The A to Z Guide to the Internet

B

B2B, B2C- Acronyms for business-to-business or business-to-consumer activities. Many websites focus on business-to-business relationships and services (like wholesale suppliers), while others focus on providing services and products to consumers.

Back Button- One of the buttons on the top of a Web browser. It allows you to “go back” to the previous web page that you were browsing.

Banner ad- An online ad on a web page that links to another website or landing page. Banner ads are one of the first methods of advertising on the web. They have different costs depending on how much traffic and page views the website gets, and can cost up to $150,000 per month. Banner ads get their name because they are placed at the top or bottom of a web page, however, they can also be placed on the sides of the website content.

Banner exchange- A group of web sites that display each other’s ad banners in exchange for credits. The more impressions you display, the more credits you receive. The credits are converted into ad spaces for you to display your ad banner on participating websites. This can be an effective way to drive traffic to a website.

Blog- Blog is a shortened term for “weblog.” Either term refers to a website where entries are made similar to a journal or diary. The entries are presented in reverse chronological order, with the newest entry on top. Although blogs were originally used like a personal journal on everyday events, they have evolved into a multipurpose tool. There are blogs on every topic imaginable, from food to politics to celebrity gossip. Generally, blogs combine the text entries with images, links to other blogs and other related media.

A blog entry consists of five basic components:

The Title: The main headline of the blog post.

The Body: The main content of the blog post, which can consist of text and/or photos and video.

Permalink: This is the URL of the individual post.

Post Date: The date and time the post was published to the blog website.

A blog entry can also include comments from readers, categories (commonly called tags) that label the blog entry by subject, and trackback links, which are links to other sites that refer to the blog entry.

Bloggers- Bloggers is the blanket term for anyone that uses a blog to post information on topics that are of interest to them. Becoming a blogger is actually simpler than it might seem. As blogging has grown in popularity, many website offer platforms to quickly and easily create a blog.

Some of the most popular blogging software platforms are Blogger, Livejournal, Typepad, Wordpress and Xanga. These websites will host your blog, generally for free, and provide you with the tools to create blog posts without having to know a lot about software.

BMP or bmp- A Microsoft Windows image format. It stands for bitmap. The images you see when Windows starts up and closes, and the wallpaper that cover the desktop, are all in BMP format.

Brick and mortar- The name for traditional retail businesses with actual buildings. Used in contrast to dot com businesses, which exist mainly online.

Bookmark- With so many interesting web pages out there, it’s hard to keep track of sites that you want to revisit again and again. Using bookmarks can help you keep tabs on the sites you liked and want to look at in the future. Your Internet Browser will have a tab at the top that says “Bookmarks” or “Favorites.” When you are on a website that you want to bookmark, you can select “Bookmark this page” (or a similar phrase) and your web browser will save the URL information for that site.

Your bookmarks will be stored in the browser in your “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” menu. Normally the bookmarks are stored in chronological order, with the oldest bookmarks at the top of your list. Most browsers offer the option to organize the bookmarks in folders. This makes your bookmarks easily accessible and you can group them together based on topics.

Branding- In marketing, and especially Internet marketing, branding is important to establishing the company identity. Branding is the result of an accumulation of experiences that consumers have with a particular company or product.

A brand creates associations and expectations among the products made by a company. The brand is a symbol for all of the information that is connection a company, a product or a service. Branding can include a logo, font selection, color schemes and symbols that work together to create an impression of the values, ideas and personality of the company.

Branding has significant importance in Internet marketing where the competition is huge. Having a noteworthy and unique branding strategy can help companies stand out in the vast online marketplace.

Individuals can also develop a form of personal branding, which can help establish credibility with their online customers and target a specific niche of people.