Define all Key Terms and Concepts in Information Systems

Define all Key Terms and Concepts

Business to consumer (B2C): E-commerce relationship in which businesses offer products for online sale to consumers. Business to consumer platform enable sellers to post their products on the site and it avails the necessary tools to consumers for them to analyze and compare them on pricing and features.
e-marketplace: A website that facilitates transactions by bringing together buyers and sellers from all over the world. A case in point is the website “Bizrate.com” which is a website that informs consumers who offer the best prices of items by using search, compare, and conquer.

infomediary: Focuses on informing visitors and empowering them with aggregated information about products from different suppliers. A case in point is the Consumer reports which collects various products, tests it and release the relevant information consumers such as comparative analysis with various brands.

business to business (B2B): E-commerce relationship in which businesses can buy and sell products or services online to one another. Under this platform and relationship, a seller can make a comparative analysis with other sellers on a site so as to establish minimum orders, payment terms, and the wholesale prices.
consumer to consumer (C2C): E-commerce relationship in which individual consumers can buy and sell to one another over the Internet. Under this relationship, individual sellers post their wares online and shoppers can locate the products using the search engine.
consumer to business (C2B): E-commerce relationship in which individual consumers can sell products or services to businesses. Through this relationship, consumers can for example, create blogs where they market Amazon’s products and get paid when consumers buy products through their blogs.

hypertext transfer protocol (http://): A URL component that specifies the resource is a web page containing code the browser can interpret and display.
Domain Name System (DNS): The hierarchical naming system that maps a more memorable URL to the actual IP address.
uniform resource locator (URL): The unique global address for a web page or other resource on the Internet.
file transfer protocol (ftp://): A URL component that indicates the resource is a file to be transferred.
top-level domain: The last string of letters in a URL that indicates the type of organization or country code. The top-level domain is used in determining the location and the type of organization it belongs, for example .gov are websites that belong to governments ministries in the US, and worldwide, .org adopted for use by non-profit organizations.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): The nonprofit organization charged with overseeing the Internet’s naming system, establishing policies, and resolving disputes. The organization manages URL assignments within each top-level domain, resolves disputes, establishes policies, and accredits registrars who sell domain names.

Hierarchical website architecture: Website structure in which the top-level home page contains links to second-level pages, which then link to further relevant pages.

Sequential website architecture: Website structure that guides visitors step by step through a transaction, survey, or learning module. A case in point, some websites allow consumers to describe the design of their products and this is done in a sequential process with the link of “Next step”.
Multidimensional website architecture: Website structure with multiple links to pages
at all levels, allowing visitors multiple paths through the site. The structure takes the view that information can be categorized in many ways, and provide multiple means through which a site can be accessed. A case in point is Amazon’s architecture where different products can be accessed by either sales promotions, keywords, and departments.
Assistive technologies: Devices and software that help people with disabilities, such as screen readers for the visually impaired.
Web accessibility: Refers to how easily people with disabilities can access and use web resources. For a website to be said to be accessible, it must take care of the needs of people with impaired vision, limited motor skills, hearing loss, and other kinds of disabilities can hinder or even block people from using the web.

Usability: Refers to the ease with which a person can accomplish a goal using some tool, such as
a website, a mobile phone, or a kiosk. This include the inclusion of mouse foot pedals, screen readers, Braille displays, head-mounted pointers, joysticks, and speech-to-text translators for the deaf can all improve access.

Web browser: The software application that retrieves, interprets, and displays web resources.
Hypertext markup language (HTML): The original language used to create web
pages; HTML specifies the web page’s format using tags in angle brackets that browsers can interpret and put into reader-friendly output.

JavaScript: A language used to add interactivity to web pages. JavaScript enables functionalities such as Pop-up alert boxes, lively images that appear when your mouse rolls over the page, and validation for your input on forms.

Content management system: Software used to manage digital content in collaborative environments. The web content management system supports teams that develop and maintain websites.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): An international body that establishes and publishes standards for programming languages used to create software for the web.
AJAX: A mix of technologies that builds on JavaScript and draws on live data to create interactive online displays. This technology adds more functionality by adding instant intelligence drawn from live data to create interactive displays. A case in point, when searching for information on google, when some words are typed, a predictive result appears and this interaction is achieved through the use of Ajax.
Cascading style sheets (CSS): The part of a website template that controls the fonts, colors, and styles that appear when an editor identifies some text as a page heading, a paragraph title, or some other style.
E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet or other networks,
encompassing financial transactions between businesses, consumers, governments, or nonprofits.
Shopping cart software: Computer software that tracks purchases as customers navigate an e-commerce site and click “add to cart” as they go. The software tallies the purchase, calculates taxes based on the customer’s location, computes shipping costs, and also posts a discount if
the customer enters a valid promotional code
Mobile commerce (m-commerce): The use of wireless, mobile devices to conduct e-commerce. It involves the use of wireless devices to connect to the Internet for banking, shopping, and bill paying. They use credit cards, debit cards, electronic checks, or services like PayPal.

Search engine optimization (SEO): An Internet marketing strategy used to increase the quantity and quality of traffic from search engines, often by improving the site’s position in result lists.
Tag cloud: A visual depiction of keywords related to the search, with font size and position indicating relevance.

Near field communication (NFC): A set of standards that supports communication between mobile devices when the two are very near one another.

Click-through rate (CTR): A metric used to assess the impact of an online ad; computed as the number of visitors who click on the ad divided by the number of impressions.

Cookie: A small text file left on a website visitor’s hard drive that is used to personalize the site for the visitor, or track web activities.

Third-party cookies: Small text files that a website leaves on a visitor’s computer that are not deposited by the site being visited; used by ad networks to track customer behavior across all their client websites.

Crowdsourcing: Delegating tasks to large diffuse groups or communities who often volunteer their contributions.