollar spent on advertising equals additional profit.

Market Profile
A summary of the characteristics of a market, including information of typical purchasers and competitors, and often general information on the economy and retailing patterns of an area.

Market Segmentation
To divide a market by a strategy directed at gaining a major portion of sales to a subgroup in a category rather than a more limited share of purchases by all category users

Market Share
The percentage of a product category's sales, in terms of dollars or units, obtained by a brand, line, or company.

Marketing Firm
A business that affects the distribution and sales of goods and services from producer to consumer; including products or service development, pricing, packaging, advertising, merchandising, and distribution.

Marketing Mix
The levels and interplay of the elements of a product's or service's marketing efforts, including product features, pricing, packaging, advertising, merchandising, distribution, and marketing budget; especially as these elements affect sales results.

Marketing Research
The systematic gathering, recording, analyzing, and use of data relating to the transfer and sale of goods and services from producer to consumer.

Marketplace
A term often used to describe B2B exchange.

Materiality
The FTC theoretically will not regulate a deceptive advertisement unless the deceptive claim is also material. This means, in simple terms, that the claim must be important to consumers, rather than trivial. The FTC requires that the deception be likely to affect consumers' "choice of, or conduct regarding, a product."

Media Broker
Since it's often not efficient for an advertiser to select every Web site it wants to put ads on, media brokers aggregate sites for advertisers and their media planners and buyers, based on demographics and other factors.

Media Kit
Online or off-line package of information for potential advertisers, including ad sizes, rates, demographics, submission information, and contact names.

Merchant
A person or company that sells products or services directly on the Web.

Merchant Accounts
An arrangement with a commercial bank or card issuer that permits a business to accept credit card payments and deposit those payments, less charges, to its bank account.

Message Board
Allows users to post messages on part of a Web site, such as a forum or electronic bulletin board, for others to read.

Metacrawler
A meta search engine found at http://www.metacrawler.com. Results from various search engines are summarised in an easy to read form.

Metafind
A meta search engine found at http://www.metafind.com.

Meta-Indexes
Large category-based indexes of sites on the Web, usually arranged alphabetically within topics. Compare to search engine.

Meta Search
A search of searches. A query is submitted to more than one search engine or directory, and results are reported from all the engines, possibly after removal of duplicates and sorting. Also the meta search engine of the same name, found at http://www.metasearch.com.

Meta Search Engine
A server which passes queries on to many search engines and/or directories and then summarises all the results. Ask Jeeves, Dogpile, Infind, Metacrawler, Metafind and Metasearch are examples of meta search engines.

Meta tag
A construct placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information which is not visible to browsers. The most common meta tags (and those most relevant to search engines) are KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION.
The KEYWORDS tag allows the author to emphasise the importance of certain words and phrases used within the page. Some search engines will respond to this information - others will ignore it. Don't use quotes around the keywords or keyphrases.
The DESCRIPTION tag allows the author to control the text of the summary displayed when the page appears in the results of a search. Again, some search engines will ignore this information.
The HTTP-EQUIV meta tag is used to issue HTTP commands, and is frequently used with the REFRESH tag to refresh page content after a given number of seconds. Gateway pages sometimes use this technique to force browsers to a different page or site. Most search engines are wise to this, and will index the final page and/or reduce the ranking. Infoseek has a strong policy against this technique, and they might penalize your site, or even ban it. Other common meta tags are GENERATOR (usually advertising the software used to generate the page) and AUTHOR (used to credit the author of the page, and often containing e-mail address, homepage URL and other information).

Micropayment
On the Web, micropayment is a business concept whose goal is to generate revenue by offering pay-per-view Web pages, Web links, or Web services for small amounts of money called "microcents". Since it is not practical for individual users to charge small amounts of money (such as a penny or a fraction of a penny) to a major charge card, a different method of payment is needed for sites that wish to go "micro". Several methods of micropayment collection are being examined, many of which involve encoding per-fee-links inside HTML pages and some kind of Internet wallet account where individuals would establish a cash balance with a third-party application that would monitor, collect, and distribute micropayments.

Mining Company
A large directory spread over many different URLs The main URL is http://www.miningco.com.

Mirror
Copy and display the material from one Web site on another.

Mirror Sites
Multiple copies of web sites or web pages, often on different servers. The process of registering these multiple copies with search engines is often treated as spamdexing, because it artificially increases the relevancy of the pages. Filters such as the Infoseek Sniffer now remove multiple mirrors from the indexes.

Misspellings
People quite often spell words incorrectly when using search engines. Pages which use common misspellings will quite often receive extra hits, so it is a useful technique to include common misspellings of words in alt tags, keywords, page names and titles. A similar effect occurs when spaces are left out and words are accidentally joined together.

Mobile Business
E-business using wireless devices accessing the Internet any time, anywhere.

Mobile Internet
Internet access over wireless devices.

Moderated
News groups or forums checked by an individual with the authority to censor messages.

Mouse-Over
In JavaScript or DHTML, the element that changes an item (usually graphic) on a Web page when the cursor moves across or hovers over it; usually signifies a link.

MultiCrawl
A parallel search engine which offers users their own branded versions. http://www.multicrawl.com.

Multiple Domain Names
The use of several extra domains to provide gateway pages or gateway sites to the main site.

Multiple Keyword Tags
The use of more than one Keywords META tag in order to try to increase the relevancy of the best keywords on a page. This is not recommended. It may be detected as a spamming technique, or all but one of the tags may simply be ignored.

Multiple Titles
It used to be possible to repeat the HTML title tag in the header section of a page several times to improve search engine positioning. Most search engines now detect this trick.

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Name-Your-Price Model
Empowers customers to state the price they are willing to pay for products and services.

Navigation
The underlying structure of your Web site, referring to the way pages are linked to each other either through a graphic navigation bar or text links (generally underlined and in blue). Your Web site succeeds to the extent it is easy for visitors to intuitively locate desired information.

NAD
National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. This organization serves as a major self-regulatory mechanism for advertising.

NARB
National Advertising Review Board of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. When an alleged problem arises with an advertisement, and a satisfactory solution is not obtained via the NAD, above, the NARB acts in the capacity of an appeals board. It reviews the decision of the NAD, and passes judgment on it.

National Advertising
Advertising which is aimed at a National Market, as opposed to Local Advertising.

National Brand
A nationally distributed product brand name. May also be distributed regionally or locally.

Near-Pack (Near Pack Premium)
An item offered free or at a discount with the purchase of another product. The item can be positioned close to but may not touch the purchased product. A type of product promotion.

Net Cost
The costs associated with services rendered by an advertising agency excluding the agency commission.

Netfind
See AOL Netfind.

Net Unduplicated Audience
The combined cumulative audience exposed to an advertisement.

Netiquette
Guidelines for appropriate communication in news groups and mailing lists.

Network address
Electronic mail address or address of a host machine.

NewHoo
See the Open Directory Project.

News Group
Open discussion groups on Usenet. Requires a full-service Internet account and news group readers software provided by an ISP or browser.

Nonlink
Advertisement on the Web without a hypertext link. Usually less expensive than a linked ad.

Northern Light
A search engine with an additional "pay to access" special collection of business, health and consumer publication articles. The first search engine to ban meta search engines from its database. The URL is http://www.northernlight.com.

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O/C Ratio The abbreviation for orders per click.

Offer The term of the deal offered to an affiliate by a merchant. These can include commission based on a percentage of the sale, a flat fee paid for each impression, or click-though, something more exotic (like noncash incentives), or a combination of these. The details of a merchant's offer are typically provided either by the merchant or by the affiliate solutions provider representing the merchants after an affiliate has been approved to join the merchant's program.

Online Contracting Services Allow businesses to post position for which they want to hire outside resources, and individuals can identify projects that best suit their interest, schedules and skills.

Open Content Information on pages assessable to any visitor to your Web site.

Open Directory Project
A directory project run by thousands of volunteer editors. In principal, this is a very exciting and powerful way to organise the web. In practice, there have been some problems with the behaviour of some of the editors, which has caused some initial difficulty for the organisers. Initially known as NewHoo, the project is now part of Netscape (and therefore of AOL). See http://directory.mozilla.org.

Open Text
A large business-only directory. The URL is http://www.opentext.com.

Optimization
Changes made to a web page to improve the positioning of that page with one or more search engines. A means of helping potential customers or visitors to find a web site. Optimization may involve design/layout changes, new text for the title-tags, meta-tags, alt- attributes, headings, and changes to the first 200-250 words of the main text. A large image map at the top of a page should be moved further down the page. Frames should be avoided (unless navigational links are also provided within the frames).

Opt-In Mailing List An electronic mailing list to which a viewer must actively choose to subscribe before receiving it. If offered a choice, the default is not to subscribe.

Opt-Out Mailing List An electronic mailing list to which a viewer must unsubscribe to stop receipt. If offered a choice, the default is subscription. Considered a violation of Netiquette.

Outbound Link viewed from the target business site, a one-way link going to another site. Sometimes called an external link.

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