The collection of information a search engine has that searchers can query against. With crawler-based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the web pages they have found from crawling the web. With human-powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all web sites that have been categorized.

A set of hyperlinks attached to areas of an image. This may be defined within a web page, or as an external file. If the image map is defined as an external file, search engines may have problems indexing your other pages, unless you duplicate the links as conventional text hyperlinks.

f the image map is included within the web page, the search engines should have no problem following the links, although it's good practice to provide text links too, to aid the visually impaired and those accessing the web with graphics switched off or using text only browsers.

A hypertext link to a particular page from elsewhere, bringing traffic to that page. Inbound links are counted to produce a measure of the page popularity. Searches for the inbound links to a page can be made on Altavista, Infoseek and Hotbot.

One of the largest search engines. New sites are normally added very quickly, within one or two business days. The URL is http://www.infoseek.com. Infoseek is one of the few search engines to treat singular and plural forms as the same word. Very sensitive to page popularity in its positioning algorithm.

Intranets are 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 systems that link offices around the world. They make it is easy for corporate users to communicate with one another, and to access the information resources of the internet.

Similar to agent name delivery, this technique presents different content depending on the IP address of the client. It is very difficult to view pages hidden using this technique, because the real page is only visible if your IP address is the same as (for example) a search engine's spider. To deliver content based on the IP address of the computer requesting the URL. Sometimes used to tailor content to different user groups.

The ad impression is the metric a site uses for measuring inventory. Different definitions exist for this term: 1. The viewing of a page or ad(s) by the user. The assumption is that the page or ad images were successfully downloaded and the user viewed the page or ads on the page are recorded whether or not a user clicks on an ad. 2.The request for a page or ad. Agencies usually collect a fee for every thousand impressions (hence the term CPM Ð cost per thousand).

A collection of approximately 60,000 independent, inter-connected networks that use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from ARPANet of the late '60s and early '70s. 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.

Means "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. Interstitials can be full pages or small daughter windows. Also referred to as "pop-ups."

Internet Protocal address. Every system connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which consists of a number in the format A.B.C.D where each of the four sections is a decimal number from 0 to 255. Most people use Domain Names instead and the resolution between Domain Names and IP addresses is handled by the network and the Domain Name Servers. With virtual hosting, a single machine can act like multiple machines (with multiple domain names and IP addresses).

Internet Service Provider)
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 web site and intranet design. There are currently over 3,000 ISPs in the U.S. alone. It's a growth business, and as a result pricing is highly competitive, so shop around.