SEO Glossary - Letter B
b2b
(Business to Business). Normally used to describe an eBusiness solution that caters to other businesses.
b2Commerce
(Business to Commerce). See b2b above
Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.
Bad Neighborhood
A web page that has been penalized by a search engine for using shady SEO tactics, such as hidden text or link farms.
Bandwidth
Measure (in kilobytes of data transferred) of the traffic on the site.
Bandwidth
How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.
Banners
Banners are the basic unit of advertising on the Web. They were pioneered by GNN and HotWired back in the frontier days of 1994 and are now nearly ubiquitous, appearing in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and locations. You're probably looking at one right now, just above this text.
baud rate
Same as bps--Bits Per Second). A unit used to measure the number of data bits a modem can transfer in one second. One baud is how many signals a modem can handle in one second. Information is measured in bits, and bits come in the signal. Higher baud modems can send and receive more signals in a second, and the faster speeds also cram more bits into a signal.
Behavior
Microsoft implemented the behavior attribute of Cascading Stylesheets in a way that enabled object-oriented programming to enter the world of Web authoring. By encapsulating dHTML in an external object, the properties and methods of that object can be used. A Web page can then use these objects with the behavior attribute. This means, for example, that a Web author no longer has to perform an explicit browser detection.
binary file
Refers to a file that contains information in a non-text form (graphics, sounds, spreadsheets, etc.). Any file that is not a text file. Any arrangements of bits that is meaningful to a computer, without regard to any correspondence to a human-readable character set.
Bitmap
A bitmap is a mapped array of pixels that can be saved as a file. Both JPEG and GIF are bitmap graphic formats. Currently, the only other way to store an image is as a vector graphic. You can't easily scale bitmap images, but you can control every single pixel and thus achieve many effects impossible in vector graphics. Conversely, vector formats offer advantages of scalability and lower bandwidth requirements. When you compress a bitmapped image, you suck out some of the visual information. To bypass this, the portable network graphics format (or PNG, pronounced "ping") was designed to store a single bitmap image for transmittal over computer networks without losing this data.
bookmark
or favorite) Most Web browsers give you an option of adding a URL to a "HotList" or by marking it with a "Bookmark". By doing this, you can store the linking information (the URL) to any Web pages you plan to revisit. That way, if you decide to go back to a Web site, its URL is already catalogued and at your fingertips for easy reference. (Spry Mosaic uses "HotLists", Netscape Navigator uses "Bookmarks" and Microsoft Internet Explorer uses "Favorites"). Other Web browsers may use those terms, or may call their URL-saving feature something else.)
Boolean logic
A system for searching and retrieving information from computers by using and combining terms such as AND, OR, and NOT to sort data.
Branding
Branding is the messaging work a company does to encourage consumers to feel a certain way about their product. From touchy-feely character attributes to laundry lists of product features, it's a marketer's job to help you assimilate these ideas.
Broadband
Broadband is a general term used to describe any high-speed, high-bandwidth, "always on" Internet connection. Cable modems, DSL modems, satellite link-ups, and T1 lines are all broadband devices. Dial-up modems and other low-bandwidth devices are called "narrowband."
Broken Link
A link that no longer takes the user to the destination page when it is clicked on. This is usually the result of the destination page having been renamed or deleted from the server. Also referred to as a Dead Link.
Browser
A program used to locate and view HTML documents (Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Explorer, for example.)
Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
Browser
Short for Web Browser; it's the tool (program) that allows you to surf the web. You probably used your Web Browser to locate this page. The most popular Web Browsers right now are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.
|
