Glossary

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E-Commerce
Electronic commerce is the use of the Internet for marketing, transacting and fulfilling orders placed by Internet users.

E-Commerce Server
The server that manages and maintains all transaction and statistical data for an Internet site used for e-commerce.

E-mail Confirmation
Confirmation sent back to customers upon acceptance of their orders.

E-Merchandising
Display of product through creative, electronic means that delivers a POV (point of view) shopping experience based on a brand. The art of constructing an electronic offering of merchandise for potential customers.

Electronic Software Distribution (ESD)
Software or content products that are packaged for distribution via the Internet and can be purchased and downloaded directly from the Internet.

Encryption
To encrypt a file is to apply a mathematical function that transforms every character in the file into some other character. Encryption renders the file unreadable. This means no one, including you, can read the file until it is decrypted. Only you and the authorized recipients can decrypt the file.

Encryption key pair
This consists of the encryption public key and decryption private key. The public key portion of an encryption key pair used to encrypt data which can be decrypted by the matching decryption private key.

FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions is a term used to notify users of an area where answers to questions we all have to ask is located.

File
Data is stored in the form of a file. Files can be program files, containing instructions that allow the PC to perform various tasks under the control of the user or data files, which contain information only.

FIPS 140-1
A U.S. government standard by which security products are measured.

FTC Notification
Compliance with FTC requirements, to notify shoppers after thirty days if merchandise is not available, offering customer next step options.

FTP
The File Transfer Protocol that allows transferring of files over Internet.

Fulfillment
Sending products to customers through internal or external facilities.

gopher
Invented at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot, gopher is the direct precursor, in both concept and function, to the World Wide Web.

Graphic
A visual, illustration, picture or non-text item.

Hash function
A function that produces a unique value for every unique input message. Hash functions are used when signing and time stamping.

Hit
Each time a network server sends a page to a browser, a "hit" is recorded in the server file logs.

Home Page
The first page through which a user usually enters a site.

HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language is a standard language which allows browser software to interpret and display sites. See the NCSA's Guide to HTML.

HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a computer communications protocol that allows computers that are connected to the Internet to 'talk' to each other.

Hypertext
Text on a Web page that links the page to another page somewhere else. The hypertext links are usually in a different color than the other text on the page and they are usually underlined.