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E-Commerce Glossary |
Applet |
| A small computer program which facilitates the performance of particular tasks. |
Bandwidth |
| The capacity of a server to carry or process information. The higher the bandwidth the faster graphics-laden web pages will download. |
Caching |
| The automatic copying into a computer’s memory which occurs when surfing the world wide web. |
Cookie |
| A file sent by some web servers to your computer's hard drive to enable you to quickly and easily return to particular sites. Cookies give rise to privacy concerns as they are often used to store information used for marketing purposes. |
Cybersquatting |
| Bad faith, abusive domain name registration. Cybersquatters register company and product names as domain names with a view to selling them at inflated prices to the “rightful” owners. |
Deep link |
| A hypertext link directly to a web page, often bypassing home pages or other identifying pages. |
Digital Certificate |
| A pop up window that allows you to identify the level of encryption used to secure a particular web site. |
Digital Signature |
| A complex numeric "signature" designed to be used, in conjunction with special software, to authenticate the sender of a message and guarantee that the contents of the message have not been altered during transmission to the recipient. The EU has adopted legislation which makes electronic signatures legally valid. The Electronic Transaction Bill (Cth) 1999 has the same effect in Australia. |
Domain Name |
| The plain English name given to a host destination on the Internet, for example, www.cmlawyers.com.au. The suffix, dot.com is known as the generic top level domain, the prefix cmlawyers, the second level domain and the dot.au is known as a country code top level domain. The domain name forms part of the Internet Address or URL. |
Download |
| To transfer information from one computer to your computer. |
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) |
| Systems set up by businesses, which facilitate the electronic exchange of information. |
Encryption |
| The process of scrambling data to prevent it being viewed by unauthorized persons. |
Firewall |
| An electronic security barrier. |
Frame |
| A means of dividing a web screen into a number of compartments. Frames may give rise to legal disputes if web sites created by third parties are framed as your own. |
Gateway |
| A system allowing incompatible computer networks to send and receive information. |
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) |
| Language used to translate text documents into a form which can be sent over the web. |
Hyperlink |
| A highlighted phrase in a document which permits linking to another document or part of a document. |
Internet Content Host (ICH) |
| Those who host or propose to host content on the Internet. Anybody who is responsible for a web site, news group or bulletin board that contains articles, graphics or other internet content provided by others. The host may/may not also produce their own content and/or provide access to the Internet through a carriage service, ie they may also be an ISP. |
Internet Service Provider (ISP) |
| A company that provides an Internet connection through some kind of Internet carriage service, for example Telstra Bigpond, Ozemail. ISP's may/may not also be ICHs. |
PGP "Pretty Good Privacy" |
| A type of encryption program used to scramble data. |
Portal |
| A site that gathers together many sites under a common branding, for example, Yahoo and Excite. |
Private key |
| The password which permits information to be decoded in a public key encryption system. |
Public key |
| The password which is used to send a secure message in a public key encryption system. |
Spam |
| The use of email or newsgroups to send unsolicited information. |
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) |
| An Internet address. |
Web page |
| A specific group of related files on the web, which is usually viewed as a single document. |
Web site |
| A collection of web pages stored on a file server. |
