Online Market Research Glossary

This glossary relates to the interface between Market Research and the Internet. The choice of terms, and the definitions included for them, is driven by this focus of interest. The glossary has been organized by Ray Poynter, Managing Director of The Future Place. You are welcome to use, copy, and reproduce this glossary; provided that you make no charge for subsequent copies of this material and that you credit this source.

This glossary is permanently a work in progress, any suggestions, queries, or clarifications would be warmly received. Please email any contributions to Ray Poynter at ray.poynter@thefutureplace.com, for more information about The Future Place, visit www.thefutureplace.com.

To find a word you can scroll down, use the links at the head of each section to jump to the required letter, or use your browsers search facility. A friendly search facility will be added at a later date.

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3G

Third generation mobile telephony, see UMTS.

802.11

802.11 is a wireless standard for connecting PCs together to create a LAN referred to as Wi-Fi. The first version of Wi-Fi was 802.11b, followed by the faster 802.11g. Wi-Fi provides connection speeds comparable to Ethernet networks, but without the cables. 802.11x is a method of referring to the general 802.11 standard, and is not a specific variety. 802.11x is regulated by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

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A

ACA (Adaptive Conjoint Analysis)

A form of conjoint analysis developed by Sawtooth Software where the program determines which conjoint task to ask next, based on the respondent’s earlier responses. There is a version of ACA which is available for Internet surveys, and which can be used in conjunction with Hierarchical Bayes. For more information see www.sawtoothsoftware.com. ACA is an example of a form of adaptive scripting.

Access panels

See panels.

Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader is a piece of software, which allows users to read PDF files. Acrobat Reader is produced by Adobe and can be downloaded free from www.adobe.com.

ActiveX

ActiveX is Microsoft’s answer to Java; it is a programming language that can be used to write small programs (applets) that perform a specific task. The main drawback to ActiveX for Internet is that it requires the server to be running Microsoft tools and for the browser to be capable of working with it. More information about ActiveX can be found at www.microsoft.com.

Ad blocker

An ad blocker is a piece of software that works with the users browser to prevent online advertisements being displayed. Ad blockers can have the side effect of blocking other events as well.

Ad click

An ad click is a measure of the number of users interacting with an ad. The most important type of ad click is the click-through.

Ad click rate

The ad click rate is the ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions, ie the number of people who interacted with the ad as a percentage of all those who saw it.

Ad impression

An ad impression is created every time an ad is displayed on a Web page. There are two categories of ad impression, push and pull. Ads that are requested by the user’s browser are pull ads. Ads that are initiated by the server are push ads.

Ad network

An ad network is a broker of advertising space for a number of different sites. These brokers act as the sales representatives for the Web sites within the network.

Ad recall

Ad recall is a term used to describe the percentage of a sample that can recall seeing an ad, after being exposed to it.

There are a number of variations that affect the recall scores. The recall question is often asked immediately after the ad is removed from the screen, but it may be asked later – the later the question is asked the lower the recall is likely to be and the more likely that other chances to see the ad will effect the score.

The recall question can be asked unprompted or as aided recall. With aided recall the respondent is told the category, or brand, or shown a copy of the ad (these are also known as prompted recall).

Ad rotation

Ad rotation is when ads are rotated into an ad space from a list, either from the server or via an ad server.

Ad server

Most pages that display ads do not have the ad coded directly into them, what they have are one or more ad spaces where an ad server can send the ad to be displayed. An ad server selects ads and sends them to the Web page when a request is received.

Ad serving

Ad serving is the delivery of an ad by the ad server to the user’s computer. The ad serving is usually performed either by the publisher of the web site or by a third-party ad server.

Ad space

An ad space is the location on the page where an ad is going to be placed. There can be multiple ad spaces on a single page. An ad space group is a number of ad spaces on the same page that share the same characteristics and can be purchased as a group.

Ad stream

The collection of ads displayed to the user during a visit to a site.

Ad view

An ad view is created only when an ad is actually seen by a user, this is not measurable with current technologies. Ad impressions may be off the visible screen, partially loaded, blocked, or otherwise not viewed.

Adaptive Scripting

Adaptive scripting is a generic term for questionnaires that are tailored to individual respondents. For example adaptive scripting can be used to detect fraudulent responses, to shorten interviews for slower respondents, or to probe deeper when specific responses are identified.

Adobe 

Adobe is a software company with a wide range of leading programs including: Acrobat, Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Cold Fusion.

ADSL (Advanced Digital Subscriber Line)

ADSL provides high bandwidth Internet access using an ordinary telephone line. ADSL splits the telephone line into two channels; this allows users to make normal telephone calls whilst using the Internet. ADSL is one form of DSL and is a type of broadband connection.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement where one site (the affiliate) carries ads for a second site and receives some form of compensation, such as a percentage of the sales generated from the visits to the second site.

Affinity marketing

Selling services and/or products to existing customers on the basis of their buying/viewing/searching patterns.

Animated ad

An animated ad is an ad that changes. This can be achieved, for example, by using streamed media, Shockwave, Java applets, or animated GIFs.

Animated GIF

See GIF.

Anonymizer

An anonymizer is service that prevents Web sites from detecting the user’s IP address. For more information on one provider of these services see www.anonymizer.com.

Antivirus software

Viruses are a major problem for computers connected to the Internet. Antivirus software, software that searches for and deals with viruses, has become an essential part of any system configuration. The safest approach to virus protection is to use a program that searches the Internet for updates on a regular basis. For information on a leading provider of antivirus software visit www.norton.com.

AOL (America Online)

AOL is the leading provider of consumer online services in the US and is a leading provider globally. AOL is the facilitator for Opinion Place, possibly the largest source of online sample in the US. For more information visit www.opinionplace.com.

Applet

An applet is small self-contained piece of software that can be sent along with a Web page to the users browser to perform local processing. Applets are usually written in Java and their uses include: interactive animations, immediate calculations, and the implementation of a market research questionnaire. One problem with applet’s is that they require the user to be running a compatible browser and also for the user not to have blocked that type of applet.

ARF (Advertising Research Foundation)

The ARF is a USA-based non-profit trade association whose mission is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications. For more information visit www.arfsite.org.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

ASCII is a method of representing Western character sets using just a single byte. The standard form of ASCII uses just 7 bits of the byte, meaning that just 128 characters are defined. It is generally assumed that Unicode, a system which has the disadvantage of using two bytes per character but which can represent over 65,000 characters, will replace ASCII over the next few years.

ASP (Active Server Pages)

Active Server Pages is a proprietary technique designed by Microsoft that allows a Web page to have a high degree of interactivity without resorting to CGI scripting. However Application Server Pages will only run if your server is using the appropriate Microsoft software, eg it will not run if your server is Unix based.

This type of ASP is not particularly relevant to the world of market research and should not be confused with Application Service Providers (also referred to as ASPs), which are very important in the provision of market research online services.

ASP (Application Service Provider)

An ASP is a company that hosts applications on its servers and rents access to them over the Internet. Rather than buy the software the subscribers use the systems on demand and tend to pay on a per use basis. Within the world of market research two ASP products are Confirmit and GMI.

Asynchronous research

The term asynchronous research covers techniques that allow respondents to answer in their own time rather than in direct response to a question or prompt. Many quantitative techniques have this property, for example mail, email, and diary. Until recently qualitative techniques tended to be synchronous in nature, but the growth of Moderated Email Groups and Bulletin Board Groups has changed that.

Asynchronous Qualitative Research

Asynchronous qualitative is a term that includes those forms of qualitative that do not require the moderator and the subject to be interacting at the same time. Examples of asynchronous techniques include Blog Groups, MEGs and Bulletin Board Groups.

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B

B2B (Business to Business)

B2B is a generic phrase for markets where the customers for the products and services are companies rather than consumers. B2B market research is conducted amongst those businesses that are customers or prospective customers of the research agencies client.

B2C (Business to Consumer)

B2C is a generic phrase to describe selling things to consumers. B2C marker research in conducted with consumers.

B2B Exchanges

B2B exchanges are online market places. Exchanges can take a variety of forms including: providers offering products/services at a specific price, providers offering products/services via an auction, buyers requesting products/services via tender or competitive bid. B2B exchanges have been most successful where they have been dealing with commodities that can be readily interchanged, for example motor parts. However, many analysts predict that in the future they will encompass a wider range of services, possibly including market research fieldwork.

Backbone

A backbone is central network connecting other networks together. Networks within companies will often have a backbone connecting smaller networks together. Likewise, the Internet has a backbone connecting countries and major sites together.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth describes the amount of electronic "space" available on a computer network. Bandwidth is usually expressed in bytes per second. A 56kbps modem, for example, can transmit data at the rate of 56,000 bytes per second.

Banner/Ad Banner

A banner is an advert that is displayed with a Web page. The Web site’s publisher can serve banners or they can be organised and delivered by ad-serving companies, such as Double-Click. More information on the different formats of banners is available from www.iab.net, the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Beacon

See Web bug.

Bit rate

Bit rate is a measure of bandwidth that tells you how fast data is moving from one place to another. A bit is a single unit of data (a 1 or a 0) and be expressed as Kbps (Kilobits per second).

Black box

The term black-box is a pejorative description of a proprietary system, where the owner of the system chooses to keep important information secret. The term black-box can be applied to either the algorithm (as in the case of a market modeling system), or to the data format (ensuring that other vendors cannot supply additional or competitive functionality).

Blogs

A typical blog is defined by the software it is written in. Blog software makes it very easy to add articles, either from a web interface, or remotely using email or even mobile phone. Articles written for a blog are called a post and are typically displayed in date order. Many blogs are set up as a diary, either as a personal diary or about events in some area of interest. Another common type of blog is the journalist blog, or the private citizen engaging in their own journalism. Blogs are an example of Consumer Generated Media.

Blog Groups

Blog groups use blogs as a medium for online asynchronous qualitative research. In a typical project a group of members are recruited and given access to a closed blog, one where the general public cannot access. A typical project lasts one to two weeks, with about 10 participants. Each day the moderator will post comments and often tasks for the group's members. The members post their replies, often uploading material they have found on the web. In many ways the Blog Group is very similar to the Bulletin Board Group, but it has a more modern feel and corresponds with the growing demand to let consumers have more say in their own terms.

Blogosphere

The blogosphere is a collective term for all the blogs, rss feeds, and discussions about blogs that are on the Internet.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a protocol that enables mobile and fixed-location devices to communicate via short-range wireless connections. For example Bluetooth can be used to enable a mobile to have an earpiece that is not connected by a cable. The aim of Bluetooth proponents is to link together a wide variety of IT devices, including mobile phones, PCs, PDAs, payment systems, and entertainments centers. However, Bluetooth has taken off much more slowly than was expected and is being challenged by the uptake of systems such as 802.11b. For more information visit www.bluetooth.com.

Bookmark

Web browsers usually include a facility to ‘Bookmark’ a URL for future reference, ie storing the location so the user can readily find it next time. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer uses the terms Favorites to describe the book marking process.

Bot

See Robot

Bounce-back

When an email is undeliverable it will generally be sent back to the sender with a message that it has not been delivered, this is a bounce-back.

Brand Impact

Brand Impact is Millward Brown’s proprietary technique for measuring the effectiveness of online advertising.

Bricks and mortar

A bricks and mortar company is a traditional business that only has real locations with real customers coming through its doors. A company that operates both online and offline is often referred to as a clicks and mortar company. Companies that operate only on the Internet are referred to as pure plays.

Broadband

A high speed Internet connection, any bit rate over 100Kbps is considered broadband. Cable modems, ADSL, and ISDN offer broadband to the home user.

Buffering

A system used by streamed media providers to ensure the smooth delivery of the media. The software loads an amount of the stream into a buffer before starting to display the media; it can then use this buffer to compensate for variations in download speed during the session.

Bulletin Board Groups

Bulletin Board Groups are an online qualitative approach that uses a bulleting board to provide a means to communicating with the group members. The moderator posts questions online or sets tasks (eg to visit a site or to view some stimuli) and the members of the group log in at their convenience to reply to the prompts and to other members’ responses. A Bulletin Board Group is an example if an asynchronous qualitative technique. Software for Bulletin Board Groups is available from Itracks and GMI.

Button

In the context of a Web page, a button is either a clickable graphic with some functionality, or a form of online ad.

Byte

The byte is main unit of data in most modern computers. A byte is holds 8 bits (1s or 0s) and can represent a number in the range 0 to 255. Bytes can be combined together to represent larger numbers, decimal numbers, of executable code. In ASCII one byte us used to store one character.

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C

Cable modem

A cable modem is piece of hardware that allows a PC to connect to the Internet over a cable network (such as a cable TV system). Cable modems typically deliver high-speed access, ie they are a broadband connection.

Cache

A cache (pronounced cash) is an area that is used to temporarily store information, particularly frequently used information. PCs will usually use both RAM and hard disk caching to improve performance. Web browsers write most of the information viewed to a cache, which speeds up re-viewing the same material.

CAWI (Computer Aided Web Interviewing)

CAWI refers to interviewing over the Web as opposed to CAPI (Computer Aided Personal Interviewing), CATI (Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing), and PAPI (Paper and Pencil Interviewing). The term CAWI has a somewhat old fashioned feel to it (very 90s).

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

CGI is a language that runs on a server and which processes responses from the user. CGI can be used to take actions based on the respondent’s responses to items on the page, such as check boxes. The strength of CGI is that it since it runs on the server, rather than via the users browser (which is what languages like Java do), it is more reliable. The disadvantages include the latency in waiting for the server to respond, difficulties with the language, and problems with obtaining permission to load the CGI programs onto the server.

CGM (Consumer Generated Media)

Consumer Generated Media (also known as Participatory Media) is a collective term for the many ways that people can express themselves on the Web. These forms include: blogs, discussion forums, product review sites, places where video clips can be uploaded such www.youtube.com and personal spaces such as www.myspace.com. Another aspect of CGM is the way that regular news channels such as the BBC encourage people to send in video clips, using their mobile phones, from real news stories, as they are breaking.

Chat

Chat is a facility for two or more people to communicate on the Internet using real-time text. Chat tends to be divided into chat rooms and Instant Messaging.

Chat room

A chat room is Web location where two or more people can chat together. Chat rooms can either be public (anybody can join them) or private (typically locked via a password). Many chat rooms exist on a permanent basis, either to discuss a particular topic, or as a general place to meet. A chat room may be moderated.

Click rate

Click rate is a measurement of the number of people clicking on an ad, as a percentage of all those seeing the ad.

Click stream

The click stream is the collection of data defining the sequence of signals between a browser and the Internet. It is the combination of the messages sent from the user to the server, and the messages to the user.

Click-through

When somebody clicks on a hyperlink (eg a banner) they create a click-through. For some types of advertising the click-through seen as the most important measure of its success, inasmuch as eyeballs have been delivered. However, for most online ads it is more important to understand the impact of the ad on the brand and/or the ads performance at delivering completes (eg how many clicks lead to a purchase or a registration).

Click-through rate

The click-through rate is the percentage of people who see an ad and who then click on it. Some online advertising is priced on a how many people click on an ad; see cost per click.

Clicks and mortar

A clicks and mortar company is one that operates via traditional real locations and via an Internet presence. An e-tailer is a clicks and mortar if it has both real and virtual locations, but it is a so-called pure play if it only has an online presence. The term clicks and mortar is an evolved form of bricks and mortar, a term that refers to companies that only have real locations.

Client/client-side

The client is the computer that is connected to the Internet and which sends information and requests to the server, ie it is the user’s computer. Processing which takes place on the user’s computer is referred to as client-side processing, processing that takes place on the server is called server-side processing.

Codec

Codec stands for compression/decompression. Codecs are algorithms for compressing the size of media files, making them easier to transmit over the Web. A file can only be read using the same Codec that originally compressed it.

Consumer Generated Media

See CGM.

Content integration

Content integration refers to advertising that in integrated with the contents of a Web page, as opposed to having the advertising clearly separated. Content integration can also be known as Web advertorial.

Cookies

A cookie is a file that the server puts on the user’s browser, which uniquely identifies the user’s computer. There are two types of cookies: persistent cookies and session cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are erased when the session ends. Persistent cookies remain on the user’s hard drive until the user erases them or until they expire.

As a method of uniquely identifying people cookies have their limitations. Firstly, a small number of people set their browser to reject cookies. More importantly, using cookies to filter respondents assumes that each person has only on computer and that each computer has only one user. These problems do not invalidate cookies as a tool for the market researcher, but they do make them a little fuzzy.

Cookies are currently the subject of substantial debate with the European Union and their use is likely to be heavily regulated in the near future.

Comley, Pete

Pete Comley is the CEO of UK agency Virtual Surveys and a recognized leader in the field of online research, particularly in Web site research. One of Comley’s innovations was the invention of the Moderated Email Group (MEG).

Confirmit

Confirmit is the online market research service provided by Norwegian company, Firm. Confirmit is an example of a service being provided as by an ASP.

Convergence

Convergence is a term that describes the coming together of different technologies. For example the convergence of computer and telephone networks means that voice and data calls can be carried on a single network.

COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)

A US law passed in 1998 to protect children using the Internet. The law sets down a series of regulations and guidelines that particularly apply to Web sites that are directed at children, but which cover anybody dealing with US children.

COPPR (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule)

COPPR is a set of rules published by the United States FTC in 1999 and which went into effect in the US in April 2000. These rules provide the regulation provided for by COPPA. One of the key features of these rules is the need to publish links to privacy statements on Web sites that may be visited by US children.

CPA (Cost per action)

Cost of advertising based on some agreed actions, for example registering for a service or completing on online survey.

CPC (Cost per click)

CPC is a pricing method for advertising based on charging for each user who clicks on the advert.

CPM (Cost per thousand)

Cost of advertising based on charges for units of thousands ad impressions, this is the most common and traditional way of pricing online advertising.

Crawler

See Robot.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management/Marketing)

The ultimate aim of CRM is to identify and develop those customers that will be most profitable to the company in the long-term. CRM requires organizations to know about their individual customers, to track their relationship, and to organize their activities is a targeted way.

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D

Dark Wire

Dark wire is the term applied to fiber optic cable which is sold as unused capacity, for example a cable provider may sell dark wire to a telco to allow them to use it for their services.

Data Protection

Data Protection usually refers to national and international legislation covering data privacy and the requirements on organisations to handle personal information in a safe and proper manner. In addition, many organizations issue guidelines that cover the area of Data Protection/privacy, such as the ESOMAR/ARF guidelines.

DDA (Disability Discrimination Act)

The DDA is a piece of UK legislation that requires services to the public to be accessible to those with special needs, for example the visually impaired. This law, and similar laws in other markets such as Australia and USA, apply to publicly accessible websites and surveys that the public can access. The best source of information on how to make websites accessible is from the Web Accessibility Initiative at www.w3.org/WAI/

DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language)

DHTML is an extension to HTML to add animation to Web pages.

Digital signatures

Digital signatures provide a way of authenticating who has sent an email or electronic document. Since digital signatures establish identity, they can be used to legally endorse agreements and contracts.

Discrete Choice Models

In Discrete Choice respondents are given tasks where they are offered choices and where they must pick one, as opposed to rank or rate choices. The main use of Discrete Choice Models is in conjoint analysis, but they can also be used in areas such as MaxDiff scaling and Brand Price Trade-Off.

Domain Name

A name that represents an IP address. Domain names are used to make IP addresses more friendly and informative. In the following URL, ”http://www.thefutureplace.com/about.htm”, the domain name is “thefutureplace.com”.

Double-byte character sets

Characters are represented on computers, and on the Internet, via numbers stored in binary format, ie 1s and 0s. For Western character sets (eg the Roman character set), the characters can be represented using a single byte (representing numbers in the range 0 to 255). The standard system for representing Western characters is ASCII and is well established.

However, some scripts require much more variation than can be provided by ASCII. For example, Chinese has over 2000 different symbols. Computer systems can be updated to use two bytes to represent each character (two bytes provide over 65000 possible characters). The most common method for using two bytes to represent characters is Unicode.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)

DSL is a method of sending high-speed data over a conventional telephone line. DSL uses separate channels for voice and data, so the user can talk on the same line they are using to connect to the Internet. DSL comes in several varieties: The most common consumer variety is ADSL.

Dynamic IP address

A dynamic IP address is an IP address that changes every time that a user connects to the Internet. Dynamic IPs are typical of users who connect via ISPs and individuals within large corporations. Because many IP addresses are dynamic they are not a reliable way of identifying repeat visitors to a site.

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E

eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing)

The term eCRM is applied to both CRM being applied to customers of online companies and to the use of the Internet as part of a conventional organization's CRM programme.

Encryption

Encryption is a method of making it difficult or impossible for third parties to read information or data. The original data is scrambled using mathematical techniques before being stored or transmitted; it is then decrypted when it is retrieved/received.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

EDI is a well-established form of electronic commerce that has traditionally taken place over proprietary networks. One way of reducing the cost of EDI, and making it more accessible to smaller companies, is to migrate EDI standards to the Internet, various systems are currently competing to offer this service.

ESOMAR

ESOMAR is the European based international association of market researchers. Amongst many other activities, ESOMAR issues guidelines on the conduct of market research, and these guidelines are binding on it members. These guidelines include sections on using the Internet for market research. Its website is www.esomar.org.

ESOMAR Internet Guidelines

The most important guidelines for researchers using the Internet are those provided by ESOMAR. These rules include guidance on providing Privacy Policies, of the special rules for interviewing children, and the need to avoid spam. The guidelines can be downloaded from www.esomar.org.

E-tailer

An e-tailer is simply an online retailer. Traditional retailers are described as bricks and mortar, whilst companies that embrace both traditional and electronic channels are referred to as clicks and mortar. An e-tailer that operates only online is known as a pure play company.

Ethernet

Ethernet is a method of networking computers together within a site, ie a LAN.

Extranet

An extranet is an area within an Intranet that allows third parties to access specific information and resources. Extranets are used both to share information with third parties and also to allow third parties to deliver information and services.

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F

FAQ (Frequently asked questions)

Many Web sites and services have a FAQ section where users can review the answers to typical questions. These FAQ’s can make the site more usable and reduce the load on technical support teams.

Firewall

A firewall is a technology that prevents unauthorized access to areas of a network, and in particular which regulates people entering private networks via the Internet, and prevents the admission of electronic agents that could compromise your systems.

Firm

The Firm is a Norwegian based ASP offering online quantitative market research services. The Firm’s online market research system is called Confirmit, for more information see www.firm.no.

Flame

A flame, is an angry view that is emailed or posted on a bulletin board. As a verb, Flame refers to the process of sending angry messages. If you breach Internet netiquette you may find yourself being flamed, being sent angry messages by many people.

Flash

A technology from Adobe used to present 'bandwidth-friendly' animations on Web pages. For more information visit www.adobe.com.

Flash page

See interstitials.

Frames

Frames are a way of organizing Web sites so that browsers display several areas on the screen at the same time, each of which is a Web page.

Frequency

The number of times the same ad is viewed by the same person. Cookies can be used to control ad frequencies.

Freeware

Freeware is software that is distributed free, often as an inducement for people to try it and then to go on and buy a commercial version (usually with greater functionality). Freeware should not be confused with shareware – for which some payment is usually required.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP is a method of uploading and downloading files. FTP used to be fairly common on the Internet, but is now restricted mainly to the technical community.

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G

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

GIF is one of the two leading Internet formats for storing graphical images, the other popular format being JPG. GIF files use data compression to reduce the size of the file, making it easier to transmit over the Internet.

An animated GIF is created by storing multiple images in the same file. These images are then displayed one after another giving the impression of movement – in the same way a cartoon gives the image of movement.

GMI (Global Marketing Insite)

GMI is a US based ASP, providing online market research services to researchers. GMI offers both quantitative and qualitative products. For more information visit www.gmi-mr.com.

Godin, Seth

Seth Godin is a leading author and write on permission based marketing. For more information see www.permission.com.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)

GPRS is often referred to as 2.5G (ie 2.5 generation) because it is a way of improving the performance of the existing second-generation mobile phone network. It can offer data rates between 56kbits/s and 114kbits/s. GPRS allows users to remain connected to the Internet, being charged on the volume of data sent and received, rather than by charging by connect time. GPRS may provide a way of providing data communications prior to the introduction of third generation mobile phone networks (UMTS) in 2003.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)

GSM, or second generation mobile, is the current standard for mobile telephony in Europe, and many other parts of the world. Unlike its predecessors it is a digital service, but it offers only slow and relatively expensive data services.

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

An alternative to the older text based interface. The most typical GUI is the windows mouse pointer interface, which allows the user to see the system as a sequence of icons and to use the mouse to control it.

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H

Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a major US based research agency and owners of the largest online panel in the US. Harris Interactive’s studies, predicting the results of US elections from surveys conducted amongst their online panel, have done much to increase the credibility of online research. For more information visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

HB (Hierarchical Bayes)

Hierarchical Bayes is a computer intensive technique that is based on Bayesian statistics. The attraction of HB is that it allows a researcher to collect sparse data and then estimate how the missing data would behave. For example HB is used in conjoint analysis, each respondent answers a sub-set of the questions and from this data a total distribution is estimated. Using complicated procedures (beyond the scope of most researchers) HB then estimates the values for each respondent.

HDTV (High Definition TV)

TV using a digital format and providing about five times as much definition as conventional TV.

Hit

A hit is the term used to describe each element downloaded from the server when a user visits a web page. If a page contains three graphical images then the server will record fours hits, one for the page and one for each of the images downloaded. Hits are useful as a measurement of workload on the server.

Home page

The home page is the central point of reference for a Web site, and is often also known as the index page. Web sites tend to have a tree structure, which starts with the home page and extends beyond it with a branch structure. Many web sites will include links back to the home page at various points, to enable the visitor to readily return to the central point.

Host

A computer connected to the Internet offering services to other computers. Each host has a permanent IP address. A host is also known as a server.

Hotmail

Hotmail is owned by Microsoft (and operates as part of the MSN services) and is the leading supplier of free email services. Hotmail is a Web based email system, users can connect via any Internet connection and do not store their emails and address books offline. For more information visit www.hotmail.com.

House ads

House ads are ads for a product or service from the company publishing the web page. The IAB recommends that revenues from house ads should not be included in reported advertising revenues.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

HTML is the language that underpins World Wide Web. HTML allows browsers to convert plain text Web pages into the graphical screens associated with the Internet. HTML consists of a set of tags that tell the browser how to display the elements, or where to download additional elements. HTML is a specific form of the more general SGML.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)

HTTP is the most common format for transferring documents on the Internet.

HTTPS

By convention URLs that require SSL start with HTTPS, SSL provides a secure Internet connection and is used when sensitive data, e.g. credit card details, are being entered.

Hyperlink

A hyperlink is a method of turning text or a graphic into an instruction to transfer the user to some other locations (within a document or across the Internet). The link is associated with a piece of text or a graphic, when the users clicks on this link they are taken to the new location.

Hypertext

The term hypertext refers to text on a page that causes a hyperlink to be actioned when the user clicks on it.

Hyperstitial

A hyperstitial is an ad that is displayed whilst the user waits for the requested page to be downloaded; these ads can be full screen or smaller.

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I

IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)

The IAB is a US based trade association (with other national affiliates) who seeks to promote and regulate Internet advertising. For more information see www.iab.net.

ICQ

ICQ (pronounced I seek you) is the longest established instant messaging system. In recent years MSN and AOL’s instant messaging have become more popular.

IM (Instant Messaging)

A method of two or more people creating a private chat room. IM systems (such as ICQ, AOL Instant Messaging etc) tell users which of their friends/contacts are online.

Image map

An image map is a graphic on a Web page that comprises a number of hyperlinks. Each hyperlink or hot spot can lead to a different location. For example a store with regional outlets may show a map of the country on its web site, where clicking on a region would take the user to the information for that area.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

IMAP is a protocol for retrieving email. Version 4 of IMAP is similar to POP but it is claimed to have additional functionalities.

Insertion

An insertion is the placement of an ad on a Web page, as recorded by the ad server.

Interstitial

Interstitials are ads that appear between one page and another (the analogy being to stitching an ad between two pages in a magazine). Interstitials are also known as transition ads, splash pages and flash pages.

Intranet

An intranet is an internal computer network that uses Internet technology to allow people within the organization to share information and work collaboratively, ie a web within one company.

Inventory

Inventory is an advertising term that covers the collection of ads available on a Web site.

Invisible processing

Invisible processing is a generic term that covers the practice of collecting information about users/respondents without them knowing. For example the server may query the browser to find out client-side information such as: screen size, operating system, color settings, options enabled, plus server-side information such as date of access, referring URL, etc. The ESOMAR/ARF guidelines say that a site’s Privacy Policy should warn users if invisible processing is being used.

IP (Internet Protocol)

IP is the standard communications protocol for transmitting data over the Internet. The reason the Internet works is that everybody is using the same protocol.

IP Address

Every system that is connected to the Internet has a unique address in the form of a four-part number XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX where each of the parts is an integer in the range 0 to 255. Most ISPs and Proxy servers use a dynamic approach, which means that each user of their service does not have a permanent, unique IP Address.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

IRC is the software that underlies online chat rooms and other forms of online chat.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)

ISDN is a digital telephone system that can transfer data at up to 128 Kilobits per second.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

The ISPs provide the connection between users and the Internet. The services provided by ISP’s vary greatly and can cover everything from basic access and email, to sophisticated services such as VoIP.

Itracks

Itracks is a US based ASP offering online qualitative services to the market research industry. Itracks offer services and support for both synchronous and asynchronous groups. For more information visit www.itracks.com.

ITV (Interactive TV)

ITV is a generic phrase that includes any system that allows two-way communication between viewers and the broadcaster or cable operator.

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Java

Java is programming language for building applications on the Internet. Small Java programs, called applets, can be downloaded from a server and run by Java compatible browsers such as Internet Explorer.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language originally developed by Netscape to allow dynamic interaction with Web sites. JavaScript is a quite separate language from Java, and is generally considered much easier to program, but more limited.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG is one of the two most popular formats for Internet graphics, allowing the image to be compressed to facilitate faster downloads.

Jump page ad

A jump page is a microsite that is activated by clicking on a button or banner. The jump page contains links to several further pages.

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Key word

Keywords are words or phrases typed into a search engine by users. Advertisers can purchase key words from the search engine, so that people typing these words in will be directed to the advertisers site.

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LAN (Local Area Network)

A network of computers connected together at a single location, using a technology such as Ethernet.

Latency

Latency describes the delay in a system. For example the time it takes a packet of information to travel across the network, or the delay between a request and the display of content, are both described as the latency of those events.

Latent click through

A latent click through is when somebody sees an online banner, and later visits the advertiser’s site as a result of seeing the banner, but without clicking on the banner.

Legacy

Legacy refers to the need to ensure that new software packages and operating systems can read old data and will work with established interfaces. Legacy issues tend to slow down the development of new systems and can also ensure that a company stays locked in to a less than optimal configuration, because otherwise it would have to pay to convert all its systems, or lose information.

Link

A link is a hyperlink between an item on a Web page and some other location.

Linux

Linux is a Unix-based operating system that is very suitable for PCs and is free. Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds, from the University of Helsinki.

Listserver

A listserver is program/service that allows a user to send emails to a list of people.

Log file

A log file is a record on the server that records all the processes on the Web site. This information includes date, URL served, IP address, referring URL, etc.