Glossary of Internet Terms »
Print friendly
Affiliate program – A revenue-sharing program where the affiliate web site drives traffic to the merchant site, and in doing so receives a bounty or other incentive for that user’s purchases, membership signups, clickthroughs, etc. on the merchant site through that link or banner. Also known as "pay for performance". Amazon.com Associates program is one of the most famous affiliate program examples.
Boolean logic – Useful in refining search engine queries, such as when using Deja News. Examples include "and," "or," and "not."
Chat – An environment where Internet users can gather in public and/or private "rooms" and discuss topics in real time. Each participant can see what the other participants type as they type it.
Collaborative filtering – A virtual environment where users with similar tastes and psychographics make intelligent recommendations to each other. Users rate the degree to which they like or dislike specific things such as artists, authors, movies, books, restaurants or music CDs. The collaborative filtering software (Firefly, for example) then finds the user's "nearest neighbors" and recommends these users’ favorite artists, authors, etc. to that user.
Conditional include – An "if-then" programming statement that is executed, the results of which are displayed on a dynamic Web page. Used in "rules-based" personalization.
Cookie – An identifier stored in a file on your hard drive by a Web site via your Web browser. This identifier is used to track the user (actually it can only identify the computer and not the individual user) during the visit and to recognize that user on subsequent visits. A cookie is only a digital tag; it can not by itself give the Web server your email address, name, or other identity information. However, if you at some point in your visits to the site fill out a form giving your name or email address, it is then possible for the Web server to associate this information with your cookie.
Email list (listserv) - An online discussion group conducted over email. Posted messages to a list are received by participants in their email box, which is known to potentially yield untidy, overflowing email boxes. Posted messages do not get deleted automatically (as is the case for a newsgroup); instead they collect in your mailbox until you delete them. Has the benefit over newsgroups and Web-based discussion groups of being on a ubiquitous system, i.e. nearly all Internet users have email access, whereas only a portion of them have access to the Web or Usenet. To locate an email list on a particular topic of interest, check out the fairly comprehensive list of email mailing lists at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml
Email notification service – An email announcement or reminder, often times personalized to the individual recipient. For example, Amazon.com will notify you by email when a new book comes out by one of your favorite authors or in a genre of interest to you.
Encryption – A security mechanism that codes Web and/or email transmissions. Most Web browsers and servers use a type of Web site encryption called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Email communications can be encrypted using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), for instance.
Extranet – An access-restricted Web site similar to an intranet, but opened up to additional business partners, such as customers, distributors, and/or suppliers.
FAQ - a compendium of Frequently Asked Questions with answers. Such a document or series of documents is meant to reduce the amount of repeatedly asked questions on newsgroups, email lists, and Web sites. Not all newsgroups have a FAQ, although a great many do. Newsgroup FAQs are posted periodically in the corresponding newsgroup and in the newsgroup news.answers (news:news.answers). You can search through most FAQs by visiting the Infoseek Web site at http://www.infoseek.com; once there, just select "Web FAQs" from the pull-down menu and type a keyword.
Flaming - a countermeasure frequently used by irate recipients of spams. Hate emails, sometimes a barrage of them, are sent to the guilty spammer.
Intranet – An internal Web site for employee purposes. A typical intranet might support the electronic submission of vacation request forms and other HR forms, as well as viewing and searching the employee handbook, employee directory, competitive intelligence information, customer lists, etc.
IP address – An "Internet phone number," so to speak. Each computer on the Internet has its own unique IP address, although typically with "dial-up" Internet accounts through an ISP (Internet Service Provider), that address is usually different each time the connection to the ISP is made.
IP authentication – A security mechanism that allows access to a Web site or Internet service based on the user’s IP address.
IP blocking – A security mechanism that refuses access to a Web site or Internet service based on the user’s IP address.
IRC – Internet Relay Chat. Separate from the Web, IRC offers public and private "rooms" where users can gather and type text messages to each other in real time.
Meta-search engines – A search engine of multiple web sites or multiple search engines. The search engine is created by sending a "web crawler" or "spider" to explore and index entire web sites, thus creating a full-text search engine of a group of other sites out on the Net. Can be used to search your competitors’ sites, relevant industry sites, suppliers’ sites, etc.
META tag – Hidden information (HTML code) about a web page, such as keywords or a description, that is picked up by search engines (such as Infoseek) and used in ranking pages in the search engine.
Moderated - a discussion group (either newsgroup or email list) where all messages must be approved by the moderator before getting posted to the group. A moderated discussion group can be a welcome break from the spamming (see below) that is running rampant on Usenet and email.
Netiquette - An unspoken set of rules (guidelines) on how to market by email and Usenet. It includes adding value and refraining from blatant advertising. And spamming is definitely at the top of the list of no-no's!
Newsgroup - An online discussion group in a part of the Internet called Usenet. Separate from the World Wide Web and email, Usenet offers over 50,000 of these newsgroups, all on distinctly different topics, ranging from downhill skiing, to French culture, to computer graphics software, to marketing, and much much more. To access Usenet newsgroups, select "Netscape News" under the Window menu, then "Show All Newsgroups" under the Options menu, and finally click on a newsgroup name that may be of interest to you from the heirarchically organized list. Or if you already know the name of the newsgroup, you may subscribe to it by choosing "Add Newsgroup" from under the File menu in Netscape and typing the name in when prompted. Or, type "news:{newsgroup-name}" as the Location (Web address) in your Web browser (e.g. "news:rec.travel.bed+breakfast"). Messages older than several weeks get deleted automatically, so you'll need to access your newsgroups of interest fairly frequently in order not to miss anything. Searchable archives of all the postings to all the newsgroups are offered for free on the DejaNews Web site at http://www.dejanews.com. DejaNews also allows you to locate newsgroups on particular topics of interest.
Offline browser – A software product that downloads entire web sites for later viewing offline. Some offline browsers can be set up to download a competitor’s web site every night (or week, or other interval) and compare this with the previous night’s version to identify and flag pages which have been added, changed, or deleted.
Personal agent – A program installed on the Internet user’s local hard drive that queries and surfs the Web for information of possible interest to that user.
Personalization – Tailoring the content of a Web site based on the user’s profile, surfing patterns, buying patterns, or other variables. "Mass customization." Several types of personalization exist: rules-based personalization which is based on conditional includes, and collaborative filtering.
Ping – A command that sends "packets" of test data to a particular machine on the Internet to determine if that machine is "alive" on the Internet. Pinging, the act of querying a machine to determine if it is "alive," should not be confused with the hacker activity of "pinging" (waging a "denial of service" attack on a server, i.e. attempting to crash the server).
Push – Instead of the user pulling information from the Web, information is "pushed" or broadcast to the user. Users can subscribe to "channels" that they receive with a push client, such as Pointcast.
Reverse DNS lookup – A command that takes an IP address and looks up its associated domain name.
Spamming - the unscrupulous tactic of sending unwanted and irrelevant messages to newsgroups, email lists and individuals' email boxes, i.e. junk e-mailing. The messages themselves are referred to as "spams". Spammers often get flamed (see below).
Spider – A search engine that indexes one or more Web sites, exploring all the links local to the site starting from the main page. (see meta-search engine)
Traceroute – A command that traces a "packet" of data as it travels across the Internet.
Web forum – An online discussion group conducted over a Web site. The viewing and posting of messages is done on the Web site, rather than via email or Usenet.
Whiteboarding application – a program that allows a group of Internet users to draw diagrams, make notes, etc. on a communal whiteboard that all the participants can see.
Whois – A command that queries the domain database that InterNIC administers. A whois query can display whether a particular domain name is available, and the owner of the domain name along with contact information. It can also display a list of domains owned by a particular organization.
Affiliate program – A revenue-sharing program where the affiliate web site drives traffic to the merchant site, and in doing so receives a bounty or other incentive for that user’s purchases, membership signups, clickthroughs, etc. on the merchant site through that link or banner. Also known as "pay for performance". Amazon.com Associates program is one of the most famous affiliate program examples.
Boolean logic – Useful in refining search engine queries, such as when using Deja News. Examples include "and," "or," and "not."
Chat – An environment where Internet users can gather in public and/or private "rooms" and discuss topics in real time. Each participant can see what the other participants type as they type it.
Collaborative filtering – A virtual environment where users with similar tastes and psychographics make intelligent recommendations to each other. Users rate the degree to which they like or dislike specific things such as artists, authors, movies, books, restaurants or music CDs. The collaborative filtering software (Firefly, for example) then finds the user's "nearest neighbors" and recommends these users’ favorite artists, authors, etc. to that user.
Conditional include – An "if-then" programming statement that is executed, the results of which are displayed on a dynamic Web page. Used in "rules-based" personalization.
Cookie – An identifier stored in a file on your hard drive by a Web site via your Web browser. This identifier is used to track the user (actually it can only identify the computer and not the individual user) during the visit and to recognize that user on subsequent visits. A cookie is only a digital tag; it can not by itself give the Web server your email address, name, or other identity information. However, if you at some point in your visits to the site fill out a form giving your name or email address, it is then possible for the Web server to associate this information with your cookie.
Email list (listserv) - An online discussion group conducted over email. Posted messages to a list are received by participants in their email box, which is known to potentially yield untidy, overflowing email boxes. Posted messages do not get deleted automatically (as is the case for a newsgroup); instead they collect in your mailbox until you delete them. Has the benefit over newsgroups and Web-based discussion groups of being on a ubiquitous system, i.e. nearly all Internet users have email access, whereas only a portion of them have access to the Web or Usenet. To locate an email list on a particular topic of interest, check out the fairly comprehensive list of email mailing lists at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml
Email notification service – An email announcement or reminder, often times personalized to the individual recipient. For example, Amazon.com will notify you by email when a new book comes out by one of your favorite authors or in a genre of interest to you.
Encryption – A security mechanism that codes Web and/or email transmissions. Most Web browsers and servers use a type of Web site encryption called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Email communications can be encrypted using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), for instance.
Extranet – An access-restricted Web site similar to an intranet, but opened up to additional business partners, such as customers, distributors, and/or suppliers.
FAQ - a compendium of Frequently Asked Questions with answers. Such a document or series of documents is meant to reduce the amount of repeatedly asked questions on newsgroups, email lists, and Web sites. Not all newsgroups have a FAQ, although a great many do. Newsgroup FAQs are posted periodically in the corresponding newsgroup and in the newsgroup news.answers (news:news.answers). You can search through most FAQs by visiting the Infoseek Web site at http://www.infoseek.com; once there, just select "Web FAQs" from the pull-down menu and type a keyword.
Flaming - a countermeasure frequently used by irate recipients of spams. Hate emails, sometimes a barrage of them, are sent to the guilty spammer.
Intranet – An internal Web site for employee purposes. A typical intranet might support the electronic submission of vacation request forms and other HR forms, as well as viewing and searching the employee handbook, employee directory, competitive intelligence information, customer lists, etc.
IP address – An "Internet phone number," so to speak. Each computer on the Internet has its own unique IP address, although typically with "dial-up" Internet accounts through an ISP (Internet Service Provider), that address is usually different each time the connection to the ISP is made.
IP authentication – A security mechanism that allows access to a Web site or Internet service based on the user’s IP address.
IP blocking – A security mechanism that refuses access to a Web site or Internet service based on the user’s IP address.
IRC – Internet Relay Chat. Separate from the Web, IRC offers public and private "rooms" where users can gather and type text messages to each other in real time.
Meta-search engines – A search engine of multiple web sites or multiple search engines. The search engine is created by sending a "web crawler" or "spider" to explore and index entire web sites, thus creating a full-text search engine of a group of other sites out on the Net. Can be used to search your competitors’ sites, relevant industry sites, suppliers’ sites, etc.
META tag – Hidden information (HTML code) about a web page, such as keywords or a description, that is picked up by search engines (such as Infoseek) and used in ranking pages in the search engine.
Moderated - a discussion group (either newsgroup or email list) where all messages must be approved by the moderator before getting posted to the group. A moderated discussion group can be a welcome break from the spamming (see below) that is running rampant on Usenet and email.
Netiquette - An unspoken set of rules (guidelines) on how to market by email and Usenet. It includes adding value and refraining from blatant advertising. And spamming is definitely at the top of the list of no-no's!
Newsgroup - An online discussion group in a part of the Internet called Usenet. Separate from the World Wide Web and email, Usenet offers over 50,000 of these newsgroups, all on distinctly different topics, ranging from downhill skiing, to French culture, to computer graphics software, to marketing, and much much more. To access Usenet newsgroups, select "Netscape News" under the Window menu, then "Show All Newsgroups" under the Options menu, and finally click on a newsgroup name that may be of interest to you from the heirarchically organized list. Or if you already know the name of the newsgroup, you may subscribe to it by choosing "Add Newsgroup" from under the File menu in Netscape and typing the name in when prompted. Or, type "news:{newsgroup-name}" as the Location (Web address) in your Web browser (e.g. "news:rec.travel.bed+breakfast"). Messages older than several weeks get deleted automatically, so you'll need to access your newsgroups of interest fairly frequently in order not to miss anything. Searchable archives of all the postings to all the newsgroups are offered for free on the DejaNews Web site at http://www.dejanews.com. DejaNews also allows you to locate newsgroups on particular topics of interest.
Offline browser – A software product that downloads entire web sites for later viewing offline. Some offline browsers can be set up to download a competitor’s web site every night (or week, or other interval) and compare this with the previous night’s version to identify and flag pages which have been added, changed, or deleted.
Personal agent – A program installed on the Internet user’s local hard drive that queries and surfs the Web for information of possible interest to that user.
Personalization – Tailoring the content of a Web site based on the user’s profile, surfing patterns, buying patterns, or other variables. "Mass customization." Several types of personalization exist: rules-based personalization which is based on conditional includes, and collaborative filtering.
Ping – A command that sends "packets" of test data to a particular machine on the Internet to determine if that machine is "alive" on the Internet. Pinging, the act of querying a machine to determine if it is "alive," should not be confused with the hacker activity of "pinging" (waging a "denial of service" attack on a server, i.e. attempting to crash the server).
Push – Instead of the user pulling information from the Web, information is "pushed" or broadcast to the user. Users can subscribe to "channels" that they receive with a push client, such as Pointcast.
Reverse DNS lookup – A command that takes an IP address and looks up its associated domain name.
Spamming - the unscrupulous tactic of sending unwanted and irrelevant messages to newsgroups, email lists and individuals' email boxes, i.e. junk e-mailing. The messages themselves are referred to as "spams". Spammers often get flamed (see below).
Spider – A search engine that indexes one or more Web sites, exploring all the links local to the site starting from the main page. (see meta-search engine)
Traceroute – A command that traces a "packet" of data as it travels across the Internet.
Web forum – An online discussion group conducted over a Web site. The viewing and posting of messages is done on the Web site, rather than via email or Usenet.
Whiteboarding application – a program that allows a group of Internet users to draw diagrams, make notes, etc. on a communal whiteboard that all the participants can see.
Whois – A command that queries the domain database that InterNIC administers. A whois query can display whether a particular domain name is available, and the owner of the domain name along with contact information. It can also display a list of domains owned by a particular organization.