A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A list of some commonly used Internet terms relating to online privacy and marketing:
Advergames: Interactive online games centred around brands, products, or brand-related characters.
Branded Web Sites: Commercial Web environments associated with a specific company or brand. These online environments are developed to sell or promote products, and to develop brand loyalty to companies.
Cache: The temporary storage of Web data on your computer. Web browsers have a cache function that stores information (such as text and graphics) from sites you visit on the Internet. This means that when you return to a site, your browser doesn't have to download all the information to your computer all over again; it can just grab it from the cache.
Clickstream Data: Online usage data that can track how individuals respond to and interact with advertising and Web sites.
Convergence: The merging of two or more different technologies. The Internet is currently converging with many other kinds of technology including: telecommunications, television, wireless, video games, even appliances.
Cookies: Electronic text files that Web servers store on the hard drive of a user's computer. These files can be accessed later by the original server or others. "Cookies" can store information such as your password (so that you don't have to re-enter it every time you visit a site) or where you like to go on the site, so that it can customize information for you when you go back there.
Customer Identifying Data: Information about individuals that makes it possible for marketers to track their online behaviour, send them personalized messages, and merge information from individual Web sites with data from other sources.
Digital Marketplace: The wealth of interactive marketing opportunities that arise from the converging technologies of television and the Internet. Recent strategic alliances and mergers within the media, communications, and retail industries have anticipated the expected convergence of these two technologies into a seamless package of services.
Download: The process of transferring computer files from the Internet to your computer.
E-Commerce: Direct sales through the Internet.
Edutainment: The blending of "educational" online games, activities and resources, with advertisements and product placement.
Encryption: The transfer of electronic information into a secret code. Any time you give your credit card number over the Internet, for example, the site you give it to should encrypt it.
File Sharing/Swapping Software: Downloadable software that permits users to share music, video, image or book files directly with their peers. Examples of this software include Napster, KaZaA and iMesh.
Flow State: Wave patterns in the brain that are set up when people play electronic games. This soporific state leaves them particularly receptive to the images and messages they encounter.
Interactivity: The ability of marketers to actively engage individuals with their brands, through the use of online games and activities.
IP Number: Every computer connected to the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol number to identify it. An IP number consists of four sections separated by dots: for instance, 165.113.245.2.
Internet Filters: Software that can filter out advertisements, and notify users if Web bugs, scumware or cookies are sent to their computers.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): Also known as an access provider, an ISP is any company or institution that provides access to the Internet. Examples of Canadian ISPs are Sympatico and ISTAR.
Java: A programming language for making Web pages more interactive. However, Java (and other Web "scripting" tools, such as JavaScript, Visual Basic Script or ActiveX) have some serious security and privacy concerns. Users can disable these tools in their browsers to avoid potential problems.
Micro-Targeting: The ability to obtain and collect personal data about individual consumers, in order to create personalized marketing based on their individual preferences and behaviours.
Non-Branded Commercial Web sites: Commercial online environments with no visible corporate affiliations. These sites are created by Web-based organizations, and rely on sponsorship or online advertising for income. Some non-branded Web sites are used by market research firms to collect information from visitors.
Oversized Advertisements: Large ads embedded into Web content, these oversized ads often look as though they are actually part of the online articles in which they appear.
Pop-Up/Pop-Under Advertisements: Electronic advertisements, launched in separate windows, that sit on top of or beneath a Web page.
Relational Marketing: Long-term relationships between marketers and individual customers, based on personalized marketing and sales.
Scumware: Intrusive advertising software that superimposes hypertext links on Web pages visited by a user. This software is often included with the free file-sharing programs available on the Net.
Server: The specific computer where Web sites and email reside.
Spam: Unsolicited bulk email, the online version of junk mail.
Spokescharacters: Appealing brand-related characters (usually cartoons) used on commercial Web sites to foster brand recognition and loyalty to companies and their products. Examples include Tony the Tiger, the Trix Rabbit or Toucan Sam.
Sticky Traffic: Web users who remain engaged with a Web site or online game for extended periods. From a marketer's viewpoint, this is a highly desirable demographic.
Virtual Communities: Online environments built by marketers to reinforce a sense of belonging in users, and a connection with like-minded people.
Web Bugs: Small, transparent graphics that work in tandem with cookies to mine data from Internet users. Web bugs can be embedded in either Web pages or e-mail messages.
