Glossary

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404 File Not Found / dead link
Error message displayed when a browser can't find the page requested. Caused by mistyping a site address in the browser window or clicking a broken link.

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accessibility
The state or quality of websites that is accessible to users with disabilities.

acquirer
A financial institution that maintains merchant card processing services, and receives transactions to be distributed to the card issuers for a merchant.

above the fold
Top section of a webpage that is viewable without the user having to scroll down, or sideways.

ad audience
Number of unique users exposed to an ad within a specified time period.

ad blocker
Software on a user's browser which prevents banner and interactive ads from being displayed.

ad centric measurement
Audience measurement derived from a third party ad server's own server logs.

ad copy
Printed text in an advertisement.

ad impression / view
Single display of an ad that is viewed by a web user on a webpage, in a newsletter or email.

ad network
Online advertising agency that brokers ad impressions on behalf of the websites within its network.

ad rotation
Number of banner ads that are rotated into an ad space on a website by software residing on a site's server, or a remotely hosted ad server facility.

ad space
Space on a webpage that is reserved for advertisements.

add URL / site / page
Same as search engine submissions.

Address Verification Service (AVS)
Service in which a merchant can verify a credit card holder's address with the Issuing Bank. Required by VISA for credit card processing over the Web.

adjustment
Debit or credit to a credit card holder or merchant account to correct a transaction error.

affiliate
Publisher who is a member of an affiliate program or network.

affiliate / associate program
Marketing concept whereby a website sells its products and services with the help of affiliates, usually other websites.

affiliate directory
Categorized index of affiliate programs.

affiliate fraud
Bogus or unlawful activity generated by an affiliate in an attempt to make money.

affiliate marketing
Use of affiliates to help market a website's products and services in return for a commission of each sale generated.

affiliate merchant
Advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship.

affiliate network
Online advertising agency that sells ad space on behalf of its network of affiliate sites. Affiliates are paid on a per click, lead, registration, or sale basis.

affiliate software
Software used by affiliate managers to track and report activity (clicks, leads, registration, sales) generated by its affiliates.

Ah-Ha
Ah-Ha is a popular pay per click search engine.

AllTheWeb
AllTheWeb is the testing domain for the "FAST" search engine.

alphanumeric rankings
Alphanumeric rankings are used by web directories to rank its listings. The listings are displayed in the order of the ASCII character set (punctuation marks, mathematical and other conventional symbols, numbers, and then letters).

AltaVista
AltaVista claims to be the first searchable full-text database of the World Wide Web launched way back in December, 1995.

alternate text
Alternative text description of an image for users who disable image downloads in their browser. Also appears as a pop-up text message when a user moves their mouse over an image.

animated GIF
A GIF graphic that rotates through a series of static images to create the effect of animation.

Anonymizer
Intermediary which prevents websites from seeing a user's IP address.

Anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A way of accessing another computer to upload or download files. Generally used to upload files to web servers or for downloading applications.

antialiasing
Smoothing of text, or an image, to remove rough sharp edges.

AOL Search
AOL Search is a search engine which everyone - not just AOL internet access subscribers - with access to the internet can use.

Apache
Apache is the name of a project team which has created the Apache web server [www.apache.org] , a freely available web serving program.

applet
Small program embedded in a webpage that gives special functionality, usually written in Java.

archive
Single file containing a collection of compressed or zipped, files for efficient storage. To extract the original files from the compressed file, use an unzipping program, such as:

ask an expert
'Ask An Expert' sites have experts in different fields offering answers to posted questions. While some 'Ask An Expert' sites are free, others charge on a pay per question emailed, or per minute of advice given basis.

Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves is one of the most popular search engines that combine a knowledge base of answers to roughly 7 million commonly asked questions.