Impression – If you have placed an ad on a search engine, it may receive visitors; the number of times the visitors visit the site is called Impression.
Inbound links (IBL) – These are pointers that direct the user to your site from other sites; as such, the more the number of Inbound links, the better your site's PageRank in the search engine.
Index – A search engine compiles textual content from the different web pages that its spiders visit; this is stored in the search engine's database and is also referred to as Index.
Inktomi – Inktomi Corporation, a California-based company formed in September 1995, was a key player in the search engine market and is credited with pioneering a number of online search technologies that are in use even today. One of its claims to fame rests on initiating a distributed network technology that enabled them to index more than 1.3 million documents on the web at that time. It was also the first to introduce the concept of paid inclusion service; this enabled websites to receive regular and frequent re-indexing for a payment. Another important feature was the development of a proxy cache for ISP web traffic called ‘Traffic Server.’ The company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2003 after the Internet bubble burst in 2000; it continues to be a vital component of its search engine database even today.
Inlinks – Another word for back links.
Insertion Order (I/O) – This refers to the details of your search advertising campaign such as placements options, keywords, ad creative, landing page, pricing, geo-targeting, and language options; together these form a contract.
Internal Links – This is a pointer that directs the user to other pages within the same website; it is a navigation tool that helps build good information architecture within the site. These are important as search engines depend on links to index pages.
Internet– This is a common terminology for a worldwide system of computer networks that gives the public access to other computers. Data transmission from one computer to the other is based on the TCP/IP network protocols. The networks function on three levels of hierarchy: backbone networks, mid-level networks and stub networks. These are commonly referred to as commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net). Considering the way the Internet has changed the way we communicate today, a historical perspective would not be remiss and is provided below:
1962: the US Air Force commissioned a government agency called RAND to develop a military research network that would remain unaffected by a nuclear attack. Packet Switching was invented as a method of sending data safely.
1972: The first email program was created.
1973: The TCP/IP Protocol was developed.
1983: The core Internet protocol was crafted. At the same time, the Domain Name System (DNS) came into existence developed by the University of Wisconsin; this facilitated access to other servers without having to remember long IP numbers.
1992: The World Wide Web was released by CERN and the Internet Society was chartered to monitor the Internet. In addition, the first graphical user interface (GUI) to the WWW called Mosaic for X was released.
1996: The ever-growing, voluminous Internet traffic was carried by independent ISPs. A new TCP/IP is being developed by the Internet Society to allow billions of addresses instead of a restricted number that we have today.
Internet Explorer – In 1995, Microsoft introduced the Internet Explorer as we know it today; this is a web browser that allows the user to access information placed on the World Wide Web (WWW). Explorer, IE, Microsoft Internet Explorer or MSIE are other names for the Internet Explorer. Different versions of the product have been introduced since then with each version being an improvement over the previous one. Version 3 released in 1996 initiated the popularity that IE enjoys today as it supported CSS, ActiveX controls, Java applets, inline multimedia and the PICS system for content metadata. In the pipeline is Version 8 that promises further improvements to the security of the browser and more support for CSS 2.1 specifications to counter criticism on both these key aspects.
Invisible Web – Dr. Jill Ellsworth introduced this phrase in 1994 to denote the vast amount of information that is available on the web but not necessarily indexed by search engines.
IP Address – Literally, it translates in to the phrase, Internet Protocol Address or IP or simply Internet Address in short. An IP address comprises a series of numbers in four parts separated by periods; this is a unique identifier that is peculiar to each sender and/or receiver of network data. The numbers refer to the domain, the network, the subnetwork and the host computer; for instance, 127.0.0.10 (each number can range from 0 through to 255). The Internet is connected to a myriad servers or devices; each of these has a unique permanent (static) or temporary (dynamic) IP address that sometimes translates into a specific domain name.
ISP - Internet Service Provider – Customers are provided a host of Internet related services by the ISP; these could include all or some of the following services: Internet connectivity, email, website hosting, domain name registration and hosting which have to be paid for. The ISP could be any entity: a commercial business, a university, a government organization, a school or any other entity that enlists members or subscribers.
