Glossary: Access eCommerce Guide

Glossary

Stumped by new Internet or ecommerce jargon? Try using Webopedia or visit Whatis.com. Webopedia's definitions are a bit easier for non-techies while WhatIs targets a nerdier audience. Both include links to related articles and websites.



By keyword...

Content Management:

Blog: Webpages that are constantly updated with new commentary and links about a particular topic. Often very personal.
Bookmark or Favorite: A link to a WWW page that is stored by a browser for later retrieval.
Collaborative filtering: Selecting content based on the preferences of people with similar interests.
Content Management System (CMS): A tool used to organize data. Some are very elaborate and expensive; some are free and easy to use. The trick is finding the best and most affordable CMS for your organization.
Internet Content: Information that (a) is widely available, (b) can be customized by users, (c) flows between and among many users, (d) allows users to interact, and (e) enables users to become producers of information.
K-Logs: Weblogs for knowledge management and collaborative groupware within businesses and organizations.
Local Content: Information that is specific to a community, neighborhood, or area, such as businesses, housing, neighborhood services, and recreation activities.
Source: Contentbank.org
Personalization: Generating custom content or presentations for web users.
Source: CRSWatch
Web-Based Tools: Tools on the Internet that allow users to do many things, such as compose a resume from scratch or create an investment plan.
Source: Contentbank.org

Ecommerce:

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): The analysis and redesign of business processes and management systems required by new technology, such as electronic commerce.
Credit Card Processors: Companies that provide online or real-time processing services.
Debit Card: ATM card for accessing personal bank accounts.
Digital Cash or Coins: Cash credits that are bought and stored on one's computer and subsequently used to make online purchases.
Digital Certificates: Electronic affidavit issued by a certification authority, like a bank, that validates the identity of an individual or business. Digital certificates are used to verify digital signatures. Verisign is an important Internet based certification authority.
Digital or Virtual Wallet: Locally stored software containing encrypted payment and billing information used to purchase goods online.
Digital Signature: Encryption process that validates the identity of a signer and ensures that a message has not been altered. It is not a digitized version of a handwritten signature. Digital signatures employ public key cryptography along with digital certificates.
Electronic Check or Echeck: An electronic version of a paper check.
Electronic Commerce: The use of communications technology for business transactions and activities.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): The exchange of standardized documents between computer systems for business use.
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): Technology that transfers funds from the bank account of one person or organization to that of another.
G-Commerce: Ecommerce applied to government. Government as both purchaser and seller.
M-commerce: Mobile commerce using wireless devices
Merchant Account: An arrangement with a bank that enables merchants to accept credit card payments.
Micropayments: See digital cash
Presentment: The process of electronic billing via web or email statements.
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): A standard set of protocols for secure Internet credit card transactions (encryption, digital signatures, certificates and third party validation services).
Shopping Cart: Software that enables visitors to purchase goods and services online with a credit card.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SME): Small and medium sized enterprises (SME)
Smart Card: A plastic card containing a computer chip that holds large amounts of information, performs some processing and is tamper resistant. Smart cards could create and store private signing keys or be used for other essential electronic commerce tasks.
Socialprise: Combines terms: social tools + enterprise to describe new way of doing business
Source: ReadWriteWeb

Internet:

Abandonware: Out-of-print and no longer for sale software especially games.
American Standard for Computer Information Interchange (ASCII): A standard for representing text and punctuation numerically. ASCII is often used to mean plain text as opposed to binary files.
Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. For digital devices, the bandwidth is usually expressed in bits or bytes per second (bps).
Binary: A number system based on two. Computers are based on the binary system. Binary is also used to describe non-ASCII files. Binary settings are required to download software programs, graphics, spreadsheets and word processor files from the Net.
Broadband: High-speed Internet connections that allow for transfers of information at rates far faster than those of dial-up modems
Browser: Client software for viewing accessing webpages.
Client/Server: Software that can operate on multiple platforms or machines. Clients request services from other computers called servers. For example, web browsers request pages from web servers on the Internet.
Crawler: A software program which visits websites to create indexes for search engines. Also known as spiders, bots, and intelligent agents.
Cyber Cafe: A public place offering Internet access for a fee.
Digital Divide: The gap in opportunities experienced by those with limited accessibility to technology especially, the Internet.
Disintermediation: It means: "getting rid of the middle-men" but sounds more impressive.
Domain Name Server (DNS): Translates domain names into numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
Ego surfing: Looking to see how many places on the Web your name or company appears
eGovernment: The use of technology by government to interact with citizens, improve services and streamline operations.
Source: e-Texas
Extranet or Virtual Private Network: Gives important customers and suppliers access to private websites and secure databases.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): The standard Internet protocol for transferring files from one computer to another.
Flame: Insulting another person via email--often on a public or special interest mailing list.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): A set of answers to frequently asked questions.
Host: The computer where an Internet service is physically stored.
Infonesia / Internesia: Infonesia is the inability to remember where you spotted a piece of information (newspaper, e-mail, TV, etc.). Internesia is when you can't remember which Web site the info came from or which bookmark might get you back there.
Source: BuzzWhack
Internet: A global collection of interconnected regional computer networks supporting the exchange of data.
Internet Protocol (IP): The rules governing how computers on the Internet communicate and share information.
Internet Service Provider (ISP or IP): A provider of Internet access
Internet Time: Shorthand for the accelerated pace of business and life brought about by networks and eBusiness.
Source: Jay Cross, Internet Time Group
Intranet: An internal company computer network that uses the same protocols as the Internet but is protected by security firewalls from unauthorized access.
Link rot: Term used to describe the frustrating and frequent problem caused by the constant changing in URLs.
Source: Glossary of Internet & Web Jargon
Lists: Email linked special interest groups. Bi-directional lists enable subscribers to discuss various topics via email. Uni-directional lists support mailings to a group of interested subscribers but do not permit the subscribers to send their own messages to the list.
Local Area Network (LAN): A linked system of computers, printers, and file servers that serve a company or office at a single location. Wide-Area Networks (WANs) offer data transmission to a number of locations.
Multimedia: Sound and graphic files. Much of the popularity of the World Wide Web is due to the easy integration of text and multimedia.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): MIME supports the transmission of text and binary data (including sound and graphics) via the Internet.
Netcafe: An establishment that provides a non-library study and play environment with access to computers, internet resources, and food services.
Source: pseudodictionary
Netiquette: A code of acceptable behavior on the Internet.
Newsgroups: Topical discussion groups that are part of Usenet.
P2P: Peer-to-Peer: Decentralized file sharing, computation, communication, and more.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P): Decentralized file sharing, computation, communication, and more.
Plug-ins: Third party software that adds new features to an existing program. A number of plug-ins are available for popular web browsers.
Portal: An electronic gateway or starting point that helps users organize the Web based on their interests. (Usually includes a range of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls.)
Source: e-Texas
Protocol: Rules governing the exchange data between computers and networks.
Real-time: Instantaneous or very rapid response. For example, stockbrokers require real-time market quotes, but casual investors may be satisfied with Yahoo's 15 minute delayed quotes.
Registration: A number of websites require registration. Usually registration is free and involves filling out a form and receiving or selecting a password.
Search Engine: A service that provides access to a searchable database of website addresses and descriptions. Example: www.google.com
SERP: Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search. The major search engines typically display three kinds of listings on their SERPs. Listings that have been indexed by the search engines spider, listings that have been indexed into the search engines directory by a human, and listings that are paid to be listed by the search engine.
Source: Webopedia
Server: A computer that stores files on a network. Clients can access servers for a variety of types of information, such as, webpages, text, and binary files.
Spam: Unsolicited and usually unwelcome email
Spim: Unwanted commercial messages sent via instant messaging systems (Spam for SMS)
Teleworking: Using information and communications technologies to perform work away from the traditional office at alternate worksites (Same as telecommuting)
Source: Consumer Electronics Association: About CEA
Uniform Resource Locators (URL): Used to identify the location of network resources like webpages. Example: http://www.my_company.com/
USENET: A worldwide network of newsgroups (special interest groups) not on the Internet but often available via networked computers.
Vanity domain: An Internet domain created for no other reason than to boost the creator's ego.
Source: Lingowatch
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol): A set of communication protocols for linking wireless devices, such as cellular mobile telephones, PDAs, etc. to the Internet.
WINWINI: Means "what I need when I need it."
Source: Carl Berger
World Wide Web (WWW): A hypertext document and network navigation tool.
X Internet or X-Internet: The extended Internet is reshaping businesses through Internet devices and applications that sense, analyze, and control what is going on in the real world.
Source: Forrester

Marketing:

AIDA: A mnemonic for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, denoting the progressive steps of customer reaction in the process of making a sale. Dates from the late nineteenth century.
Source: Kamwords
Cookie buster: Software that blocks the placement of cookies on a user computer.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Cookies: Small data fragments left on a user's computer by a website that can be used to track web sessions. A building block of website personalization.
Hit: Measurement of how many times a webpage or file has been accessed. Not particularly reliable.
Internal page impressions: Web site activity that is generated by individuals with IP addresses known to be affiliated with the Web site owner. Internal activity that is associated with administration and maintenance of the site should be excluded from the traffic or measurement report.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Interstitials: Web page ads that pop-up before page loads.
Log file: Record of web server transactions containing: date/time stamp, URL served, IP address of requestor, status code of request, user agent string, previous URL of requestor, etc.
Mass customization: The ability to personalize information distributed to large groups.
Source: e-Texas
Meme: Contagious ideas. Term is used to explain viral marketing.
Source: Meme Central
Opt-in or Opt-out: If you choose to receive information by e-mail or direct mail, you opt-in to be included on the mailing list. If you remove yourself from the list, you opt-out.
Permission Marketing: Getting people to give you permission to market to them via the Internet.
Profiling: The practice of tracking information about consumers' interests by monitoring their movements online. This can be done without using any personal information, but simply by analyzing the content, URL
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Session cookies: Cookies placed on user's computer for duration of visit to a site
Social-norms marketing: The science of persuading people to go along with the crowd. Successfully used to persuade college students to limit party drinking.
Source: NY Times
Stickiness: A measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining individual users. Stickiness is usually measured by the duration of the visit.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Traffic: The number of visits and/or visitors who come to a website.
Viral Marketing: Creating a buzz so that users spread the information for you via word-of-mouth, email, or links on Blogs or websites.
Web Bugs: Web bugs are images used on webpages and email messages to enable marketers to gather data about users.

Security:

Authentication: A process that verifies a user's identity. Examples: digital certificates or passwords.
Carnivore: FBI's Internet surveillance system for monitoring e-mail.
Dark Address Space: For a variety of reasons ranging from contract disputes among network operators to simple router misconfiguration, over five percent of the Internet's routable address space lacks global connectivity.
Source: Arbor Networks
Data matching: Comparing different sets of personal data collected for unrelated purposes. Government agencies may use data matching to verify identity, detect fraud, and assist in law enforcement.
Decryption: The process of unscrambling a message to make it readable. See also encryption.
Emal: Malicious email
Encryption: The process of scrambling a message to prevent unauthorized access. This security measure transforms data into a less easily read code. See also decryption.
Firewall: Computer gateway (including hardware, software and procedures) that protects a company's computer network by filtering connections and transmissions between the local system and the Internet.
Function creep: ...how Information Age surveillance and monitoring systems, built and bought for a benign use, can subtly be shifted to sinister purposes.
Source: John Woodward
Hacktivists: Political activists who take their battle for a cause on-line and attack targets by stealing or destroying information stored on computer systems, defacing Web pages, swamping message systems or planting harmful computer viruses.
Source: Lingowatch
Identity Management Services: Trusted hosts provide user friendly but secure access to personal information such as credit card numbers. Example: Microsoft's Passport.
Identity theft: Identity theft occurs when an unscrupulous person gathers enough information about you to successfully impersonate you online, by mail, over the telephone, or in person.
Source: Internet Safety Awareness
Phishing: Using official-looking email to lure individuals to a scam website in order to obtain their banking or credit card information for use in identity theft. Legitimate companies do not send these requests to their customers.
Privacy policy: A statement about what information is being collected; how the information being collected is being used; how an individual can access his/her own data collected; how the individual can opt-out; and what security measures are being taken by the parties collecting the data.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Private Key: A secret mathematical key used to create a digital signature or decrypt messages or files. Private keys are secret and can only be used by their owners.
Public Key: A widely available mathematical key used for encrypting or decrypting messages. The current electronic check demonstration projects use a combination of private and public keys to ensure the security and authenticity of data transmissions.
Security: Protection from intended and unintended access to computer systems that could result in the loss or dissemination of data.
Social Engineering: Techniques are used to obtain passwords, addresses, and other information that can be used to attack a computer system.
Steganography: The process of hiding communication in encoded messages. Can use digital images to do so. Spyware. See digital watermark.

Social Media:

Avatars: Images used to represent people in virtual worlds
Mashup: A mixture of different web services, for example, Google maps and a real estate database
Podcast: Audio content syndicated via RSS feeds
RSS: System used for syndicating web content - really simple syndication
Socal bookmarking: Sharing web bookmarks via a web service
Social media: Tools and services used to publish and share content online: blogs, wikis, photosharing sites, social networks
Startpage: User designed browser homepage
Tag: Keyword or term used to describe something
Widget: A small, single purpose program that can be embedded in blogs or websites
Wiki: A platform for collaborative editing of content, for example, Wikipedia

Web Design:

Above the fold: Newspapers: The most valuable space is the portion that appears at the top of a folded newspaper. Web: The most valuable space is at the top of the page and doesn't require scrolling.
ASP. Active Server Page: A Web technology for providing dynamic content pages.
CobWeb: A Web page that hasn't been updated in a long time, as in Don't bother visiting Rip Van Winkle's home page -- it's a real CobWeb.
Source: Lingowatch
Common Gateway Interface (CGI): Permits programming languages to add a higher level of interactivity to a website.
Fold: An ad or content that is viewable as soon as the Web page arrives. One does not have to scroll down (or sideways) to see it. Since screen resolution can affect what is immediately viewable, it is good to know whether the Web site's audience tends to set their resolution at 640 x 480 pixels or at 800 x 600 (or higher).
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Frames: Multiple, independent sections used to create a single Web page. Each frame is built as a separate HTML file but with one "master" file to control the placement of each section.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Graphical user interface (GUI): Invented at Xerox Parc and implemented first by Apple. Expands input from just the keyboard to mouse and touch-screen. Icons, menus, and desktop help the user move about a webpage, screen, application, or computer itself.
Homepage: The top or root page on a website, usually the first page visited.
Hypertext: Text containing internal and external links or pointers to other texts or services.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): A mark-up language for World Wide Web pages. Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP) employs public key technology to protect sensitive data.
Portable Document Format (PDF): A translation format developed by Adobe used primarily for distributing files across a network, or on a Web site. Files with a .pdf extension have been created in another application and then translated into .pdf files so they can be viewed by anyone, regardless of platform.
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau
Shelfware: Software that is purchased but never learned or used.
Splash page: A glitzy entry page that offers few options to the user. Sometimes used to identify browser and re-direct the user to a browser specific page.
Standard Generalized Markup Language: SGML is mother of all markup languages. HTML and XML are subsets of SGML. Why do we need subsets? Because SGML is powerful but difficult to use.
Under Construction: The permanent state of everything on the Web. Or, a lame apology for not having very good pages--an expression of good intentions for the future, with no relevance to your readers today.
Source: Rob Jellinghaus
Web Service: A method of making various applications communicate with each other automatically over the Internet.
Source: Infoworld
Web site: A collection of files accessed through a Web address, covering a particular subject and managed by a particular person or organization.
Source: e-Texas
Website: A collection of files accessed through a Web address, covering a particular subject and managed by a particular person or organization.
Source: e-Texas
XML: Extensible Markup Language "allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations."
Source: Webopedia