Jargon buster

A

AB Testing

AB testing refers to two different versions of a page or a page element such as a heading, image or button. AB testing is aimed at increasing page or site effectiveness against key performance indicators including click through rates, conversion rates and revenue per visit.

Above the fold

A term derived from printed media, which is used to indicate whether a banner advertisement or other content is displayed on a web page without the need to scroll.

Access Platform

A method for customers to access digital media. Depending on usage of term, it may consist of hardware and or a browser.

Access Provider

A company providing services to enable a company or individual to access the Internet. Access Providers are divided into Internet service providers (ISPs) and online service providers (OSPs).

Active server page ASP

A type of HTML page (denoted by an .asp file name) that includes scripts (small programs) that are processed on a web server before the web page is served to the user’s web browser.

ActiveX

A programming language standard developed by Microsoft, which permits complex and graphical customer applications to be written and then accessed from a web browser.

Ad Creative

The design and content of an advert.

Ad Impression

An advertisement impression transpires each time a consumer is exposed to an advertisement.

Ad Inventory

The total number of ad impressions that a web site can sell over time (usually specified per month).

Ad Rotation

When advertisements are changed on a website for different user sessions. This may be in response to ad targeting or simply displaying different advertisements from those on a list.

Ad Serving

Delivery of online adverts to an end user’s computer by an ad management system. The system allows different online adverts to be served in order to target different audience groups and can serve adverts across multiple sites. Ad Technology providers each have their own proprietary models for this.

Ad Space

The area of a web page that is set aside for banner advertising.

Ad Tracking

The method for recording campaign delivery metrics between adservers. Third party adserving tags or 1x1 tracking pixels are commonly used to facilitate the capturing of such data.

Ad Unit

Any defined advertising vehicle that can appear in an ad space inside of an application. For example for the purposes of promoting a commercial brand, product or service.

Advertiser

Any website that sells a product or service, accepts payments, and fulfills orders.

Advertising network

A company that provides sales representation for multiple independent websites by aggregating the ad inventory and selling ads across multiple sites.

Advertising networks

A collection of independent web sites of different companies and media networks, each of which has an arrangement with a single advertising broker to place banner advertisements.

Affiliate marketing

An affiliate (a web site owner or publisher), displays an advertisement (such as a banner or link) on its site for a merchant (the brand or advertiser). If a consumer visiting the affiliate's site clicks on this advertisement and goes onto perform a specified action (usually a purchase) on an advertiser’s site then the affiliate receives a commission.

Aggregators

An alternative term to price comparison sites. Aggregators include product, price and service information comparing competitors within a sector such as financial services, retail or travel.

Algorithm

The set of ‘rules’ a search engine may use to determine the relevance of a web page (and therefore ranking) in its organic search results. See also organic search results and Search Engine Optimization.

Anchor text in SEO

The words forming a text-based hyperlink viewable within a browser which are important to search engine optimization because they indicate the content of the page they refer to search engines.

Application Service Provider (ASP)

An online network that is accessible through the Internet instead of through the installation of software. It is quickly integrated with other websites and the services are easily implemented and scalable.

Attrition Rate

Percentage of site visitors that are lost at each stage in making a purchase.

Avatar

A picture or cartoon used to represent an individual in chat forums, games or on a website as a help function.

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B

Bandwidth

The transmission rate of a communication line - usually measured in Kilobytes per second (Kbps). This relates to the amount of data that can be carried per second by an internet connection. See also Broadband.

Banner

A horizontal, online advert usually found running across the top of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats.

BARB

Broadcasters Audience Research Board is responsible for the measurement of TV viewing.

Behavioural Retargeting

Online ads are displayed elsewhere on a site or other sites in an ad network after a customer has interacted with an initial ad related content.

Behavioural Targeting

A form of online marketing that uses advertising technology to target web users based on their previous behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous decision making behaviour (eg: filling out preferences or visiting certain areas of a site frequently) and looking for patterns.

Blog

An online space regularly updated presenting the opinions or activities of one or a group of individuals.

Bluecasting

A system which allows messages to be automatically pushed to a consumer’s Bluetooth enabled phone. Alternatively, users can pull or request audio, video or text content to be downloaded from a live advert.

Bluejacking

Sending a message from a mobile phone or transmitter to another mobile phone which is in close range via Bluetooth Technology.

Bluetooth

A standard for wireless transmission of data between devices, e.g. a mobile phone and a PDA.

Brand advocate

A customer who has favourable perceptions of a brand, who will talk favourably about a brand to their acquaintances to help generate awareness of the brand or influence purchase intent.

Brand equity

The brand assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and symbol that add to (or subtract from) a service.

Broadband

An internet connection that is always on and that delivers a higher bit rate (128kbps or above) than a standard dial-up connection. It allows for a better online experience as pages load quickly and users can download items faster.

Buffering

When a streaming media player saves portions of file until there is enough information for the file to begin playing.

Business to business

Commercial transactions between an organization and other organizations.

Business to consumer

Commercial transactions between an organization and consumers.

Button

A square online advert usually found embedded within a website page. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats.

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C

Cache Memory

Used to store web pages users have seen already. When users re-visit those pages they load more quickly because they come from the cache and don't need to be downloaded over the internet again.

Cached date

This is the date when the search robot last visited a page. It is usually indicated within the search engine results page.

Cached pages

Google robots take a snapshot of each page visited as they crawl the web. These are stored and used as a backup if the original page is unavailable.

Call to Action (CTA)

A statement or instruction to carry out an action following an explanation or piece of promotional material.

Classified advertising

A form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertising is called such because it is generally grouped under headings classifying the product or service being offered (headings such as Accounting, Automobiles, Clothing etc) and is grouped entirely in a distinct section, which makes it distinct from display advertising. Display advertising typically contains graphics or other art work and which is more typically distributed throughout a publication adjacent to editorial content.

Click to Call

A service that enables a mobile user to initiate a voice call to a specified phone number by clicking on a link on a mobile internet site. Typically used to enhance and provide a direct response mechanism in an advertisement.

Click to Play or CTP video ads

These video ads have an initial static image file which is displayed encouraging users to click to view the full video. The proportion of viewers who click is known as the Play Rate.

Click tracking URL

Also known as click through URL or click command. This is used to record the number clicks delivered on an advertising banner. Commonly used when third party adserving is not compatible and run alongside the 1x1 tracking pixel.

Click-through

When a user interacts with an advertisement and clicks through to the advertiser’s website.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Frequency of click-throughs as a percentage of impressions served. Used as a measure of advertising effectiveness.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Frequency of click-throughs as a percentage of impressions served. Used as a measure of advertising effectiveness.

Co-branding

An arrangement between two or more companies where they agree to jointly display content and perform joint promotion using brand logos or banner advertisements. This can occur without payment.

Commission

An amount of income received by a publisher for some quantifiable action such as selling an advertiser’s product and/or service on the publisher’s website.

Content Management Systems or CMS

Software tools or web services for creating and amending website content. Typically, CMS are browser-based web applications running on a server. All enable users to readily add new pages within an exisiting page template.

Content sponsorship

Advertiser sponsorships of content areas (e.g. entire website, homepage or a specific channel) to include the total value of the package including any embedded or interruptive formats. This category also includes revenue related to email advertising or prioritised listing of results in search engines that are included as part of the sponsorship deal.

Contextual advertising

Advertising that is targeted to the content on the webpage being viewed by a user at that specific time.

Contra deals

A reciprocal agreement in the form of an exchange where payment doesn’t take place, instead services or ad space to promote another company as part of co-branding occurs.

Convergence

A trend in which different hardware devices such as televisions, computers and telephones merge and have similar functions.

Conversion rate

Measure of success of an online ad when compared to the click-through rate. What defines a ‘conversion’ depends on the marketing objective eg: it can be defined as a sale or request to receive more information.

Cookie

A small text file on the user’s PC that identifies the user’s browser so that they are ‘recognised’ when they re-visit a site.

Cookie expiry period

The time stated in an affiliate marketing programme between when a visitor clicks the affiliate link and the sale is credited to the affiliate. Common times are 7, 30 or 90 days. A longer cookie period will result in a higher EPC.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost to acquire a new customer.

Cost per Action (CPA)

A pricing model that only charges advertising on an action being conducted eg. a sale or a form being filled in.

Cost per Click (CPC)

The amount paid by an advertiser for a click on their sponsored search listing. See also PPC.

Cost per Mille (CPM) / Cost per Thousand (CPT)

Online advertising can be purchased on the basis of what it costs to show the ad to one thousand viewers (CPM). It is used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1,000 views of the ad.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management.

Customer acquisition

Techniques used to gain new customers.

Customer centric marketing

An approach to marketing based on detailed knowledge of customer behavior within the target audience, which then seeks to fulfill the individual needs and wants of customers.

Customer experience management

The evaluation, design and delivery of the entire online customer experience for transactional e-commerce sites from understanding customer motivations, customer journeys between websites as part of a buying process, the website experience and service quality as indicated by inbound enquiries and fulfillment of products.

Customer profiling

Using a website to find out a customer’s specific interests and characteristics.

Customer retention

Techniques to maintain relationships with existing customers.

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D

D2C

Direct to Consumer.

Deep-linking advert

linking beyond a home page to a page inside a website with content pertinent to the advert.

Discrepancy

The difference in campaign reporting numbers for key measurements such as impressions and clicks between multiple adservers.

Domain name

The unique name of an internet site eg. http://www.iabuk.net

DRM

Digital Rights Management is a set of technologies used by publishers and media owners to control access to their digital content. Access can be limited to the number of times a piece of content is accessed from a single machine or user account; the number of times access permissions can be passed on; or the lifespan of a piece of content.

DSP

A demand side platform (DSP) is a system that allows digital advertisers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface. Real time bidding for display online ads takes place within the ad exchanges, and by utilising a DSP, marketers can manage their bids for the banners and the pricing for the data that they are layering on to target their audiences.

Dynamic ad delivery

Based upon predetermined criteria, dynamic ad delivery is the process by which a mobile advertisement is delivered, via a campaign management platform, to a publisher’s mobile content.

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E

E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce)

Business that takes place over electronic platforms, such as the internet.

Email bounced

Those emails sent as part of a mailing distribution which did not have a valid recipient email address and so generated a formal failure message.

Embedded format

Advertising formats that are displayed in set spaces on a publisher’s page. See also banners, skyscrapers, button.

EPC (Average Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks)

A relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions. It is calculated by taking commissions earned (or commissions paid) divided by the total number of clicks times 100.

Expandable banner/skyscraper

Fixed online advertising placements that expand over the page in the response to user action eg: mouseover. See also Rich Media.

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F

Firewall software

Provides security for a computer or local network by preventing unauthorised access. It sits as a barrier between the web and your computer in order to prevent hacking, viruses or unapproved data transfer.

Flash

Web design software that creates animation and interactive elements which are quick to download.

Flash impression

The total number of requests made for pages holding flash-based content by users of that site in the period being measured.

Forum

an online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.

Frames

a structure that allows for the dividing of a webpage into two or more independent parts.

Frequency cap

restriction on the amount of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement.

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G

Geo-targeting

The process of only showing adverts to people on a website and in search engines based on their physical location. This could be done using advanced technology that knows where a computer is located or by using the content of website to determine what a person is looking for, e.g. someone searching for a restaurant in Islington, London.

GPRS

General Packet Radio Service or ‘2.5G’ is an underlying mechanism for mobile networks to deliver Internet browsing, WAP, email and other such content. The user is ‘always connected’ and relatively high data rates can be achieved with most modern phones compared to a dial-up modem. Most phones default to using GPRS (if capable).

GSM

Global Standard for Mobiles. The set of standards covering one particular type of mobile phone system.

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H

Hit

A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server.

Hot spotting

The ability to add hyperlinks to objects in a video that enable viewers to tag a product or service. Hot spotting can be used as a direct response mechanic in internet video.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language, the set of commands used by web browsers to interpret and display page content to users.

Hybrid model

a combination of two or more online marketing payment models.

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I

Image ad

An image on a mobile internet site with an active link that can be clicked on by the subscriber. Once clicked the user is redirected to a new page, another mobile internet site or other destination where an offer resides.

Impressions

The metric used to measure views of a webpage and its elements- including the advertising embedded within it. Ad impressions is the basis on which most online advertising is sold and the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions (CPM).

Information architecture (IA)

the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming, technical writing, enterprise architecture, and critical system software design.

Instant messaging

Sending messages and chatting with friends or colleagues in real-time when both are online.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

High-speed dial-up connections to the internet over normal phone lines.

Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)

The use of a broadband connection to stream digital television over the internet to subscribed users.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

A company which provides users with the means to connect to the internet.

Interruptive formats

Online advertising formats that appear on users' screens on top of web content (and sometimes before web page appears) and range from static, one-page splash screens to full-motion animated advertisements.

Interstitial ads

Appear between two content pages. Also known as splash pages and transition ads.

IP address

The numerical internet address assigned to each computer on a network so that it can be distinguished from other computers. Expressed as four groups of numbers separated by dots.

IPA

Institute of Practitioners in Advertising is the trade body representing advertising agencies in the UK.

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K

Keyword marketing

The purchase of keywords (or ‘search terms’) by advertisers in search listings.

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L

LAN (Local Area Network)

A group of computers connected together which are at one physical location.

Landing page (Jump page)

The page or view to which a user is directed when they click on an active link embedded in a banner, web page, email or other view. A click through lands the user on a jump page. Sometimes the landing page is one stage upstream from what would ordinarily be considered the homepage.

Latency Time

The time delay while advertising loads on a page.

Lead

When a visitor registers, signs up for, or downloads something on an advertiser’s site. A lead might also comprise a visitor filling out a form on an advertiser’s site.

Location Based Services (LBS)

A range of services that are provided to mobile subscribers based on the geographical location of their handsets within their cellular network. LBS include driving directions, information about certain resources or destinations within current vicinity, such as restaurants, ATMs, shopping, movie theatres etc. LBS may also be used to track the movements and locations of people, as is being done via parent/child monitoring services and mobile devices that target the family market.

Locator

An advertisement or service through which an advertiser’s bricks and mortar location can be identified based on proximity of the consumer or their preferred location).

Log files

A record of all the hits a web server has received over a given period of time.

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M

Meta search engine

search engine that displays results from multiple search engines.

Meta-tags/ descriptions

HTML tags that identify the content of a web page for search engines.

MMA

The Mobile Marketing Association – A global non-profit association that strives to stimulate the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies.

Mobile internet advertising

A form of advertising via mobile phones or other wireless devices (excluding laptops). This type of mobile advertising includes mobile web banner ads, mobile internet sponsorship and interstitials (which appear while a requested mobile web page is loading) as well as mobile paid-for search listings. Mobile internet advertising does not include other forms of mobile marketing such as SMS, MMS and shortcode.

MP3

A computer file format that compresses audio files up to a factor of 12 from a .wav file.

MPEG

File format used to compress and transmit video clips online.

Multiple Purpose Units (MPU)

A square online advert usually found embedded in a web page in a fixed placement. Called ‘multiple purpose’ as it is a flexible shaped blank ‘canvas’ in which you can serve flat or more interactive content as desired.

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N

Natural search results

The 'natural' search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms according to relevancy to the term searched on.

Network effect

the phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters.

NVOD

Near Video On Demand service – the delivery of film and television programming from a server via a cable network or the internet. Like VOD these services are nonlinear.

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O

Online HD

The delivery of High Definition streamed video media. This typically conforms to 720p standards where 720 represents 720 lines of vertical resolution and p stands for progressive scan.

Online Video Advertising

Video advertising accompanying video content distributed via the internet to be streamed or downloaded onto compatible devices such as computers and mobile phones. In its basic form, this can be TV ads run online, but adverts are increasingly adapted or created specifically to suit online. Video advertising can be placed before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll) and after (post-roll) video content.

Opt-in

An individual has given a company permission to use his/her data for marketing purposes.

Opt-out

An individual has stated that they do not want a company to use his/her data for marketing purposes.

Organic search results

The ‘natural’ search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms) according to relevancy to the term searched upon.

Outbound Link

A link to a site outside the current site.

Overlay

Online advertising content that appears over the top of the webpage.

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P

Paid for listings

The search results list in which advertisers pay to be featured according to the PPC model. This list usually appears in a separate section to the organic search results- usually at the top of the page on the right hand side.

Paid Inclusion

In exchange for a payment, a search engine will guarantee to list/review pages from a website. It is not guaranteed that the pages will rank well for particular queries – this still depends on the search engine's underlying relevancy process.

Paid Search

See PPC.

Pay for performance program

Also called Affiliate Marketing, Performance-based, Partner Marketing, CPA, or Associate Program. Any type of revenue sharing program where a publisher receives a commission for generating online activity (e.g. leads or sales) for an advertiser.

Pay per click (PPC)

Allows advertisers to bid for placement in the paid listings search results on terms that are relevant to their business. Advertisers pay the amount of their bid only when a consumer clicks on their listing. Also called sponsored search/ paid search.

Pay per lead

The commission structure where the advertiser pays the publisher a flat fee for each qualified lead (customer) that is referred to the advertiser’s website.

Pay per sale

The commission structure where the advertiser pays a percentage or flat fee to the publisher based on the revenue generated by the sale of a product or service to a visitor who came from a publisher site.

Pay per view (PPV)

An ecommerce model that allows media owners to grant consumers access to their programming in return for payment. Micro payments may be used for shorter programming whist feature films may attract larger sums.

Payment threshold

the minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program.

Pharming

An illegal method of redirecting traffic from another company’s website (such as a bank) to a fake one designed to look similar in order to steal user details when they try to log in.

Phishing

An illegal method whereby legitimate looking e-mails (appearing to come from a well-known bank, for example) are used in an attempt to source personal information that can be used to steal a user's identity.

Podcasting

Podcasting involves making an audio file (usually in MP3 format) of content that is available to download to an MP3 player.

Polite loading

Fixed online advertising placements that load and display additional Flash content after the host page on which the advert appears has finished loading.

Pop-under

An ad that appears in a separate window beneath an open window. Pop-under ads are concealed until the top window is closed, moved, resized or minimised.

Pop-up

An online advert that ‘pops up’ in a window over the top of a web page.

Post-roll

The streaming of a mobile advertising clip after a mobile TV/video clip. The mobile advert is usually 10-15 seconds.

Pre-roll

The name given to the adverts shown before, or whilst an online video is loading. There can be more than one and although they all vary in length, they average 21seconds in duration.

PSMS

Premium SMS. A text message that is charged at a premium over the standard rate.

Publisher

Also referred to as an Affiliate, Associate, Partner, Reseller or Content Site). An independent party, or website, that promotes the products or services of an advertiser in exchange for a commission.

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Q

Query string formation

A query string is the set of words entered into a search engine by an individual. Query string formation is simply the process of thinking of the correct query string to get the results required.

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R

Reach

The number of unique web users potentially seeing a website one or more times in a given time period expressed as a percentage of the total active web population for that period.

Real time

Information delivered with no delay in the processing of requests, other than the time necessary for the data to travel over the Internet.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Software that allows users to flag website content (often from blogs or news sites) and aggregate new entries to this content into an easy to read format that is delivered directly to a user's PC.

Reciprocal links

links between two sites, often based on an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.

Return days

the number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor.

Rich media

The collective name for online advertising formats that use advanced technology to harnesses broadband to build brands. Rich media uses interactive and audio-visual elements to give richer content and a richer experience for the user when interacting with the advert.

Run of network (RON)

An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on sites within an ad network.

Run of site (ROS)

An ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages of the target site.

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S

Sales house

An organisation which sells advertising on behalf of other media owners. Sales houses typically retain a percentage of the revenue they sell in exchange for their services. These organisations may combine a number of websites together and sell them as different packages to advertisers.

Search engine marketing (SEM)

The process which aims to get websites listed prominently in search-engine results through search-engine optimisation, sponsored search and paid inclusion.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

The process which aims to get websites listed prominently within search engine’s organic (algorithmic, spidered) search results. Involves making a site ‘search engine friendly’.

Serial digital interface (SDI)

A dedicated digital video interface used to carry broadcast quality video content.

Server

A host computer which maintains websites, newsgroups and email services.

Session

The time spent between a user starting an application, computer or website and logging off or quitting.

SIM

Subscriber Identity Module - A removable part the mobile phone hardware that identifies the subscriber.

Simulcast

watching an existing TV service over the internet at the same time as normal transmission.

Site analytics

The reporting and analysis of website activity - in particular user behaviour on the site. All websites have a weblog which can be used for this purpose, but other third party software is available for a more sophisticated service.

Skyscraper

A long, vertical, online advert usually found running down the side of a page in a fixed placement.

SMCS

Short Message Service Centre. A network switch for routing SMS traffic.

SMPP

Short Message Peer-to-peer Protocol - used for exchanging SMS messages.

SMS

Short Message Service.

Sniffer software

Identifies the capabilities of the user’s browser and therefore can determine compatibility with ad formats and serve them an advert they will be able to see/fully interact with (eg: GIF, Flash etc).

Solus email advertising

where the body of the email is determined by the advertiser, including both text and graphical elements, and is sent on their behalf by an email list manager/owner. Solus email advertising is conducted on an opt-in basis where the recipient has given their consent to receive communications.

Spam

Unsolicited junk mail.

Spider

A programme which crawls the web and fetches web pages in order for them to be indexed against keywords. Used by search engines to formulate search result pages.

Sponsorship

Advertiser sponsorships of targeted content areas (e.g. entire website, site area or an event) for promotional purposes.

SS7

Signalling System 7. A worldwide standard for telecommunications hardware to talk to each other.

SSP - A Sell-Side Platform (SSP)

A technology platform with the single mission of enabling publishers to manage their ad impression inventory and maximise revenue from digital media. As such they offer an efficient, automated and secure way to tap into the different sources of advertising income that are available, and provide insight into the various revenue streams and audiences.

Stickiness

Measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining its users. Usually measured by the duration of the visit.

Streaming media

Compressed audio/video which plays and downloads at the same time. The user does not have to wait for the whole file to download before it starts playing.

Superstitials

A form of rich media advertising which allows a TV-like experience on the web. It is fully pre-cached before playing. See also Rich Media, Cache.

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T

Tenancy

The ‘renting’ out of a section of a website by another brand who pays commission to this media owner for any revenue generated from this space.

Text Ad

A static appended text attached to an advertisement.

Third party adserving

The technology used to deliver creative assets from one adserver into another, allowing advertisers to track the performance of the campaigns and recording impressions and clicks amongst other campaign metrics.

Traffic

Number of visitors who come to a website.

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U

UMTS

Universal Mobile Telephony Service or ‘3G’ offers comprehensive voice and multimedia services to mobile customers by providing very high data rates and functionality such as data streaming. 3G phones are backward compatible and can access all the services that 2 and 2.5G phones can, except that in this case, data can be transferred a lot quicker.

Uniform resource locator (URL)

Technical term that is used to refer to the web address of a particular website. For http://www.iabuk.net

Unique users

Number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific time period.

Universal advertising package

A set of online advertising formats that are standardised placements as defined by the IAB.

Universal player

Is a platform agnostic media player that will allow video and audio to be played on any hardware / software configuration from a single source file.

User generated content (UGC)

Online content created by website users rather than media owners or publishers - either through reviews, blogging, podcasting or posting comments, pictures or video clips. Sites that encourage user generated content include YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr.

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V

Video On Demand (VOD)

Allows users to watch what they want, when they want. This can be either ‘pay per view’ or a free service usually funded by advertising.

Viral marketing

Refers to the idea that people will pass on and share striking and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of a product or service. Viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, images, and even text.

VMNO

Virtual Mobile Network Operator. A company that uses the infrastructure of an existing (licence-owning) telecoms network operator. Tesco and Virgin are two of the largest VMNOs in the UK.

Voice over internet protocol (VOIP)

Technology that allows the use of a broadband Internet connection to make telephone calls.

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W

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)

Standard for providing mobile data services on hand-held devices. Brings Internet content such as news, weather, travel, etc to mobile phones and can also be used to deliver formatted content such as wallpapers, ringtones, video, games, portals and other useful links.

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0 - with its knowing nod to upgraded computer applications - describes the next generation of online use. Web 2.0 identifies the consumer as a major contributor in the evolution of the internet into a two-way medium.

Web based

Requiring no software to access an online service or function, other than a web browser and access to the Internet.

Web portal

A website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as email, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls.

Whitelist

An e-mail whitelist is a list of contacts that the user deems are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder.

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)

The ability to connect to the internet wirelessly. Internet ‘hotspots’ in coffee shops and airports.etc use this technology.

Wiki

A type of website that allows visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change some available content.

Wilfing (What Was I Looking For)

7 in 10 of Britain's 34 million users forget what they are looking for online at work and at home. Wilfing is an expression referring to browsing the internet with no real purpose.

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X

XHTML (Extensible Hypertag Markup Language)

The language used to create most mobile internet sites.

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

Language used by many internet applications for exchanging information.

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