SEO Glossary - Letter A
Acquisition
Directly related to trial, acquisition is what marketers call it when you try something and like it. When you click on a banner offering a discount on CDs at CDNow, that's a trial. If you buy something after clicking, you've been acquired. If you're lucky, you'll start receiving great deals on the music you love (also known as "conversion").
Acronyms
Special acronyms are used for chat rooms, and to a lesser extent, email. If you want the full experience of a chat room, you should study up on your web acronyms or at least keep this cheat sheet handy.
Action
"One reason dynamic HTML (dHTML) is called dynamic is its ability to heighten the interactive experience. Because dHTML can utilize each action of the user (a mouseclick, a rollover, a keystroke), it provides a rich and transparent way to process this data. Before dHTML, form attributes would specify \"actions\" for a common gateway interface (CGI) program to process. One of the powerful abilities of dHTML is to pass JavaScript through a browser as a part of a form. For example, when a user checks a box within an HTML form, that click of the mouse can be the action that launches a new window to give or receive further data.
ActiveX
ActiveX is a model for writing programs. ActiveX technology is used to make interactive web pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static pages. With ActiveX, users can ask or answer questions, use push buttons, and interact in other ways with the web page.
Ad Clicks
A web page that presents an ad. Once the visitor has viewed an ad, he/she can click on it (see Ad Click). There may be more than one ad on an ad view.
Ad Views
A click on an advertisement on a web site which takes a visitor to another site, it is referred to as an ad click.
Algorithm
A complex mathematical formula used by a search engine to rank the web pages that it finds by crawling the web.
anonymous FTP
Internet File Transfer Protocol tool allowing you to connect to a site, search through available files, and download any file, document, or program without having to establish a user-id and password on the system where the material resides. By using the special user-id "anonymous", the network user will circumvent local security checks and have access to publicly accessible files on the remote system. Most systems that permit anonymous login require the user's e-mail address as the password.
API
The application program interface (API) is a set of building blocks for programmers. It is made up of routines, protocols, and tools. Most operating environments provide an API so that programmers can write applications consistent with that environment. For example, developing software using the Windows API ensures that your user interface will be consistent with other Windows applications, making it easier for users to learn your new programs.
application
Software that executes a particular task, such as word processing or spreadsheet analysis.
Archie
A program used to search files at FTP sites; there are currently about 30 Archie servers in the world.
Architecture
In Web design, architecture means the arrangement of a Web site's components. Taking the analogy of a physical building, if a Web site's individual pages are rooms, its architecture is the hypertextual relationship between the rooms within the structure.
archive site
A mechanism that renders access to a collection of files across the Internet; also, a computer on which such a collection is stored.
Array
An array is an indexed collection of data values. If an array is named monkey and i is an integer, then monkey[i] is one element of the array; monkey[2] is the third element in the array, since arrays always begin counting on zero. An array's value in JavaScript can refer to other arrays, objects, or functions. Arrays that are indexed by strings instead of integers (for example, monkey[matt] as opposed to monkey[2]) are called associative arrays.
ASP
Active server pages is a Microsoft technology similar to CGI that is used to create dynamic Web pages. Pages using ASP are created with VBScript, Perlscript or JavaScript, and integrated with the HTML of a page. The ASP code is then compiled on-the-fly by the server and outputs standard HTML. ASP is typically used to perform database access or other interactive functions that are interpreted by Microsoft’s Internet information server (IIS). Read Webmonkey's Introduction to ASP for a more opinionated look at this Microsoft tech.
Authentication
Technique by which access to Internet or Intranet resources requires the visitor to identify himself or herself by entering a username and password.
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