Ad clicks - number of times users click on an ad banner

Ad click rate - sometimes referred to as “click-through”, this is the percentage of ad views that resulted in an ad click.

Address - a unique identifier for a computer or site online, usually a URL for a website or marked with an @ for an e-mail address. Literally , it is how your computer finds a location on the information highway.

Affiliate program - an arrangement in which a company pays you a percentage of the sale for every online customer they get through a link from your website to theirs.

Advanced E-mail Form - your basic E-mail form, with as many additional fields, as requested by the client. The fields are determined mutually, with the client and the manager, striving for the E-commerce optimized solution.

Banner AD - a banner is the small, boxed message that appears atop commercial websites (usually the home page or on the first page of an e-zine) that are usually linked to the advertiser’s site.

Blog Noun (plural blogs); Etymology: Shortened from weblog. Personal or corporate website in which the author writes, as their reflexion on a given subject evolves, their opinions, impressions, etc., so as to make them public and receive reactions and comments about them.

Browser - a.k.a. "internet browser" a computer application which is programmed to interpret the HTML code into a visually coherent manner (websites)

Buttons - objects that , when clicked once, will cause something to happen

CGI (common gateway interface) - an interface creation scripting program that allows web pages to be made on the fly based on information from buttons, checkboxes, text input, and so forth.

Chat room - an area online where you can chat with other members in real time

Click - the opportunity for a visitor to be transferred to a location by clicking on an ad, as recorded by the server

Click-through rate - percentage of times a user responded to an advertisement by clicking on the ad button/banner. At one time the granddaddy of web-marketing measurements, click-through is based on the idea that online promotions that do what they’re intended to do will elicit a click. Also, the percentage of people receiving an e-mail who will click on a URL embedded in the message to reach a specific web page

Cookie - a file on your computer that records information such as where you have been on the World Wide Web. The browser stores this information which allows a site to remember the browser in future transactions or requests. Since the Web’s protocol has no way to remember requests, cookies read and record a user’s browser type and IP address, and store the information on the computer. The cookie can be read only by a server in the domain that stored it. Visitors can accept or deny cookies, by changing a setting in their browser preferences.

Copy Editing - the process of optimizing the content of a website (text, pictures, dynamic features… etc) to provide for best orientation along the prime theme of the given web-. For example, for E-commerce websites, this would be the Optimal Path to Purchase, for an art website, extraordinary graphic interface, etc.

Counter (see also Web-site Counter) - is a dynamic feature of your website, which increments each time your domain is accessed from a unique IP, showing an approximate, but yet close enough, score of your websites visit. Counters can be either displayed on your website, or hidden.

CSS - content style sheets. It’s a lexical variation of HTML, allowing for stern pre-definition of the design’s attributes.

Customer Survey - either an online form, or some other website feature which would require input from a visitor, which has been pre-defined according to the marketing-research data which the client specifies. Customer surveys are a very important component of the Dynamic Merchandising techniques, vital to a better E-commerce solution.

Custom Web Development Solution - a web feature (or a collection of such) which has been designed after the specifications of a particular client, mostly unique than any other.

Customizable Affiliate Program - an affiliate program allowing the management and distribution of advertising ads (banners), which would be placed on affiliates’ websites, in exchange for a percentage of a winner click.

Database management - for e-marketing, this includes collecting, analyzing, and disseminating electronic information about customers, prospects, and products in order to increase profits.

Database marketing - collecting , analyzing, and disseminating electronic information about customers, prospects, and products in order to increase profits.

Data mining - marketers extract hidden predictive information from the warehouse via statistical analysis in order to find patterns and other information in databases.

Data warehouse - repository for an entire organization’s historical data, designed specifically to support analysis necessary for decision making.

Direct marketing - any direct communication to a consumer or business recipient that is designed to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, and/or a visit to a store or other place of business for purchase of specific product.

Dead Link - a link which has lost the target of it’s re-direct. It’s invalid, dead.

Design - the aesthetic essence of a website. In other words: it’s the positioning, the colors, the size, and the format of text, pictures, and other website elements. Psionic-Studios pride itself with its exemplary and unique design.

Design Layout - the concept of a website’s design, for the purpose of providing a solid, delineated foundation for the design’s creation.

Direct Marketing - any direct communication to a consumer or business recipient that is designed to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, and/or a visit to a store or other place of business for purchase of a specific product.

Direct response advertising - seeks to create action such as inquiry or purchase from consumers as a result of seeing the add

Distributed E-mail - email sent to distribution lists is redistributed to entire subscription list

DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) - A complex piece of legislation that contains several provisions, among them it grants internet service Providers (ISPs) protection from acts of user infringement as long as certain procedures are followed, including the prompt reporting and disabling of infringing material, and criminalizes the circumvention of software protections and the development of distribution of circumvention products.

Domain - part of the DNS (domain naming system) name that specifies details about the host. A domain is the main subdivision of internet addresses, the last three letters after the final dot, and it tells you what kind of organization you are dealing with. There are six top-level domains widely used in the U.S. (.com - commercial, .edu - educational, .net - network operations, .gov - U.S. government, .mil - US military, and .org - organization

Download - the process of obtaining a file from a remote location.

Drill down - a term used to express what a surfer does as he or she goes further into a website - deeper into the back pages, deeper into the data. Make sure that the information someone ends up digging out, is worth digging for.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) - Technology that refers to a family of methods for transmitting at speeds up to 8Mbps (8 million bits per second) over a standard phone line

Dynamic pricing - the strategy of offering different prices to different customers

E-business model - a method by which the organization sustains itself in the long term using information technology, which includes its value proposition for partners and customers as well as its revenue stream

E-business strategy - the deployment of enterprise resources for capitalizing on technologies to reach specified objectives and ultimately improve performance and create competitive advantage

E-commerce - Using electronic information technologies on the Internet to allow direct selling and automatic processing of purchases between partners.

ECPA (Electronic Communication Privacy Act) - as with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, this provides sanctions for misuse of consumer data

EDI (Electronic data interchange) - the computerized exchantge of information between organizations in order to avoid paper forms. The classic use of EDI is to eliminate purchase requisitions between firms

E-Mail Form - an online form, which enables an user to send a message to a hidden address (designated by the administrator)

E-mail form Marketing Enhanced Automatic Response - an automatic response to the E-mail form, in the html format. The response looks and feels like a webpage, and besides the regular “thank you”s it would contain promotional marketing material (links, banners, etc), designated by the client

E-list - a direct-mail containing addresses and used to distribute promotional messages over the internet

E-mail - an abbreviation for Electronic mail, which is a network service that allows users to send and receive messages via computer. Once confined to a closed group within a particular network, the Internet and common message protocols make it possible to send and receive messages worldwide.

E-zine - a part-promotional newsletter or magazine distributed on the Internet

Electronic checks - the consumer sets up an account and authorizes a third-party web site to pay an amount and withdraw funds from the user’s checking account

E-mail advertising - the least expensive type of online advertising, e-mail ads are generally just a few sentences of text embedded in another firm’s e-mail content

Enterprise Knowledge Management (EKM) - a combination of the database contents and the technology used to create the system: the marketing information system (MIS) at a company - wide level. Marketing knowledge contributes to the EKM system through the MIS

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - Back-office operations such as order entry, purchasing, invoicing, and inventory control. ERP systems allow organizations to optimize business processes while lowering costs.

e-tailer - an intermediary firm that buys products and resells them online, just as retailers do offline.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) - the next generation of HTML that allows Web browsers to pull information from databases on-the-fly and display in web pages

Extranet - two or more networks, that are joined for the pu7rpose of sharing information. If two companies link their intranets, they would have an extranet

FAQ (frequently asked questions) - a commonly used abbreviation for “Frequently Asked Questions.” Most Internet sites will have a FAQ page or section to explain what is tin the area and how to use its features.

Flame - 1. An intentionally crude or abusive e-mail message or Usenet post. Rule: Don’t do it. Not only is it bad netiquette, but you leave a trail. 2. A complaint message from a spam recipient, sent over the Internet to the advertiser.

File Transfer - the exchange of one or more files between two distinct storage devices.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - the procedure whereby files are transferred from the designer’s computer to the Web server; used in the publication of Web pages

Focus group - a qualitative methodology that attempts to collect in-depth information from participants.

Forms - the pages in most browsers that accept information in text-entry fields. They can be customized to receive company sales data and orders, expense reports, or other information. They can also be used to communicate.

Forum - the forum is an online “market place” where visitors can share ideas, ask questions, expect answers, view previous topics, etc. It’s usually moderated by an administrator, whose job is to monitor the proper behavior.

Frames - the use of multiple, independent sections to create a single web page. Each frame is built as a separate html file but with one “master” file to identify each section. When a user requests a page with frames, several pages will be displayed as panes. Sites using frames may report one page request with several panes as multiple page requests.

GIF (graphic interchange format) - GIF is a graphic format that can be displayed on almost all web browser. It is a common compression format used for transferring graphics files between different computers. Most of the “pictures” you see online are GIF files.

GOOGLE - www.google.com is the primary example of the ultimate use of this big mythical concept - the internet. That ultimate use is the rapid acquisition of relevant information. Do not skip the best search engine, worldwide.

Guestbook - a guestbook is a place online where users can leave some remarks on their impressions from your website.

GUI - Graphical user interface lets users interact with computers via icons and a pointer instead of typing in text at a command line.

Hit - the sending of a single file, whether text, graphic, audio, or other type of file. When a page request is made, all elements or files that comprise the page are recorded as hits on a server’s log file. While there is no accurate formula for determining the number of visitors to a page or site based on the number of hits - one visitor could visit a single time each - a hit oat least indicates somebody was there. Thus, hits can be far more valuable than the tracking devices in any other media.

Home page - the page designated as the main point of entry of a website (or main page) or the starting point when a browser first connects to the Internet. Typically, it welcomes you and introduces the purpose of the site, or the organization sponsoring it, and then provides links to the lower-level pages. In business terms, it’s the grabber. If your home page downloads too slowly, or it’s unclear or uninteresting, you will probably lose a customer.

Hop - movement of a digital packet of information from one node to the next. In general the fewer the number of hops, the faster the packet arrives at its destination

Hot link - a link which is actively redirecting the user to a different website/file, upon a click (in contrast to being “dead”)

HTML (hypertext markup language) - a coding language used to make hypertext documents for use on the web. It resembles old-fashioned typesetting code, where a block of text is surrounded by codes that indicate how it should appear. HTML allows text to be “linked” to another file on the internet.

HTTP (hyper-text transfer protocol) - a standard method of publishing information as hypertext in html format on the Internet, http is the format of the World Wide Web. When a browser sees “http” at the beginning of an address, it knows that it is viewing a web page.

HTTPS - HTTP with SSL (Secure Socket layer) encryption for security purposes

Hyperlink - this is the clickable link in text or graphics on a Web page that takes you to another place on the same page, another page or a whole other site. It is the single most powerful and important function of online communications. Hyperlinks are revolutionizing the way the world gets its information.

Hypertext - any text that can be chosen by a reader and which causes another document to be retrieved and displayed

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) - Responsible for the administration of the Internet name and address system, resolving conflicts that surround the assignment and possession of domains.

Information architecture - the design of web site organization, indexing, labeling, and navigation systems to support browsing and searching.

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) - a comprehensive plan of communication that includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, personal selling, and the rest of the marketing mix to provide maximum communication impact with stakeholders

Intelligent Sales Agent Module - a modification of a shopping cart which would incorporate an Artificial Intelligence application (agent) to track and record user movement and interaction within a given website. On the basis of these records, the marketing team of the site’s

Interactive - a feature of a website, permitting the visitor to interact with the server.

Internet - 1. A collection of approximately 60,000 independent, interconnected networks that use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from ARPANet of the late 1960S and early 1970s. The NET is a worldwide system of computer networks providing reliable and redundant connectivity between disparate computers and systems by using common transport and data protocols.

Internet Domain Name - the unique name that identifies an internet entity

Internet marketing - use of the internet and other network systems for marketing a firm’s products. E-marketing may be replacing theis term because it includes a broader range of technologies

Internet Telephony - use of the internet to carry simultaneous digitized voice transmissions

Intersitial - 1. “Something in between” and is a page that is inserted in the normal flow of content between a user and a site. An interstitial ad is an “intrusive” ad unit that is spontaneously delivered without specifically being requested by a user. Blocking the site behind it, interstitial ads are designed to grab consumers’ attention for the few nanoseconds it takes them to close the window. Interstatials can be full pages or small daughter windows. Also referred to as “pop-ups.” 2. A banner appearing in a location other than a home page or newar the masthead of an e-zine.

Intranet - Private networks, usually maintained by corporations for internal communications, which use internet - usually Web - protocols, software, and servers. They are relatively cheap, fast and reliable networking and information warehouse system

Instant messaging - short messages sent simultaneously between users, online at the same time

IP address (Internet Protocol address) - Every system connected to the internet has a unique IP address, which consists of a number in the format A.B.C.D. here each of the four sections is a decimal number from 0-255. Most people use domain names instead, and the resolution between domain names and

ISP (internet service provider) - 1. A business that provides access to the internet. Its services are available to either individuals or companies and include a dial-in interface with the Internet, software supply and often website and intranet design. There are currently more than 3,000 ISPs in the United States alone.

Java - an object-oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems that supports enhanced features such as animation or real-time updating of information.

JPEG (joint photographic experts group) - a graphics format newer than GIF, which displays photographs and graphic images with millions of colors. It also compresses well and is easy to download. Unfortunately, not many browsers currently support it, so don’t use it for your logo.

Key words - words or phrases, which would be entered by a surfer into a search prompt, in order to retrieve desired information. The more precisely the words describe the topic, the higher the chance of retrieval of the correct information.

Keyword advertising - presents banner ads or links on a search query return page based on the keywords the user enters at a search engine

Knowledge management - the process of managing the creation, use, and dissemination of knowledge

Link - an electronic connection between two websites.

List server - a program that automatically sends e-mail to a list of subscribers. It is the mechanism that is used to keep newsgroups informed.

Load - usually used with upload or download, it means to transfer files or software - to load - from one computer or server to another computer or server.

Log file - in internet server software, a feature that records every file sent by the server along with the destination address and time sent

Manual customization - creating systems according to explicit a priori instructions from the user regarding preferred content categories.

Maintenance - the process to administer (changes on) a website, after the final contract on a website is complete.

Merchant Account - a virtual bank account, which has the primary function to issue accounts the parameters of which, can be used for configuring payment gateways.

Merchant ID (MID) - one of two ID’s, issued as a result to registering a merchant account with any one of many merchant account providers. The Merchant ID and the Terminal ID (TID) are input into the payment gateway, making the whole machine a functioning whole.

Meta Tags - used to identify the creator of a Web page, what html specs the page follows, the keywords, and description of the page.

MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extensions) - method of encoding a file for delivery over the Internet.

Multimedia - the audio and video experience that is not prevalent yet on the internet due primarily to lack of sufficient bandwidth for its transmittal

NET (No Electronic Theft) Act - confers copyright protection for computer content and imposes sanctions when infringement is committed for commercial or private financial gain or by the reproduction or distribution of one or more copies of copyrighted works, having $1,000 or more in retail value.

Networked applications - include distributed internet applications, linked corporate and legacy data, web-enabled and live applications, and object-oriented applications. These are database applications and methods for sharing information within an organization.

Netiquette - the proper type of online behavior. (No spamming please, no obsenities, no false contact information, etc)

Newsgroup - a discussion group on Usenet devoted to talking about a specific topic.

Online auctions - the auction-style sale of merchandise via the internet

Online community - users who are widely dispersed geographically but come together in cyberspace based on similar interests.

Online exchange - electronic forum in which buyers and sellers meet to make transactions

Online observation - monitors people’s behavior by watching them in relevant situations, such as consumer chatting and e-mail posting through chat rooms, bulletin boards, or mailing lists.

Opt-in - To agree to receive promotional e-mails when registering on a particular website from the site owner and other companies to whom she may rent your e-mail address.

Opt-out - To request that an e-list owner take your name off the list or at least makes sure you are not sent any promotional mails.

Outsource - to contract services from external firms in order to accomplish internal tasks

Page - all websites are a collection of electronic “pages.” Each web page is a document formatted in html that contains text, images, or media objects such as RealAudio player files, QuickTime, etc.

Parallel pull - the technology that shopping agents employ in which what appear to the user as one shopping agent are actually multiple agents that simultaneously (in parallel) collect (pull) information from relevant web sites located worldwide

Payment Gateway - a main component of the online payment processing system. It has as input the merchant ID of the proprietor, as specified by the Merchant Account Provider. It’s the equivalent of a cash register, inside a store. With that input, it processes money transactions online.

PDF (portable document format) - adobe’s translation format used primarily for distributing files across a network, or on a website. Files with a .pdf extension have been created in another application and then translated into .pdf files so they can be viewed by anyone - regardless of the platform.

Penetration pricing - the practice of charging a low price for a new product for the purpose of gaining market share

Performance metrics - specific measures designed to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization’s operations

Permission marketing - allows advertisers to present marketing communication messages to consumers who agree to receive them

Personalization - ways that marketers personalize in an impersonal computer networked environment. For example, web sites that greet users by name, providing personalized information.

Personalized Copy Editing - see Copy Editing

PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection Rules) - this application allows for the filtering of sites that are deemed to be inappropriate for minors.

Pop-ups - annoying little unwanted windows, most often the result of their inadvertent installation along with some software. They serve their proprietor’s economic interests, and are considered in the web jargon “viral marketing”. It’s un-netiqual.

Portal - a website or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and online shopping malls.

Protocol - a formal, standardized, set of operating rules governing the format, timing, and error control of data transmissions and other activities on a network

Proxy server - a system that stores frequently used information closer to the end user to provide faster access or to reduce the load on another server. It also serves as the gateway to the internet

Push - the delivery (“pushing”) of information that is initiated by the server rather than being requested (“pulled”) by a user.

RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line) - one variation of DSL, in which the information is sent at the maximum speed the line can handle under changing weather and interference conditions.

RealAudio/Video - a commercial software program that plays audio/video on demand, without waiting for long file transfers. For instance, you can listen to National Public Radio’s entire broadcast on the internet.

Real-time chat - web users type messages to each other in real time at a website

Real-time profiling - special software tracks a user’s movements through a web site, then compiles and reports the data at a moment’s notice

Respondent authenticity - disadvantage of online research which is difficult to determine that respondents are who they say they are

Reverse auction - individual buyers enter the price they will pay for particular items at the purchasing agent’s web site, and sellers can agree or not.

RFM analysis - scans the database for three criteria: recensy, frequency, and monetary value. This process allows firms to target offers to the customers who are most responsive, thus saving promotional costs and increasing sales.

Rich Media - Interactive multimedia presentations in Internet direct mail, banner ads, and Web pages.

SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) - one variation of DSL, in which the information is delivered at the same speed upstream or downstream. This option is appropriate for users who want to FTP web pages or send other large files over the net.

Search engine - a program that searches documents for specified key-words and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like AltaVista, and Excite, that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and Usenet newsgroups.

Search Engine Submission - the proper registration and submission of a website, to the most prominent search engines/spiders.

Search Engine Optimization - the editing of a web-site’s html code, so that it’s maximally satisfying every requirement of search engine’s algorithms, for high tracking.

Search Engine Thorough Optimization - the base is the optimization described above, to which are added tweaks, via CSS, for extra optimization. This is the maximally effective method to “aim to please” search engines

Second-generation shopping agents - shopping agents that measure value and not just price

Server - servers are the backbone of the Internet, the computers that are linked by communication lines and “serve up” information in the form of text, graphics, and multimedia to online computers that request data - that’s you. (When a server “goes down” it looses its online link and the information it holds can not be accessed.)

Server-side - refers to activities that take place on an organization’s web server such as processing forms, streaming video, and accessing product databases for sending product web pages to users

Server-side data collection - information about consumer surfing that is gathered and recorded on the web server

Session - a series of consecutive visits made by a visitor to a series of web sites

SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) - a vehicle for legitimizing both the merchant and the consumer as well as protecting the consumer’s credit card number. Under SET the card number is never directly sent to the merchant. Rather a third party is introduced to the transaction with whom both the merchant and consumer communicate to validate one another as well as the transaction.

Shockwave - a plug-in that allows for multimedia movies to play through a browser.

Shopping agents - programs that allow the consumer to rapidly compare prices and features within product categories. Shopping agents implicitly negotiate prices downward on behalf of the consumer by listing companies in order of best price first.

Signature file - a personal footer that can be automatically attached to e-mail.

Site stickiness - a measure of length of time spent at a site

Spam - the use of mailing lists to blanket usenets or private e-mail boxes with indiscriminate, unsolicited messages of a promotional nature. Very bad netiquette. Even worse, it’s bad business. The future of marketing online is about customizing products and information for individual users. Anyone who tries to use old mass market techniques in the new media environment is bound to fail.

Spider - a term used to describe search engines such as Yahoo! And Alta Vista, because of the way they cruise all over the World Wide Web to find information. It is a software program that combs the Web for new sites and updated information on old ones, like a spider looking for a fly.

Splash page - A bridge page between a banner advertisement and an advertiser’s website that provides product information and hot links. Splash pages are replacing many home pages, particularly on sites more involved with news and publishing - as gateways into Web content. They start with a bigger “splash”, more graphics and timely information, and change often - like the cover of a magazine.

Stickiness - a measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining individual users. The term is typically used in promotional material when traffic numbers are too low to be effective in lauding a site’s performance.

Strategic e-marketing - the design of marketing strategy that capitalizes on the organization’s electronic or information technology capabilities to reach specified objectives

Streaming Video/Audio - a media file, which plays in real time, doing away with buffer delay

SWOT - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis. The SWOT analysis objectively evaluates the company’s strengths and weaknesses with respect to the environment and the competition.

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the most widely used protocol on the Internet. TCP/IP is a set of rules that each computer follows in order to enable communication. Only computers using the same protocol are able to communicate.

Telematics - a communication system in an automobile that uses a global positioning system (GPS) for interactive communication between firms and drivers

Third-party logistics - logistics is outsourced such that a third party manages the company’s supply chain and provides value-added services such as product configuration and subassembly.

UCITA (Uniform computer Information Transactions Act) - if adopted by the states, this model would govern all legal agreements pertaining to software transactions, including sales.

URL (uniform resource locator) - an http address used by the World Wide Web to specify a certain site. This is the unique identifier, or address, of a web page on the internet.

Usenet - worldwide network of thousands of computer systems with a decentralized administration. The usenet systems exist to transmit postings to special-interest newsgroups

Value Chain (Integrated logistics) - the supply chain, the manufacturer, and the distribution channel viewed as an integrated system.

Vertical Service Provider (VSP) - an application Service Provider (ASP) that runs an entire business because it aggregates almost all of the value chain functions for the client business.

Viral Marketing - any advertising that propagates itself. When Hotmail users send e-mail, they unwittingly infect the recipient with the tagline at the bottom of the message.

Virtual mall - similar to a shopping mall in which multiple online merchants are hosted at a web site

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) - the term used to refer to Internet telephony that relies on the web to transmit phone calls, thus eliminating long-distance charges.

Web Guestbook - see guestbook

Web Advertising Banner - see Advertising Banner

Web page - an html document, on the web, usually one of many together that make up a website.

Web ring - a number of independent web sites that together build community among users and the products that interest them

Web server - a system capable of continuous access to the internet through retrieving and displaying documents and files via http

Website - a collection of files that are arranged on the World Wide Web under a common address and allow retrieval via a browser.

Winner click - a click on a link, ultimately leading to a purchase, by that visitor.

Wireless - relies on towers to relay signals in a mode very similar to that of cell phones

World Wide Web (WWW or Web) - allows computer users to access information across systems around the world using URLs to identify files and systems and hypertext links to move between files on the same or different systems. The web is a client/server information system that supports the retrieval of data in the form of text, graphgics, and multimedia in a uniform html format. Allowing hypertext links and interactivity on an unprecedented level, its introduction transformed a sleepy, academic communications system into a powerful marketing tool, linking businesses and customers around the world.