Internet Word of the Day Archive

May 01, 2013

A group of participating Web sites that display each other's ad banners (or buttons) in exchange for credits; the more impressions you display, the more credits you receive. The credits are then converted into ad spaces for you to display your ad banner on participating Web sites. Participating in banner exchange programs is a great way to drive traffic to your site if you have compelling content and a creative ad banner.

You May Already Know

May 02, 2013

Any one of several online marketing methods whereby Web sites and media sites form alliances to refer customers back and forth to each other, thereby sharing in the revenue. Examples include affiliate marketing programs, pay-for-performance deals (like cost-per-action), revenue sharing agreements, bounty systems, bartering, and so on.

Some uses of kickback marketing are a result of the dot-com fallout; many companies still want to be first-to-market and to get big fast, but the industry realizes it must monitor costs and make a profit. This kind of marketing (like viral marketing) takes advantage of the very nature of the Web. Instead of marketing in a single outlet online, it makes more sense to get as widely distributed as possible.

Thick Between Ears

May 03, 2013

When tech support personnel assist customers only to give them confidence about what they are doing, they are said to be hand-holding. For example, a user may already know how to install and configure a new program, but he or she may like to have a techie on the phone, just to make sure it's done correctly. Some consultants refer to "hand-holding" their clients through a new program or initiative.

Security

May 04, 2013

Your Comment To

Banking industry jargon for people who refuse to use cost-saving ATMs, preferring to deal only with more expensive human bank tellers.

May 05, 2013

After a search is executed, the returned results are put in order of relevancy to the users original search query.

Love You Miss You

May 06, 2013

In standard computing terms, it means moving your cursor onto something on the screen without clicking on it. There are a few different ways to "point" with your mouse: the grabber hand, the I-beam pointer (which is looks like the standard cursor), and the selection pointer, which looks like an arrow.

On the Net, "point" refers to the act of placing your cursor onto a link in order to direct the browser to go to another Web page.

For example, "Point your browser to NetLingo.com" means "go to" that particular Web site.

Product Superior to Operator

May 07, 2013

Slang for a shoddy technician.

Facebook Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

May 08, 2013

Personal Digital Assistant -or- Public Display of Affection

Traditionally, an "echo chamber" describes a group of media outlets that tend to parrot each other's uncritical reports on a view. In the online world this expression has expanded to refer to blogs that write about the views of other blogs, echoing the same views back and forth.

May 09, 2013

Based on the suffix .com, this refers to a company in the industry (with a .com Web site) whose primary focus is on the financial aspects of taking the company public (versus addressing any real market need or establishing a successful, long-term business model). Activities such as IPOs and grabbing market share (by getting first-to-market) became mantras for many dot-com execs, ultimately leading to their downfall (see: new economy). While hundreds of dot-com companies are succeeding, it seems that since the dot-com shakeout, the phrase "dot-com" is used more often for the firms that ended up in the dot-com deadpool.

An example of its usage goes like this: "He met with plenty of young American dot-com executives overseas, and they simply weren't prepared to do international business. They were just hemming and hawing, trying to convince everyone else they'd succeed."

Television Rating Points

May 10, 2013

Software that gathers information about a user as he or she navigates around the Web, it is intended to track surfing habits in order to build marketing profiles. Spyware is often included in "free downloads" from the Web, where the license agreement (which so many of us accept without reading) may mention that information about your habits will be transmitted back to the company's Web site. Spyware is a major cause for public concern about privacy on the Internet.

Spyware is a type of software that gets onto computers without their users' knowledge. The resource-hungry programs often render machines unusable causing your Internet experience to be very frustrating. It is necessary for you to download and run anti-spyware programs. Past experience has led to using the a combination of programs in conjunction with anti-adware programs and run them at a minimum once a week. Some programs will find certain malware which you delete, and other programs find other adware and malware, which you also delete. (In a test, I personally had it return more than 800 infected files -- this is a huge amount!) Keep running these programs until you get zero infected files and then run these programs at least once a week.

Spyware has forced us to think about the maintenace of our computers in the same way we maintain other things, such as brushing your teeth, cleaning your house, or oiling your car. For example, as a Windows user I had to download a Windows Service Pack and run anti-spyware, anti-adware, and an anti-virus program (with a firewall) in order to protect my information. For personal PC users, sometimes multiple programs are needed, and sometimes one suite will do it; businesses hire professionals to maintain their computer systems and keep these malicious programs off of their network.

Continued in Next Post

May 11, 2013

A collective group of software programs that when combined provide a specific solution.

What Do You Mean By That?

May 12, 2013

Who Cares Anyway

An acronym or text message used in online chat, IM, e-mail, blogs, or newsgroup postings, you may hear "Have you gone through the RACI on that?"

Click on "more info" below!

May 13, 2013

Off Topic

A term used to denote that something is not dynamic, meaning that it remains the same.

For example, before NetLingo.com was transferred to a Cold Fusion database, we had to update all the static HTML pages one by one (a truly laborious process).

May 14, 2013

A company that has a special relationship with computer producers: OEMs buy computers in bulk and customize them for a particular application; then they sell the customized computer under their own name. The term is really a misnomer because OEMs are not the original manufacturers; they are customizers of other people's products.

This is also a chat acronym that means "Operator Equipment Mismatch."

loser

May 15, 2013

Something that is part of a company's culture. For example, "Excellent product design and packaging? Of course we do that. It's in our DNA."

Doing Business As

May 16, 2013

Slang for a portion or sector within an industry. For example "there are a lot of big players in the mobile space" and "the digital space is transforming every aspect of the workplace and our lives." This term has morphed to refer to an entire marketplace, as in, "the B2B space."

Please Call Me

May 17, 2013

Kiss For You

The hand icon that replaces the mouse cursor when you move selected text or graphics from one place to another. Seen in many software programs, including PDF and Photoshop.

May 18, 2013

An acronym for any type of collaboration among developers. For example, "If they intend to build the next best-selling software, they are going to need some major D2D collaboration between the programmers and designers."

Lazy Piece Of Sh**

May 19, 2013

An acronym for an organization's official statement of policy governing the use of a network or computer system.

What Do You Mean?

May 20, 2013

Put Mind In Gear Before Opening Mouth

An e-mail in which recipients can buy goods and services directly from the e-mail message without being redirected to the retailer's Web site.

Marketers have consistently shown that transactional e-mail leads to significantly higher conversion rates, meaning more people convert from shoppers to buyers when they receive a transactional e-mail versus a regular e-mail. It's understandable considering that within the body of the message of a transactional e-mail, the recipient can view merchandise, select items, and submit an order. Just like on an e-commerce site, when the order form is completed, the customer clicks the "submit" button (and can then resume reading their other e-mail messages).

Here's a great example: Zagat's, a well-known distributor of restaurant guides, tried transactional e-mail sales for the 2000 holiday season, allowing customers to buy restaurant guides directly from the body of the e-mail message, rather than just including a link to their Web site. The campaign attained conversion rates five times as high as those of regular e-mail marketing. They believed this high conversion was due in large part to impulse purchases because the transaction could be completed before the customer grew weary of the procedures involved.

May 21, 2013

Slang for the entrepreneur within. The concept follows from the esoteric notion that there's an entrepreneur within each of us, waiting to start-up. A corporate executive responsible for developing new enterprises within a corporation (such as captive start-ups) could be considered an intrapreneur.

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