Marketing Manager's Plain English Internet Glossary

<BODY Bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#880088" vlink="#008888"> <CENTER><IMG SRC="jadecard.gif" height="153" width="276" alt="Jade River Designs, 2000 Powers Ferry Road, Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia. 770-989-7409. Web Pages and Internet Consulting. jaderiver@jaderiver.com "></CENTER> <H1>The Marketing Manager's<BR> Plain English Internet Glossary: A-E</H1> <A HREF="http://www.teleport.com/~iexportc/ntgvrdir.shtml" target=_new><IMG SRC="netgiver.gif" height="119" width="69" align=right alt="Netgiver Award"></A> <font size="-1">We know: you don't want to program for the Internet, you just want to learn how it fits into your business. We believe you don't need a course in computers in order to decide how the Web can work with your marketing strategy. We offer our Plain English Internet Glossary as a public service.</font> <P>For more information about our Webpage Design and Internet Consulting services, including our 100% satisfaction guarantee, see <A href="http://www.jaderiver.com/">http://www.jaderiver.com/</A></P> <P>If you <I>are</I> looking for the technical definitions of the bits, bytes, and protocols of the Internet, we recommend <A HREF="http://www.ora.com/reference/dictionary/" target=_extra>O'Reilly's Dictionary of PC Hardware and Communications Terms.</A> <H2>Glossary</H2> <STRONG><A HREF="gloss1.html#A">A</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#B">B</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#C">C</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#D">D</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#E">E</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.htm#F">F</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.htm#G">G</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.htm#H">H</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#I">I</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#J">J</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#K">K</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#L">L</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#M">M</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#N">N</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#O">O</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#P">P</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#Q">Q</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#R">R</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#S">S</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#T">T</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#U">U</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#V">V</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#W">W</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#X">X</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Y</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Z</A> </strong> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" alt=""> <H2>Terms added/updated the week of December 2nd</H2> <STRONG> <UL> <LI><A HREF="gloss2c.html#WEBMARKET">CYBERMARKETING</A> <LI><A HREF="gloss1b.html#FIREWALL">FIREWALL</A> <LI><A HREF="gloss2b.html#PICS">PICS</A> <LI><A HREF="gloss2b.html#RATING">RATING SYSTEMS FOR WEBSITES</A> </UL></STRONG> <H2>Articles in the <BR>Jade River Designs Public Service Archives</H2> <STRONG><UL> <LI><A HREF="webwork.html">Will the Web Work for Your Business?</A> <BR>A one-page look at what does and doesn't work on the Web <LI><A HREF="webmyth.html">The 6 Myths of Web Marketing</A> <BR>and what you really need to know <LI><A HREF="bookstor.html">Book Reviews of Web Marketing Books</A> <BR>New! Now you can order books directly from our Book Review page. </UL></strong> <IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <H2><A NAME="A">A</A></H2> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <DL> <DT><A NAME="AOL"><B>AOL</B></A></DT> <DD><B>America Online</B> is often abbreviated as <B>AOL.</B> AOL and its competitors, <A HREF="#COMPUSERVE">Compuserve</A> and Prodigy, are to the Web what Cable Television is to Television. Some of the things they offer are also offered for free "on the <A HREF="gloss2b.html#OPENWEB">Open Web</A>." Some things are available to AOL members only. AOL offers <A HREF="gloss2.html#ISP">Internet Access</A>, which means any AOL member can get to your Website. However, it may look a little different to them than it does to readers using Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. <P>AOL has its own proprietary <A HREF="#BROWSER">browser</A> (the software needed to see a Webpage on your computer), and because of the work involved in tying that browser into the existing AOL "members only" services, it has stayed just a little behind the Open Web browsers like Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. However, in the late Spring of 1996 AOL signed a deal with Microsoft to develop a special AOL version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer. This is expected out sometime in early 1997, and should make pages look very similar on AOL and Micorosft Internet Explorer. <P>Meanwhile, the important things to know from a marketing standpoint are:</P> <OL><LI>AOL is a fast and easy way to get <A HREF="gloss2.html#ISP">Internet access</A>. <LI>AOL is very cheap per month, at about $10, but has a per-hour charge which is close to double that of most <A HREF="gloss2.html#ISP">Internet Service Providers</A>. <LI>The AOL browser comes in different versions. Version 2.5 and earlier versions did not support Tables, Frames, or other advanced Web features, which means that readers using those browsers may see your page as slightly jumbled or misaligned unless you do special work to meet both AOL and Netscape requirements. The AOL 3.0 version for Windows did a good job of catching up with many standard features, but is still about two versions behind Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. <LI>America Online has over 7 million members, many of them new to computers. Although the newest AOL version, 3.0, does have many advanced features, many AOL members will stay with their older versions, on the grounds of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it.". <LI>Because of the way in which visitors, or <A HREF="#HIT">"hits"</A> are measured, many site designers and statistical packages tend to underestimate the number of AOL visitors to a site. Also, designers who are technically adept but not marketing savvy often hold the AOL browser in contempt, not understanding that its limitations have been due to AOL's desire to support a customer base of over 7 million subscribers, many of whom are computer novices. Yet AOL users are often more likely to purchase consumer goods on the Web, and are an important market for many sites. Don't let your site designer tell you to dismiss AOL visitors because they don't matter--you could be losing significant sales if you do. <P>(Managers of nonprofits report that, judging from e-mail, many of their visitors also come from AOL, even though they may appear to be a very small number if you just look at the Web statistics.) </P></OL><P>Naturally, technology-driven designers prefer to work with the "best and the brightest", and it is easier for them to design just for Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer, but make sure you control this decision, and that you make it for good business reasons. The AOL market is a very active consumer base. Many of the newest Netscape users are high school and college students--their parents and professors are more likely to be using AOL.</P> <P>It is possible to design sites that look good to both AOL and Netscape visitors, but it is more work for the designer, so you will need to be clear on your requirements in this area. If your designer is unfamiliar with how to meet AOL requirements, suggest they look into www.aol.com, a Website available to the general public with a special section of tips for designers. (Be warned that this site takes several minutes to download, however, as it has lots of pictures and graphics.)</P> <P>AOL has announced a new pricing plan to begin December 1996--about $20/month for unlimited hours. This is about the same as most local <A HREF="gloss2.html#ISP">Internet Service Providers</A>, and should cause fewer people to leave AOL as they become more familiar with the Internet. AOL is still expected to run somewhat slower than dedicated Internet providers due to their specialized software, but this should significantly increase the number of visitors to all sites who use AOL as their Internet Service Provider.</p> <DT><B><A NAME="AWARD">AWARDS</A></B></DT> <DD>Interested in getting an Award for your <A HREF="gloss2c.html#WEBSITE">Website</A>? As with many other things, <A HREF="gloss2c.html#YAHOO">Yahoo</A>, the main "yellow pages" of the Web, makes it easy to find the award-givers. They have a separate <A HREF="http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Best_of_the_Web/">Awards Category target=_top</A> in their Directory. Like many things on the Web, though, be aware that processing times can be very unpredictable. The same awardgiver may process one application in 2 days, another in 2 months. Many are volunteer organizations and others are peripheral to main activities, so submission-processing gets done when time is available. The most prestitigious award is probably <A href="http://www.pointcom.com/">www.pointcom.com's</A> <I>Top 5% of the Web</I> award. These nominations can take three or four months to process, though. </DL> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <H2><A NAME="B">B</A></H2> <STRONG><A HREF="gloss1.html#A">A</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#B">B</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#C">C</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#D">D</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#E">E</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#F">F</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#G">G</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#H">H</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#I">I</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#J">J</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#K">K</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#L">L</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#M">M</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#N">N</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#O">O</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#P">P</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#Q">Q</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#R">R</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#S">S</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#T">T</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#U">U</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#V">V</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#W">W</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#X">X</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Y</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Z</A> </strong> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <DL> <DT><B><A NAME="BANDWIDTH">Bandwidth</A></B></DT> <DD><B>Bandwidth</B>, although it has a number of technical definitions, has come to be a simple shorthand term for "Internet airtime" in its most general sense. Posters to newsgroups will say, "Sorry for wasting bandwidth" if they posted something in error. Disliked items may be criticized for "burning bandwidth". Web designers, in particular, will use the term to mean download time, or the time the reader needs to wait to be able to view a site. "I want to reduce the bandwidth" or "I want to save bandwidth" are statements that may be applied to any type of site design. (Again, there are specific, technical meanings of the term, but most people <I>don't</I> use it in its most technical sense). There is even a <A HREF="http://www.infohiway.com/faster/index.html" target=_top>Society for Bandwidth Conservation</A> which is a forum for graphics designers to share tips on how to make Webpages load faster. <DT><B><A Name="BANNER">Banner</A></B></DT> <DD><P><B>Banners</B> have become ubiquitous as a form of advertising on the Web. These are usually narrow graphics, sometimes logos, sometimes signboards, about an inch and a half high and about 4 inches long.</P> <P><A HREF="#BANNER"><IMG SRC="banner2.gif" height="40" width="400" alt="Jade River Designs Banner"></A></P> <P>They are designed to fit on even a small laptop screen, and are often used to mark a place where the reader can click to get more information. Very popular sites, like <A HREF="gloss2c.html#YAHOO">Yahoo,</A> actually sell bannerspace on their pages as billboard ads. Note that these ads are even better than static logos, because if the reader clicks on them, they will be delivered directly to <I>your</I> site for more information. Some popular sites sell banner space based on the number of <A HREF="gloss1b.html#HIT">"hits"</A> on their page--that is, the number of different readers who will simply <I>see</I> the banner.</P> <P>Beginning in 1996, large advertisers like Procter and Gamble began insisting that they would pay only for <B>click-throughs</B> (the number of people who actually clicked on the banner in order to visit the advertiser's site). However, this is not a really common practice, since just seeing the banner does have some ad value.</P> <P>There are some popular <B>banner exchange programs</B> like The Link Exchange and Commonwealth--these trade banner space among smaller sites. You allow them to place a banner on your site, which rotates through their members. They keep track of the number of hits you get there, and the more hits your site gets, the more times your banner is displayed on other members' sites.</P> <P>In addition to the direct selling of advertising space for banners, banners have two other uses on the Web. First, Yahoo and other <A HREF="gloss2b.html#SEARCH">search engines</A> have been successful in selling <B>"targeted bannerspace"</B>. In this case, rather than simply buying display space for your banner on the Yahoo search page, you buy the right to have your banner displayed based on what the reader is looking for. For example, Ford might buy the right to have its banner displayed when a reader is searching for information on trucks. These programs have been very popular with advertisers. <P>Second, banners often form a kind of letterhead at the top of each page on a company's own site. In this case, clicking on the banner doesn't usually do anything--it's just a logo display. <P>It is possible to do <B>animated banners</B> which have a cartoonlike effect, but so far these have been quite unpopular with readers, who find them distracting. Animated banners are more likely to be the work of a software services company which has designed its own banner than the result of consumer testing by a professional ad agency.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="BLEED">Bleeding Edge</A></B></DT> <DT><B><A NAME="NEWTECH">NewTech</A></B></DT> <DD><B>"Bleeding Edge"</B> started out as a joke in the software industry: there was "Leading Edge" technology, and then "Bleeding Edge." This was the stuff that was so new, so sharp, it might cut you when you tried to use it. In the last year or so it's come to stand for the very newest of the new tools: things that no one's quite sure are going to make it to mainstream. <P>In Web design right now, the Bleeding Edge is mostly in multimedia technologies--adding sound and animation to Websites. Everyone loves them on a standalone demo system, but in the real world of the Web, the files needed to provide these features are big and slow, and it's not clear they can ever be made fast enough for consumer satisfaction.</P> <P>Bleeding Edge implies a risk, not just new technologies. Note that although database integration, for example, is a fairly new technology with regard to the Web, it's never been considered "bleeding edge": everyone knows we NEED to be able to pull up order records and inventory descriptions and other databased information from the Web. It will happen, and it will happen in a practical manner--there are lots of people working on it now.</P> <P>Online movies are something altogether different: no one's quite sure whether there's really a need for the latest in technotoys. They may end up being the equivalent of 3-D movies: we have the technology, but it's not used in marketing.</P> <P>Bleeding Edge, like the Web itself, may end up being standard, but unless your market is 14 to 24 year olds, most marketing managers don't worry much about it.</P> <P>(Also be aware that the use of Bleeding Edge technologies can disrupt your project budget: it's quite possible that your Web Designer may come back and say, "It took us two weeks to figure out how to do this.". New often means untried. If you do decide to use Bleeding Edge technologies, be very clear with your Web Designer upfront that you still expect predictable budgets and timeframes for commercial projects.)</P> <DT><B><A NAME="BOOKMARK">Bookmark</A></B></DT> <DD><STRONG>On the Web, a <I>bookmark</I> is the sincerest form of flattery.</STRONG> <P>What's a <B>bookmark</B>? It's just an address book entry for a <A HREF="gloss2.html#URL">Web Address.</A> Some browsers call this a <B>Favorite Place</B> or a <B>Hot Spot</B>. Most browsers contain a simple "address book" where the reader can store the addresses of their favorite places. Click on the name of the place, and the Browser automatically goes there, like an online phone book with an autodialer. "BookMarking" a site just means adding it to your address book. When someone bookmarks your site, it means they're probably going to come back.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="BROWSER">Browser</A></B></DT> <DT><B>Browser Wars</B></DT> <DT><B>Lynx, Microsoft Explorer (MSIE), Netscape (NS), Netscape Navigator, Spry Mosaic</B></DT> <DD>When you write a letter on your computer, you probably use a <I>Wordprocessor.</I> This is a program like Word, WordPerfect, or AmiPro. It lets you put in bold, italics, page headers, indexes. Each wordprocessor works a little differently and, despite what the manufacturers say, they all work about the same. Yet there's a real aesthetic difference between the different wordprocessors, and you can get into the middle of what seems like a religious war if you happen to mention at lunch that you prefer Word to WordPerfect. Wordprocessors are an essential tool for daily business--we rely on them so much that the tiniest details become very important to us as individuals. <P><B>Browsers are the essential tool of the Web.</B> The browser is the software program that runs on your computer and lets you see Web pages. Like Wordprocessors, different browsers do things just a little differently--and like wordprocessors, the proponents of one will have dozens of reasons why theirs is " so much better&quot than another one. But they really do all work about the same.</P> <P>The biggest distinction is between <b>graphical browsers</b> and <b>nongraphical browsers.</B> It's simple: graphical browsers can show pictures. Nongraphical browsers show only text.</P> <P>Why would anyone want a nongraphical browser? Probably because they run on a computer system that doesn't SHOW pictures, usually a remote terminal linked to a university system or a central processor in a country where personal computers are very expensive. The most popular nongraphical browser is <B>Lynx</B>. Some professional researchers also like Lynx because, without pictures, the Web can be very fast. It can take 20 or 30 thousand little dots to make up one 2 inch by 2 inch logo. In that same amount of time you can have downloaded and read an entire white paper on your research topic.</P> <P>The most popular Graphical browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), Netscape Navigator (abbreviated NN or NS), Mosaic, and <A HREF="#AOL">America Online's custom browser.</A> We don't need to fight the browser wars here. Let's just say that, yes, they're all a little different: and, yes, they're all about the same.</P> <P><B>The Browser Wars</B> is a business term being used to describe the efforts of Netscape and Microsoft to gain market share in the Browser market, similar to the "Cola Wars" between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Browser manufacturers have two ways of attracting users. First, they can make the experience more helpful to the reader. This is how Netscape first gained its marketshare: it used a different type of display logic which let it display a page as much as ten times faster than its competition. Second, the browser can offer enhanced features to the producers of Websites--that is, it can give a page's <I>author</I> more control or more features. The page may even end up looking just the same to the reader, but have been easier to produce. Both Netscape and Microsoft have tried these approaches as well.</P> <P>The problem from both the reader's and the marketing manager's point of view is that sometimes, in an effort to gain an edge, one of' the Browser manufacturers introduces features which are incompatible with other browsers. This can be a real headache. Standard designs are supposed to work for all Web readers, whether they're on a Mac, a PC, UNIX--whether they have a $800 4 year old computer system or this year's latest and greatest model. Some of the "extensions" introduced by Browser manufacturers in an effort to win the Browser Wars end up crashing other browsers, or producing pages that look great on that manufacturer's browser, but really bad on others. This is the equivalent of designing a Stereo sound TV set and then telling producers that make TV shows, "Well, if your viewers have our set, they're going to love it--but if they have any other brand, they're just going to hear '<I>beep beep beep</I>' when they tune into your show." The benefit of the browser wars to the consumer is that each company is working hard to produce better features. The disadvantage is that there is a real temptation to move away from standards in order to get an edge.</P> <P>As a marketing manager, the important thing that <I>you</I> need to figure out is which browser(s) your <B>audience</B> will be using when they come to visit your Website. If you don't know, or if it could be a mix of America Online, Netscape, MSIE, and even Lynx (very popular in international and educational markets), then you need to let your designer know that, because layout and animation features which are available in the most-advanced browsers are NOT supported in others. If you don't plan ahead you could end up with a site that looks beautiful to 60% of your customers--and horrible to another 30%.</P> <P>One of the best examples of technology tromping on marketing concerns is Netscape's recommended method of handling situations where a visitor to a site has a browser that doesn't handle Netscape's newest Netscape-only features. They suggest putting up a sign that says, <blockquote>This document is designed to be viewed using Netscape 2.0's Frame features. If you are seeing this message, you are using a frame <i>challenged</i> browser. A Frame-capable browser can be gotten from Netscape Communications.</blockquote>  Do you, as a marketing manager, really want your customers to see this message as their first impression of your site? What if the visitor is the project manager for a petroleum company which uses their own hightech browser, capable of handling math formulas (something Netscape does not do well)--going to Netscape would be a step down for them! Or what if the visitor is a blind attorney, using a special text-to-speech browser? Or the CEO of a French company, trying to get through their Web research as quickly as possible? <P><B>As a marketing manager, you want every client to feel welcomed by your site, but many site designers don't understand this.</B></P> <P>You'll hear a lot about Netscape's "80% of the Web." For various reasons (see <A HREF="#HIT">Hits</A>), those numbers are hard to measure. But there are two other important factors when determining which browsers you want your site designer to include or exclude from your site. <P><B>1. Design for Good Customer Relations--not the best fit to a popular browser.</B> <BR>You want people visiting to have a good experience, even if they don't all have the same experience. A good designer has many ways of dealing with the multiple browser issue, including providing a "text only" version of your site. It may not be as pretty, but it will still help you reach a wider market.</P> <P><B>2. Insist that your designer think about who <I>your</I> Website's visitors will be, not just general Web statistics.</B> You're not really concerned with statistics for the whole Web. You need to know who <I>your</I> audience will be. Regardless of the "80% Netscape" numbers you may see in technology magazines, many commercial Websites report that 50% of their visitors are from America Online, and some online stores report that although America Online is only 25% of their visitors, they represent 50% or more of their sales. Yes, you want your site to look good, but this is one of the places where you, as a marketing manager, will understand the impact of demographics much better than most site designers.</P> <P>You may need to explain to your designer that if you go to buy a television ad, you don't necessarily want 30 seconds on the show with the highest ratings. Your product may sell better to the Nightline watchers, or the NBA fans. You may want to place an ad on a daytime talk show or a children's cartoon show. You understand the value of qualified leads, and target audiences. Many site designers don't. So work with your designer. Make sure they understand that you don't want customers to walk away feeling that a door was slammed in their face. Then, try to identify your target market so your site designer can come up with a good match for them.</P> <P>You may have to make a hard choice: do you want to look great to your target market, and just OK to your peripheral markets? Or do you want to look pretty good to everyone? Or do you want to spend more money on your site, and maintain multiple versions, so that it looks as good as possible to everyone? <P>Most experienced designers recommend a <b>two-version Website</B>: one that looks great to your target audience, and a second that looks OK to everyone else. There are some that recommend three or four or five version sites.</P> <P>Be wary of any designer that recommends a single version site, unless you know with absolute certainly who your audience is--that missing 20% may include not just lost customers, but magazine journalists, industry specialists, and other reviewers who can be critical to your site's success.</P> <P>For related target audience issues, see <A HREF="gloss2b.html#SCREEN">Screen Resolution</A>.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="ACTIVEX">Browser Incompatability,</A> Active X</B></DT> <DD>The language used to tell browsers how to display a page is called <B>HTML</B> You don't really need to know much about it. It comes in two standard forms: HTML 2.0, which is an adopted standard, and HTML 3.2, which is a proposed standard. Most of the current browsers in use are HTML 3.2, plus a few individual features that each browser company added to make their browser different. In general, these don't affect you as a marketing manager: for example, both Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer have a way to put sound on their pages. They use two different ways, but it doesn't matter: your Web designer can create a page that will have sound that can be heard by both. In general, all browser manufacturers will try to keep up with all others, just to stay competitive. <P>There is one new area, though, where Microsoft has added some features to its browser which very few other browsers can handle These are the <B>ActiveX</B> features. More than that, ActiveX breaks the tradition of the Web of being available to people using Macs, IBM PCs, and UNIX computers all at the same time. At the present time, ActiveX is only available for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Again, that's useful when you know just who your readers are, but it can be very limiting on the <A HREF="gloss2b.html#OPENWEB">Open Web,</A> where any reader might have any combination of computer and browser software.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="SERVER">Browser</A> <A NAME="HOST">vs Server</A></B></DT> <DT><B>Host</B></DT> <DD><P>Every Webpage requires two machines: the sender's <B>host</B> or <B>Server</B>, and the reader's <A HREF="#BROWSER"><B>Browser.</B></A> It's technically complex, but the basic idea is simple: the server is a sender, a transmitter, that sends the Webpage to your reader. The browser is the receiver, which displays it on the reader's computer. Servers are senders, browsers are receivers. <P>(Yes, technically, there's a bit of two-way traffic: the reader can, for example, fill in a form and send it back to the Server. So in that sense it's like consumer shopping over interactive TV: what the reader can send back is quite limited.)</P> <P>This is why you don't really have any idea what your Webpage looks like on the reader's machine. It's like television: they could have a 48 inch ultracolor quadrophonic home system: or a black and white 3" inch portable. You don't know. So, you design your Webpage as best you can, and send out the information that will work for all standard receivers.</P> <P>Note that both Microsoft and Netscape make both Server and Browser software. Microsoft's server package is called <B>Internet Information Server</B>: Netscape makes a variety of products, including the <B>Enterprise Server</B>, the <B>Commerce Server</B>, and so on.</P> <P>The important thing to know here is that you <B>don't</B> have to match server and browser: a Netscape browser can read Webpages that came from a Microsoft Server and vice versa. Deciding what server to use often has to do with security issues, like whether your site needs to accept credit card numbers for ordering, and a lot of other technical features. If you're familiar with automated FAXing systems or voicemail information systems, it's the same idea: the equipment you choose for your office should work with any standard equipment that the consumer has at their location. <P>One more semi-technical note: technical people tend to use Server to sometimes mean the physical computer that the sending system uses, and sometimes to mean the software package like Netscape Enterprise server: and it seems like no matter which way <I>you</I> use it, they correct you. Just be patient on this one, and recognize that when they're talking about <I>Server</I>, they're talking about something to do with sending the Webpage, and it's probably something that you as a company have a lot of control over. If they're talking about the <I>Browser</I>, they're talking about the receiving part of the connection, it's on the reader's system, and you probably don't have much control over it.</P> <P>As a marketing manager, you will help decide whether your company will purchase its own Server, or whether you will contract with a <B>Hosting Service</B>. It's generally <I>more</I> expensive to host your own Website, and requires an additional level of technical expertise. Most IS Directors prefer not to share space between computers hosting Websites and other company systems, because of the security issues involved when you get visitors from all over. When you do your own hosting, you have to maintain all the phone connections and Internet connections so that people can reach your Website. One technical manager says that the idea of hosting your own site is very similar to the idea of having your own television station: it may be justified for some companies, but not for most. It's probably more accurate to say that it's similar to setting up your own videoconferencing center. These are often cost-justified for large companies who will be making extensive use of them, but for smaller ones, or those who will use them less often, it's better to use a Videoconference Center's facilities. Running your own server is probably best justified when you run an <A HREF="gloss2.html#INTRANET">Intranet</A>--that is, when you use the server to communicate with your own employees. A single Website for marketing purposes may require updating only once or twice a month--a company Intranet may need updating every hour. The additional work and the difference in security requirements between a marketing site and one that manages confidential company information is often enough to justify bringing hosting inhouse in these situations.</P> <P>If you are going to rent space on someone else's server, how do you find someone to host your Website? That's easy. Many <A HREF="gloss2.html#ISP">Internet Service Providers</A> offer these services. Your Website designer should be able to help you evaluate the pros and cons of renting space vs. purchasing your own server.</P> </DL><A NAME="D"> </A> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <H2><A NAME="C">C - D</A></H2> <STRONG><A HREF="gloss1.html#A">A</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#B">B</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#C">C</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#D">D</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#E">E</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#F">F</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#G">G</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#H">H</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#I">I</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#J">J</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#K">K</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#L">L</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#M">M</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#N">N</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#O">O</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#P">P</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#Q">Q</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#R">R</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#S">S</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#T">T</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#U">U</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#V">V</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#W">W</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#X">X</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Y</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Z</A> </strong> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <DL> <DT><B><A NAME="CACHE">Cache</A></B></DT> <DD><P><B>Cache</B> (pronounced <em>cash</em>) actually has several different technical meanings. But the most important one in regard to the Web has to do with trying to speed things up. Remember--every request you send over the Internet for a picture or text takes time. The Cache is a file on your <i>reader's computer</I> where their system stores a copy of things they've asked for recently. Then, if the reader asks for the <I>same</I> thing again, instead of issuing another Internet request, the reader's computer can simply use the copy from the Cache, sometimes saving as much as 10 or 20 seconds.</P> <P>How big is the Cache and how often is it emptied? Well, that's up to each reader. Some save copies only during one session-- others may save it for weeks. You <I>don't</I> have to worry about them getting old information, though--the system is smart enough to check and see if it has the most current before displaying it from the cache. (It takes a lot less time to just check the dates than it does to send the whole file over again.)</P> <P>Here's the one thing that you, as a marketing manager, need to know about caching: <b>you can use the Cache to your advantage for a multi-page site, because with caching, the more often you reuse the same pictures, the faster the site will appear to your readers.</B></P> <P>Say you have a Webpage with 10 pictures. That's going to require 11 different requests from the reader's machine to yours. One request for <I>every</I>--even those little "bullets" and icons. Now suppose the reader goes to your page 2. Perhaps it has 10 pictures, too--but 8 of those are the same icons and bullets that appeared on page 1. The reader's machine will be smart enough to know that it already has copies of those 8, and it will use the copies first, making page 2 load much faster than page 1. This is why most sites load so much more quickly the second time you visit. When you design for the Web, you want to limit the number of unique images you have, because then you'll take advantage of the reader's Cache.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="CLICK">CLICK</A></B> </DT> <DD><P>When is a <B>Click</B> not a "click"? There are a number of readers on the Web who don't use a mouse. Some nongraphical <A HREF="#BROWSER">browsers</A> don't support them--readers select <A HREF="gloss1b.html#HYPERTEXT">hypertext links</A> by using a right arrow or an <CODE>ENTER</CODE> key. Some laptops use a trackball or a touchpad or other "pointer device" instead of a mouse. However, just as we still say "dial 911" even for touch-tone phones, <I>click</I> has become a short-hand way of saying "Do whatever the equivalent is on your system/browser of a single left-mouse click."</P> <P>Throughout this glossary, when we use the term <I>Click</I> we are using it in this sense.</P> <DT><B><A NAME="COMPUSERVE">COMPUSERVE</A></B> </DT> <DD><P><B>Compuserve</B> is sometimes abbreviated <B>CIS</B>, for Compuserve Information Service. Like <A HREF="#AOL">America Online</A> (AOL) and Prodigy, Compuserve is a commercial service. Members pay a monthly membership fee of about $10, <em>plus</em> a per hour charge after the first few hours. Compuserve, AOL, and Prodigy are to the Web what Cable TV is to television. Some of the services are also offered free on the <A HREF="gloss2b.html#OPENWEB">Open Web;</A> others are available exclusively to Compuserve members. Compuserve has long had the reputation of being the most business-oriented of the commercial services. In the last year, though, the company has run into some difficulties as more and more business services become available on the Open Web. Compuserve ships with a version of Spry Mosaic, a modern <a HREF="#BROWSER">browser</A> with many features, but which hasn't quite kept up with Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Compuserve signed a deal this year similar to AOL's to start providing Microsoft Internet Explorer to its members, probably in early 1997. Like AOL members, Compuserve members have enough space on a regular account to host a small Webpage, about the size of a 4-page <A HREF="gloss2.html#BROCHURE">"online brochure"</A>.</P> <DT><A NAME="CONTENT"><B>Content</B></A></DT> <DD><B>If you think of a Website as an "infomercial", then the "info" part would be called "Content" on the Web.</B> <P>On the Web, <B>Content</B> is the opposite of fluff. It's words worth reading. Content can be graphical: a bar chart of company sales, or a photograph of a museum piece. It can be lists of <A HREF="gloss2.html#URL">Web addresses</A> of other sites of interest to the reader. It can be just words. Poetry could be content; so can nonfiction like this glossary. A page that said, "Welcome to my Cool Page!" with animated fireworks would probably be low-content. <P>Many consumer surveys on the Web, including the largest at <A HREF="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/" target=_top>GVU</A>, show that what makes readers come back to a Webpage is content, not pretty layout.</P> <P><B>Use <A HREF="#BLEED">Bleeding Edge</A> technologies and multimedia to win awards-- <BR>use content to win readers and keep them coming back.</B></P> <P>If you want your site to win some awards, attract readers, get written up in magazines and newspapers, and have lots of other sites linking to it, then aim for a nice-looking page with lots of content. If you want your page to get picked as a Site of the Day and appeal to those who use the Web for entertainment, rather than for business or purchasing, then use <A HREF="#BLEED">Bleeding Edge</A> technologies.</P> <P>Both are legitimate marketing goals, but they're not usually combinable on the same page. However, and this an important issue to address with your Web designer, <B>you may be able to accomplish both at the same <A HREF="gloss2c.html#WEBSITE">Website</A>.</B> There are a number of sites that have one or two splashy pages, designed specifically to attract the attention of press reviewers looking for "cool", and which then provide high-content consumer pages and an online store or information center. First time visitors visit the cool page--repeat visitors skip it, and enter directly into the content areas. This can be a highly effective site design. <P>For an example, see <A HREF="www.hotwired.com/" target=_top><CITE>HOTWIRED</CITE></A> magazine's site. The first two pages are pure splash--fun the first time, but many repeat visitors <A HREf="#BOOKMARK">bookmark</A> the <I>second</I> page as their reentry point, to save those few seconds on repeat visits. Note also on the HOTWIRED site that the deeper into the site you go, the easier it is on the eyes, so that the magazine archives use a plain white background. This is the same idea: isolate the flashiness into entertainment areas, but keep the hard-core information (that is, the high content) quick to navigate and easy to read.</P> <DT><A NAME="COOKIE"><B>COOKIE</B></A></DT> <DT><B>INFORMATION TRACKING</B></DT> <DD><P>As Websites became more complex, and in particular as the typical site grew to be multiple pages, Website designers began looking for ways to keep information about a visitor from one page to another.</P> <P>The most common purpose is <A hREF="gloss2b.html#SHOPCART">shopping carts</A>. Say you're visiting an online bookstore. You're looking for several books, one on marketing, one on chess, one on babycare for your sister.</P> <P>As you wander through the "store," you'd like to put your selections in a "shopping cart," then pay for them all at once.</P> <P> Before <B>cookies</B>, the information about <em>you</EM> (the books that you want to order, but haven't ordered yet) was lost as you left each page. That meant commercial sites needed you to place an order from each page--or to wait, get to the end of your shopping, and then hope that you could remember everything interesting you'd seen.</P> <P>Netscape decided to solve the problem with "magic cookies."</P> <P>Netscape said essentially, "We know that security concerns on the net will not allow us to keep information about visitors--but, we can build something <strong>into our browser</strong> so that the browser itself can remember some information (by writing to a predefined <em>cookie file</em>), and then the browser can, on request, pass all that information up to the server at one time."</P> <P>To take another example, have you ever been to a site where the page said, "Welcome back!" ?</P> <P>They know you've been there before, but NOT because of any information that the server is keeping in between visits. Instead, your own browser (Netscape or, at this point, MSIE) is keeping a bit of server-specific information in a cookie on your own system. When you get to the server, the server says, "Got any cookies for me?" and the browser says, "Yes, this one is for you"--and, bingo, the server knows you've been there before.</P> <P>Lots of people love cookies--and some people DON'T like them. One of the main problems is privacy (not security)--people may not want to give the information back that the server is requesting.</P> <P>Cookies <em>cannot</em> get data from your hard drive other than what is in the cookie file, and they can't get your email address or any information that you didn't give the requesting page in the first place. What they can do is store the information in between visits on your own machine, and then give it back to the site when you visit the next time.</P> <DT><B>COPYRIGHT AND THE WEB</B></DT> <DD>In general, copyright applies to Web creations just as it does to printed materials or radio broadcasts. Because this is an area where many details are still developing, Jade River Designs maintains a separate <A HREF="copyrt.html" target=_top>online list of Copyright References</A> at http://www.jaderiver.com/copyrt.html. </DL> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <H2><A NAME="E">E</A></H2> <STRONG><A HREF="gloss1.html#A">A</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#B">B</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#C">C</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#D">D</A> <A HREF="gloss1.html#E">E</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#F">F</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#G">G</A> <A HREF="gloss1b.html#H">H</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#I">I</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#J">J</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#K">K</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#L">L</A> <A HREF="gloss2.html#M">M</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#N">N</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#O">O</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#P">P</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#Q">Q</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#R">R</A> <A HREF="gloss2b.html#S">S</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#T">T</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#U">U</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#V">V</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#W">W</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#X">X</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Y</A> <A HREF="gloss2c.html#Y">Z</A> </strong> <BR><IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <DL> <DT><B><A NAME="EMAIL">Marketing by e-Mail</A></B></DT> <DT><B>Auto-Responders</B></DT> <DT><B>HTML Mail</B></DT> <DT><B>e-Mail Bombs</B></DT> <DD><P>Because distribution on the Internet is so inexpensive, it's tempting to think of using it like direct mail--to broadcast general advertisements to thousands of people.</P> <P><B>The problem is that many people must pay for reading their e-mail. Would you hire a promotions director who wants to make collect calls to new prospects?</B> That's the exact same impact you have on customers who receive unwanted e-mail when they have to pay for it. (This includes <I>all</I> members of the commercial services like America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy, etc.)</P> <P>Those who are most sensitive about costs probably use special utilities that pull in batches of e-mail as quickly as possible off their account, which means they don't have the option to delete unwanted e-mail--it's paid for before they see it.</P> <P>Now you know why the commercial services want so much to block "Junk e-mail" from their members. It's not just a question of convenience: their members are complaining because they must pay for these unwanted advertisements.</P> <P>Yes, e-mail is a wonderful way to distribute information about your company and products--provided you're working with a <i>qualified</I> list of people that want to receive the information. Sending unwanted e-mail, or posting ads to noncommercial areas may generate some sales: but it will also generate a lot of <A HREF="gloss1b.html#FLAME">flames</A>, and alienate many more potential customers than it gets.</P> <P>Your Website is an excellent way to get qualified names of prospects interested in receiving information. You can then add them to your mailing list. Just make sure that any mailing list includes instructions on how to "unsubscribe" so that they can remove themselves from the list when they want to. That way you preserve customer satisfaction and still get the advantages of very inexpensive distribution.</P> <P><B>The first step in designing a marketing piece is to consider the impact on the audience. Many marketing managers find it helps to think of their Webpage as a television "infomercial", and their e-mail as telephone soliciting.</B> People rarely have a hostile response to an infomercial--they just change the channel. If they do stay, it's because something caught their interest. They want a good combination of information and product. Telephone soliciting, though, usually finds a much less receptive audience. It's easier to seem intrusive and damage your company's reputation. The fact that e-mail may seem less expensive doesn't automatically make it a better marketing choice. <B>Add in the fact that many readers must pay for their e-mail, and your e-mail marketing becomes telemarketing by collect call.</B></P> <P>Assuming that you are sending e-mail to <I>qualified</I> prospects, you will probably want to look into an <B>Autoresponder</B>. Similar to many fax-back services, an auto-responder is a program that will automatically generate a response when an e-mail comes in. This is very useful both for handling information requests and for generating order acknowledgements.</P> <P>Your Website and your mailing list can work together. Include announcements of new Website features in the mailing; provide a way for visitors to the Website to sign up for the mailing list. Web information can be more visual, is easier for the reader to navigate, and is generally speaking to readers in a receptive mood, since they came to you. e-Mail is appropriate for all-text items, for short announcements, and for directed or more private information.</P> <P>Netscape 3.0 recently introduced the capability of sending e-mail which looks just like a Web page, with pictures, color, etc. They call this feature <B>HTML MAIL</B>. The problem with this, as Netscape discovered about a month after its release, is that it also opened the door to the same kind of security problems that plague some Webpages: if a reader has this "HTML Mail" feature turned on, they can receive a "letter bomb" that will temporarily disable their system. No reports of permanent damage have come in, but if a reader was doing two things at once, like working on an Excel spreadsheet and reading their mail, having to restart their system to clear the "letter bomb" could cause them to lose some work. HTML mail is still very new, and reaches only a limited audience.</P> </DL> <IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""> <H2><A HREF="gloss1b.html" target=glossary>Section 2: F - H</A></H2> <H2><A HREF="gloss2.html" target=glossary>Section 3: I - M</A></H2> <H2><A HREF="gloss2b.html" target=glossary>Section 4: N - S</A></H2> <H2><A HREF="gloss2c.html" target=glossary>Section 5: T - Z</A></H2> <IMG SRC="grenline.gif" width="100%" alt=""><BR> <img src="jrd2b.gif"width=96 align=right alt="JRD Logo"><BR> For more information about <A HREF="http://www.jaderiver.com/">Jade River Designs</A>, you can e-mail us at <A HREF="mailto:jaderiver@jaderiver.com">jaderiver@jaderiver.com</A>. <BR><font size="-2">Unless otherwise credited, all images and text are Copyright 1996, Jade River Designs, Atlanta, Georgia. All rights reserved.</font> </body>