Aggregation: The process of gathering and remixing content from websites, blogs or other sources on the Internet.
Aided Recall: A research technique where the respondent is given aid to help remember all or parts of the message received.
Archive: Topics previously published on the Internet, such as news, online discussions, collections of blogs, research or others.
Avatars: Graphical images representing people. A visual character with the body, clothes, behaviors, gender and name of your choice.
Barter: A term used to indicate that media was placed using goods and services rather than cash.
Blogs: User-generated sites where entries are made in journalistic style, usually with the author writing news or commentary.
Blogroll: A list of sites displayed in the sidebar of a blog showing who the blogger reads regularly.
Bookmarking: Saves the address of a website or item of content either in your browser or on a social bookmarking site.
Browser: An application used to view and navigate the World Wide Web and other Internet resources. Most commonly used browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome.
Bug: Problem with computer software or hardware that causes it to malfunction or crash.
Bulletin Boards: The electronic equivalent of public notice boards. The term is still used interchangeably for forums.
Bulletin Board System (BBS): An open computer system that members can dial into in order to send email, join discussion groups, and download files.
Chat: A form of interactive online communication that enables typed conversations to occur in real-time. Messages are instantaneously relayed to other members in the chat room while other members' messages are instantaneously relayed to you.
Cloud Computing: An Internet-based computing system, where shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand from remote computers.
Clutter: The term given to the proliferation of messages aimed at consumers.
Congestion: A state occurring in a part of a network when the message traffic is so heavy that it slows down network response time.
Connection: When two computers have established a path through which the exchange of information can occur.
Cookies: Small files downloaded to your computer when you browse certain web pages. Cookies hold information that can be retrieved by other web pages on the site.
Communities: Groups of people that communicate through the Internet and share mutual interests or goals.
Convergence: The combining of the communications, electronics and computer industries.
Content: Generally used to describe text, pictures, video or any other meaningful material that is on the Internet.
Copy Protection: A software lock placed on a computer program by its developer to thwart piracy.
CPC: Cost per click
CPM: Cost per 1,000 impressions
CRM: Customer relationship management
CTR: Click through rate
Crowdsourcing: Refers to harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content and solving problems.
Demographics: Consumer characteristics, such as age, sex, income, marital status, or occupation.
Direct Response: Any message that calls for a prompt response to purchase a product or request more information.
Disinformation: The intentional planting of false information by government agencies or private sources.
Domain Names: Indentifiers that provide individual addresses for web sites and other uses based on an agreed upon hierarchical system. Most common domains end with .com, .net, .gov. or .edu.
Domain Name System (DNS): A database system which looks up host IP addresses based upon domain names.
Download: The transfer of data from a larger "host" system to a computer, smartphone, digital pad, e-book or other storage device.
Download Charges: Monetary charges associated with downloading a file from a commercial online service.
Duplication: The number or percent of the target audience in one media vehicle also exposed to another vehicle.
Emoticon: A cute sideways face created by using special characters on the keyboard. Used to express emotions without words. For example, this winking face ;-) indicates "I'm joking".
Encryption: A procedure that renders the contents of a message or file unintelligible to anyone not authorized to read it.
Eyeballs: A viewing audience for a website or an item or video posted on the website.
Facilitated Chat: In a facilitated chat, a host or facilitator controls the messages that appear on the chat screen, usually used when there is a guest speaker.
Facilitator: Someone who helps people in an online group or forum manage their conversations.
FAQ: Acronym for Frequently Asked Questions.
Feeds: The means by which you can read, view or listen to items from blogs and other RSS-enabled sites without visiting the site by subscribing and using an aggregator or newsreader.
Flame: A public post or email message that expresses a strong opinion or criticism.
Forum: A topically-focused discussion group or area.
Folksonomy: Taxonomies are centralized ways of classifying information as in libraries. Folksonomy is a system of classification that is user-driven and also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging.
Friends: On social networking sites, friends are contacts whose profile you link to in your profile.
FTP: File transfer protocol. A system commonly used to transfer web page files from their creator to a computer that acts as a server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to computers from other servers.
Groups: Collections of individuals with some sense of unity through their activities, interests or values.
Hacker: Most common definition is one who accesses a computer or computer network without authorization by circumventing its security system.
Hit: A single user accessing a single file from a web server.
Host: A computer that allows users to communicate with other host computers on a network.
Hyperlink: A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that when clicked takes you to another place within the document or to another document altogether.
Hypertext: Text that includes links or shortcuts to other documents, allowing the reader to easily jump from one text to related texts, and consequentially from one idea to another, in a non-linear fashion.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The tag-based ASCII language used to create pages on the World Wide Web.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): The protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer HTML files.
Icon: A small graphic image that represents a file or application and when clicked upon produces a programmed result.
Identity Hacking: Posing as someone else. Posting anonymously or pseudonymously, usually with the intent to deceive.
IMHO: in my humble opinion. Used primarily by writers expressing a debatable view.
Impressions: the audience delivery of media vehicles. Usually expressed as thousands (000).
Internet: A worldwide network of networks that all use the TCP/IP communications protocol and share a common address space.
Internet Explorer: A free web browser application from Microsoft.
Intranet: A private network that uses Internet-related technologies to provide services within an organization.
IP address: A string of four numbers separated by periods (such as 111.22.3.444) used to represent a computer on the Internet.
Java: An object oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Java is a device independent language, meaning that programs compiled in Java can be run on any computer.
JavaScript: A scripting language that allows lines of Java code to be inserted into HTML scripts.
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG): An image compression standard for still photographs that is commonly used on the web.
Kermit: A protocol used for transferring files over a dial-up connection that is commonly used on BBS systems.
Keywords: Search terms that are used to bring back potentially relevant content from an indexed set of data.
Kill File: A file used by some USENET reading programs that filters out unwanted messages, usually from a particular author or on a particular subject.
Klog: Short for knowledge blog, klog is a type of blog used as an internal/Intranet blog that is not accessible to the general public and that serves as a knowledge management system.
Line Noise: Static over a telephone line that interferes with network communications.
Link: A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that when clicked brings you to another place within the document or to another document altogether.
List Server: An automated mailing list distribution system. List servers maintain a list of email addresses to be used for mass emailing.
Local Area Network (LAN): A group of computers at a single location (usually an office or home) that are connected by phone lines, coaxial cable or a wireless system.
Lurkers: People who read but don't contribute or add comments to forums.
Mailbomb: The act of sending massive amounts of email to a single address with the malicious intent of disrupting the system of the recipient.
Mailing List: A list of email addresses that allows the list holder to quickly achieve widespread distribution of information through email systems.
Mashups: The consolidation in one file of information, photos, videos, sound or other data from many sources.
Mass Communication: A communication sent from a person/group through a transmitting device to a large audience.
Media: Plural form of the word medium.
Medium: The means by which a message is delivered to an audience.
Message Boards: Structured software where individuals discuss and debate topics and express statements of interest.
Meta Tag: A specific kind of HTML tag containing information not displayed to the user.
Microblog: A blog that differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller in actual and aggregate file size. For example, Twitter, with its 140 character limit.
Mirror Site: A server which contains a duplicate of another WWW or FTP site. Mirror sites are created when the traffic on the original site becomes too heavy for a single server.
Multimedia: The integration of multiple forms of media, such as text, graphics, audio and video.
Newsreader: A website or desktop tool that acts as an aggregator, gathering content from blogs and similar sites using RSS feeds.
Nanosecond: A measurement of time. There are 1,000,000,000 nanoseconds in a second.
Net Lingo: The slang commonly used on the Internet.
Net Surfing: Browsing or exploring a network or the World Wide Web to find places of interest, usually without a specific goal in mind.
Netiquette: Network etiquette, or the set of informal rules of behavior that have evolved in Cyberspace, including the Internet and online services.
Netlag: A condition that occurs on the Internet in which response time is greatly slowed due to heavy traffic.
Netnews: The content of USENET.
Network: A group of computers or devices that are connected together for the exchange of data and sharing of resources.
Newsgroup: A public place where messages are posted for public consumption and response.
Offline: As an adjective, not connected to a computer network. As an adverb, not here or not now, as in "Let's take this discussion offline."
Online: Currently connected to a host, opposite of offline, or reference to anything connected to a computer network.
Path: The hierarchical description of where a directory, folder, or file is located on your computer or on a network
Penetration: The degree to which a medium or vehicle has coverage in a specific area.
Permalink: The permanent, unique address of an item of content, such as a blog post, rather than the address of a web page.
Photosharing: Uploading images to a website.
PHP: Programming language used for creating software that is part of a web site.
Podcast: Audio or video content that can be downloaded automatically to a digital device so that it can be seen or heard offline.
Post: A user generated item added to a list of comments, or an item originally placed on a blog, forum, website or social networking site
Postmaster: The name given to the person in charge of administrating email for a particular site.
Profile: Personal user generated information placed on a social networking site.
Protocol: A series of rules and conventions that allow different kinds of computers and applications to communicate over a network.
Psychographic: A way to describe consumers on the basis of some psychological trait, characteristics or life style.
Public Relations: Creating an interest, understanding or good will towards a company, product or person.
Query: A request for specific information from a database.
Quintile: The division of the audience or sample into five equal groups ranging from heaviest to lightest amount of exposure to any medium.
Random Access Memory (RAM): The working memory of the computer into which application programs can be loaded and executed.
Rating: An estimate of the size of an audience expressed as one percent of the total population.
Reach: The unduplicated percent of a potential audience exposed to a message one or more times during a given period.
README File: A text file included with an application that contains important (and often last minute) information about installing and using the application.
Read Receipts: An optional email feature that notifies you when a recipient has opened the email message you sent him.
Refresh: To clear the screen or part of the screen and redraw it again.
Remote Login: Operating a remote computer over a network as if it were a local computer.
Response Time: A measurement of the time between a request for information over a network and the network's fulfillment of that request.
RSS: Short for "really simple syndication," used for sharing content such as news articles.
Search Engine: A program or web site that enables users to search for keywords on web pages throughout the World Wide Web and on mobile devices.
SEO: Search engine optimization. The process of improving a site's visibility from user keyword searches.
Security: Ensuring that private information remains private in an atmosphere where all other information is free. Security also means that viruses are prevented from infecting people's systems.
Server: A computer that provides information to client machines.
Share: The percent of an audience tuned to a particular program at a given time.
Shareware: Software that you can be download from a network and try before you buy it.
Shouting: TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING IN ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.
Snail Mail: Regular postal mail, as opposed to email. Pejorative when implying postal mail's slowness relative to email.
Social Media: A catch-all term used for the tools and platforms available to publish, converse and share content online.
Social Network: A network of individuals or organizations tied by one or more specific types of mutual interests such as friendship, kinship, likes, dislike, or occupations.
Spam: To send a message, usually an advertisement, to many individuals or groups, without regard for its topical relevance.
Sponsorship: Purchase of all or part of a media vehicle, such as a web page, web site, TV, radio, magazine or newspaper pages or program.
Tags: Keywords attached to a posting, photo, bookmark or other item of content so that the user and others can retrieve the item(s) through searches and aggregation.
Taxonomy: An organized way of classifying content, as in a library.
Telecommunications: The science of sending signals representing voice, video, or data through telephone lines.
Terms of Service: The basis upon which the user agrees to use a range of Internet tools and services.
Threads: A series of postings on a particular topic.
Thumbcasting: Creating social media content from a mobile device or phone.
Toggle: A switch that is either on or off.
Traffic: The load of packets carried by a network or portion of a network.
Upload: To send a file to a network.
URL: Uniform resource locator. An address on the internet.
User Generated Content: Text, photos and other material produced by people who previously just consumed.
Virtual: A commonly used adjective that means having all of the properties of x while not necessarily being x.
Viral Marketing: Creating an online message so entertaining that consumers pass it along like a virus.
Virus: An insidious piece of computer code written to damage systems.
Wall: Shared discussion board specifically about an individual and displayed on the individual profile.
Web 2.0: General term for an easier to use web.
Webliography: A listing of source World Wide Web sites.
Webmaster: The person in charge of administrating a World Wide Web site.
Widget: A stand alone application that can be embedded on a webpage, blog or social media page.
WiFi: Wireless fidelity. Also, the popular term for a form of wireless internet.
Wiki: Website for which content can be easily edited and altered.
World Wide Web (WWW): A distributed hypertext viewed using browsing software such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari.
Worm: An insidious and usually illegal computer program that is designed to replicate itself over a network for the purpose of causing harm and/or destruction
