Glossary of Terms

In an effort to provide our clients with a better understanding of the more commonly used Internet terminology, we have created this Glossary of Internet Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms.

 

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

B2B (Business to Business Commerce)  ::   Commercial transactions between two businesses. Historically, electronic business to business commerce has been handled via Electronic Data Interchange, but recently months have seen eXtensible Markup Language to gain in popularity.

B2C (Business to Consumer Commerce)  ::   Commercial transactions enacted between a business and an individual.

Backbone  ::   A high-capacity network that links other networks of lower capacity together.

Backdoor  ::   Refers to the "private entrance" around the security in a program or network used by programmers or technicians to perform maintenance or gain entry.

Backlinks  ::   The number of web pages that contain a link or links to a given page. Search engines that locate backlinks to measure the value of webpages include: AllTheWeb (Fast), Google (includes AOL and Yahoo), Altavista, MSN and Hotbot.

Bandwidth  ::   The amount of data transferred from one server to another. Most hosting providers set limits on the amount of data transferred, or bandwidth. The higher your bandwidth, the larger amount of traffic your site can handle at one time. On the Internet, it is usually expressed in bits per second (bps).

Banner  ::   An online advertising graphic.

Batch  ::   A group of transactions made by a Merchant during a specific period of time, usually one business day. Batches may include payment authorization requests, payment capture requests, or credit reversal requests. Transactions in the batch are electronically sent by the merchant to the acquiring bank for action.

Baud  ::   The speed of a modem, written as the number of transitions in modem signals per second. Each transition can carry more than one bit of information.

Beta  ::   The testing stage of a commercial software.

Binary file  ::   Any file that is not plain, ASCII text. For example: executable files, graphic files and compressed (ZIP) files.

Bit (contraction of binary digit)  ::   A single unit of information that has two values, 0 or, 1.

Bitmap  ::   A graphic that is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels that make up the picture. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, Macintosh Paint, Microsoft Paint, BMP & PNG formats, and TGA. See vector graphics for a different type of graphic and metafiles for a combination of the two types.

Blog  ::   Online journal. The term BLOG comes from Web log. Blog scripting allows someone to automatically post information to a web site.

Bookmark  ::   Saving the location of an Internet address for future reference creates a bookmark within the browser. A pointer to a particular Web site. Within browsers, you can bookmark interesting pages so you can return to them easily.

Bounce  ::   The return of a piece of mail because of an error in the delivery process. Mail can be bounced for various reasons. "Bounce" can also refer to the message indicating the error (informal usage).

BPS (Bits per second)  ::   A measurement of digital transmission speeds.

Broadband  ::   Any network (or frequency) that multiplexes different independent network carriers into a single cable or channel.

Broadcast  ::   The simultaneous transmission of like data from one to many destinations, one to all.

Brochureware  ::   A slang term for Web sites where companies have done little more than scan their companies brochures and mounted them on their Web pages. This is the first step many businesses take while learning to market on the Internet.

Browser  ::   Software program used to display information on the World Wide Web. The two most popular browsers are Netscape's Navigator (http://www.netscape.com/) and Microsoft's Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/default.asp).

Browser Issues  ::   Often called a Web browser, it is simply a software application used to interpret HTML commands and display page content. The two most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator.

BTW  ::   An abbreviation for "By The Way."

Bulk E-mail  ::   E-mail sent to multiple addresses in one huge mailing. Usually referring to a UCE bombing or SPAM.

Bulletin Board System (BBS)  ::   A computer, and associated hardware, which typically provides electronic messaging services, archives of files and any other services or activities of interest to the bulletin board system's operator. Many BBS's are currently operated by government, educational and research institutions. Although BBS's have traditionally been the domain of hobbyists, an increasing number of BBS's are connected to the Internet. The majority, however, are still reachable only via a direct modem-to-modem connection over a phone line.

Buyer  ::   A person or organization that contracts with a Merchant to purchase particular goods or services.

Byte  ::   Eight bits forming a unit of data. Typically, each byte stores one character (letter or number).

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