TED Glossary
The following glossary defines the more commonly used terms related to online booking.
Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
301 Redirect
Search engine term means to redirect a website address (URL) to another one.
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Accessibility
Accessibility encompasses the recommendations and best practices to ensure the web is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Add-on Sales
Add-on sales are products or services that complement a sale. This includes meeting and conference rooms, restaurant, packed meals, gift vouchers, and visitor sightseeing tours.
Affiliated Online Booking
Networks
An online network of operator websites coming together through a central coordinating website, e.g., for accommodation in a district or tourism region.
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Alt Tag
'Alt tag' is a symbol used in HTML to describe an image. Alt tags are essential and help with search engine optimisation.
Analytics
See 'website analytics' and tracking.
ATDW
See Australian Tourism Data Warehouse.
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Augmented Reality
Realtime direct viewing of a location with computer enhanced augmentation. Particularly useful for tourists wanting information on their current location and view.
Australian Tourism Data
Warehouse (ATDW)
The ATDW is the only government recognised nation-wide distribution facility for Australian tourism content www.atdw.com.au.
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Back Office
Includes functions such as accounting, finance, and housekeeping.
Backlink
See 'inbound link'.
Backup
Saving your website and computer content in order to be able to recover it.
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Bandwidth
A measure of capacity, referring to the amount of data which can be transferred simultaneously across an Internet connection: the wider the bandwidth, the larger the carrying capacity, and the faster the uploads and downloads.
Blog
Website built in the format of an online diary. Blogs are very popular and are used by many businesses as a form of online marketing.
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Bots
See 'robots'.
Bookmark
Your web browser will allow you to 'bookmark' web pages or 'add to favourites', so that you can easily access them at another time without having to retype the URL.
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Cache
Copies of previously accessed web pages and related files are stored, in a cache, either on your computer or on computers operated by an ISP (Internet Service Provider). On subsequent visits to these web pages the files are retrieved from the cache rather than downloaded from the web server again. This reduces the time taken to deliver the web page to you.
Cascading Style Sheets
A programming language used to define the style, such as font, size, colour, spacing, etc. of web documents. It is recommended by the WC3 (World Wide Web Consortium).
Channel / Distribution
Channel:
A means for operators to distribute their product to a wide customer base, e.g., through an affiliated online booking network.
See also 'channel manager'.
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Channel Manager
A web-based system used when an operator is linked to a number of distribution channels, such as last minute booking sites. The 'channel manager' software automatically updates room inventory or tour numbers to ensure there is no overbooking
CMS
See 'content management system'.
Code
The background code that runs a website. As well as HTML and XHTML, this can include, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, PHP, JSP, Coldfusion, and more.
Content Management System (CMS)
System that allows a website owner to edit their content without requiring any knowledge of web programming. Also known as CMS.
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Consumer
A person who purchases a product or products
Cookies
Information sent from a website to your computer's hard disk with the main purpose of identifying you and your computer, and possibly preparing customised web pages for you. Cookies can contain information such as user preferences or registration information.
Crawler
See 'robots'.
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Creative Commons Licence
Flexible media licencing designed to facilitate and encourage more versatility and flexibility in copyright.
CRO
'Conversion rate optimisation' is optimising the content of your website to transform a prospect into a guest.
CSS
See 'cascading style sheets'.
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Database
A structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer or on a server. Content management systems save a website's content in a database.
Data Import / Export
The ability to input or output a file of data to or from another system, e.g., from an 'online booking system' to Excel.
Database
Structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer or on a server. Content management systems save a website’s content in a database.
Description Tag
The description META tag is used to write a short description that should be unique to each webpage. Essential for S.E.O.
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Directory
Directories are websites built from submissions made by website owners, and generally arrange site listings hierarchically.
Distribution Channel
See Channel / distribution channel.
Distributor
Consumer facing business that provides content or the ability to make a booking or both
Distribution Commission
Fee a third party charges for bringing the consumer to your product. This third party is usually a travel agent, wholesaler or inbound tour operator.
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DMOZ
See 'open directory project'.
Domain Name
A domain name like mytrendyhotel.com.au is the address used to find you on the Internet. Domains are hierarchical, and lower-level domains often refer to particular websites within a top-level domain. The most significant part of the address is at the end - typical top-level domains are .com, .com.au ,.net, .edu, .gov, .org.
Download
The transfer of files from a remote machine such as a web server operated by an ISP, to your computer.
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e-Business
Electronic Business encompasses communicating with customers and suppliers via email, researching and ordering products and services online, providing information about and selling your own products and services via your website, and utilising online banking.
e-Commerce
Electronic Commerce is conducting business electronically including the process of buying, selling, transferring money and customer service via the Internet, and can potentially include design, production and company operations.
EDM (electronic direct mail)
Type of email marketing that consists of sending a newsletter to contacts via email.
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e-Enabled
Refers to having the capacity for customers to access your products and services, and interact with you from enquiry through to payment, via the Internet
e-Marketing
Using technology such as email and the Internet, plus a wide variety of options and tools, to conduct your marketing activities and achieve your marketing objectives.
e-Mail
Electronic Mail was one of the first major uses of the Internet and today is a daily business tool. Email is the process of sending and receiving communications via the Internet.
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Facebook
An extremely well known social networking site, located at www.facebook.com.
Firewall
A device or application on your computer which inspects all incoming and outgoing traffic and either permits or denies it, based on a set of rules.
Flash
Technology used on websites that allows image animation. Not search engine friendly or mobile stable.
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Flickr
Well known online photo management and sharing application www.flickr.com.
Forum
Online discussion spaces in which anyone can participate.
Frames
An old and non-search engine friendly manner of programming a website in HTML. Some sites have pages that are made up of multiple HTML pages
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FTP
Stands for 'file transfer protocol'. A protocol, or program, used to transfer files from your computer to your server on the Internet.
FrontPage
A web page authoring tool developed by Microsoft®.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A set of rules for exchanging or transferring data from one computer to another via a network or the Internet.
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GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
A standard file format for images that is used to display graphics and illustrations on the Internet. It allows transparent backgrounds.
GB (Gigabyte)
A generalised term referring to storage capacity or file size equating to roughly 1 billion bytes of information.
Google
The most used and popular Internet search engine www.google.com.au.
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Google AdSense
Contextual advertising by Google. Website publishers earn a portion of the advertising revenue for placing Google sponsored links (advertisements) on their site http://adsense.google.com.
Google AdWords
The 'pay per click' advertising program offered by Google http://adwords.google.com.
Google Alerts
Handy tool offered by Google that allows the user to subscribe to any keyword or keyphrase and receive a daily/weekly email listing of all web pages on which the key word (key phrases) was (were) mentioned www.google.com/alerts.
Google Analytics
Tool by Google that provides statistics about the visitation to a user's website http://analytics.google.com.
See also website tracking and analytics.
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Google Maps
Interactive maps http://maps.google.com.
GPS
'Global positioning system' enabling the defining and waymarking of locations, e.g., hotels, attractions, trek itineraries etc
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Hard Drive
Component of a computer that stores all the files and data. External hard drives are used to backup the contents of the computer's built in hard drive.
Headings
A symbol used in HTML to inform browsers that the text displayed is a heading and not plain text. The look and feel of the text in the headings can be set using CSS.
Hoax
An attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. Hoaxes are generally sent via email.
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Homepage
The main page of a website. Generally called index.html.
Host
A third-party company that provides a server (customised computer that is on 24/7) to host your website and its files.
HTML
Stands for 'hypertext markup language'. The coding language that all websites use on the Internet.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are links assigned to words and therefore make these words clickable and will direct the user to another document.
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Impression
Relates to 'pay per click'. A single display of an online advertisement.
Inbound Link
Links that direct users to another website. When a user arrives on a site from another site, the hyperlink they clicked on is an inbound link to your website. You need a reasonable amount of quality inbound links to increase your search engine rankings.
Information Architecture
Refers to the way in which a website is organised - the structure, the content, the labelling of information, as well as the design of the navigation and search system - all aimed at helping visitors to your website to find information and complete their reason for visiting your website.
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Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is any creation by a person that is unique and has some value in the marketplace, for example:
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an idea
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invention
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expression or literary creation, including logos and presentations
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unique name
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business method or industrial process
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computer program.
For more information visit IP Australia.
Internet
The Internet is a network of computer networks, which anyone can access and participate in using a web-enabled computer.
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Intranet
A private computer network which uses Internet protocols to securely share information relevant to its subscribers/consumers.
Inventory
Details of rooms, vehicles, tour places or venues stored in the database in an online booking system. Details will include, each date, total places available, number of places sold etc. Inventory will be kept up to date automatically and inventory reports can be requested at any time.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
A digital service that provides fast data transmission over the existing copper telephone wiring system, requiring a modem and 'dial up' access. It preceded ADSL.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
A company which provides access to the Internet. For a fee, the service provider gives you a software package, username, password and if in a dial-up area an access phone number.
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JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
A standard file format for images that is extremely well suited to display photographic images on the Internet.
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KB (Kilobyte)
General term referring to storage capacity or file size equating to roughly 1,000 bytes of information.
Key phrase
A combination of key words used to find pages when conducting a search.
Key word
A word used to find pages when conducting a search.
Key word META tag
Key words META tags were used to tell search engines about each web page. They are not used anymore as search engines can now read the content of websites.
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Key word Research / Analysis:
Researching the most relevant and popular key words for a given site so that the website has a better chance of ranking search engines.
Key word Spamming
Deliberate repetition of key words in a page by using invisible or tiny text to increase key word density. Search engines ban this practice.
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LAN (Local Area Network)
A localised area of interconnected computers, such as an office, a home or a group of buildings, contained within close proximity to one another.
Link Farms
Websites that are created and maintained solely for the purpose of constructing links between member sites. You should avoid listing your website on these sites as it could result in your website being banned by search engines.
Link Popularity
Search engines often use link popularity as part of their ranking criterion. Link popularity is the measurement of the number of other websites that include a link to your website on theirs. Each search engine, depending on their specific algorithms, determines it differently.
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Links Analysis
Measure of the relevance of the set of links pointing to a given site.
Local Business Centre
(Google tool) Tool developed by Google to allow business owners to list their business and make them appear on Google maps.
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MB (Megabyte)
General term referring to storage capacity or file size equating to roughly 1 million bytes of information.
Markup
See 'code'.
META tag
An HTML symbol located in the header section of a web page which offers information to search engines. There are three types of META tags: title tag (very important to search engines), description tag and keyword tag.
MySQL
'Structured query language'. Type of database that is open source and free to use.
MSN
Microsoft's search engine. The URL for Australia is www.ninemsn.com.au.
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Multimedia
Files that combine media, like text and graphics, or graphics, sound and animation, or text and video.
MySpace
A popular social networking site. Located at www.myspace.com.
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Navigation
Navigation on your website aids the visitor’s movement from one web page to another web page, or from one section to the next.
Network
Computers, which are linked together, enabling communication with one another as well as sharing of resources such as printers.
Newsletter
A type of email marketing where a periodic publication is distributed via email to those who have subscribed to it. The purpose of a newsletter is to provide highly specialised information to a highly targeted audience.
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NTX (Northern Territory Tourism Exhange)
Platform within the TXA for NT accredited product
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OBS
See 'online booking system'.
Open Booking Exchange (OBX)
An open booking system, developed by V3, that takes product from your online booking system and distributes it across many travel website. It also allows the automatic update of your inventory when your product is booked online.
ODP
See 'open directory project'.
Online Booking System
A web-based booking system, i.e. connected to the Internet or on your website, which performs booking functions in one of two ways using the operator’s website or a third party website.
Online Distributor
Tourism entity or business whose objective is to represent many individual tourism businesses on their website, shop front, and/or database.
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Online Marketing
See e-marketing.
Open Directory Project
The largest edited directory on the Internet. The 'open directory' provides listings for free but only for qualified sites and because editors are volunteers, wait times can be lengthy www.dmoz.org.
Open Source
Refers to computer programs whose source code is freely available for use or modification.
Operating System (O/S)
A very important component of your computer, this program assists with starting your computer then manages the sharing of your computer's resources such as internal memory or hardware, between computer programs, enabling all the programs that are open to perform.
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Optimisation
See 'search engine optimisation'.
Outbound Link
A link to a site outside of your own. Pages with too many 'outbound links' are often ignored by search engines.
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Page Rank
A numerical rating of a site developed by Google as part of its algorithms for determining search engine listings.
Page Views
A website statistics measure that lets you know you how many pages of your site are viewed in a given period. If John comes to your site 20 times in a week, viewing three pages each time, John's visits count as 60 page views. Page views are an indication of just how interested people are in your site. A high ratio of page views to visits likely means an interested audience.
Pay Per Click
A form of e-marketing in which the advertiser has typically a small textual advertisement on a search engine site and pays only if a user clicks on the link in the advertisement.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing and word processing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To view a file in PDF format, you need Adobe® Reader®.
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Phishing
Attempts generally conducted via email to fraudulently acquire sensitive information such as logins, passwords, and credit card details.
Photobucket
A well known photo sharing site www.photobucket.com.
PHP
A freely available programming language used to create dynamic web pages
Picasa Web Albums
A well known photo sharing site http://picasaweb.google.com.
Pixel
Single point of a graphic image. Pixel stands for picture element.
Plugin
A program that allows a web browser to display a wider range of content than was originally intended, for example, the 'flash' plugin allows web browsers to display 'flash' content.
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PNG
'Portable network graphics' is a relatively new standard file format that is suited to display photos, graphics and illustrations on a website.
Podcast
Digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar such as an interview made available online.
Point of Sale
Refers to the hardware and software used to allow a monetary transaction
POS
See 'point of sale'.
PPC
See 'pay per click'.
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Processor / Central Processing Unit (CPU)
A pivotal component of your computer, it can be described as 'the brain'. It processes all information, allowing computer programs to run.
Property Management System (PMS)
A system provider to manage the inventory of a business
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Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM allows programs to access the hard disk and execute tasks, therefore if you do not have enough RAM on your computer, programs will not run efficiently, causing the computer to operate slowly.
Real-time Booking
An online booking that is performed immediately, e.g., payment and confirmation occur while you wait.
Reciprocal Link
An exchange of links between two sites. This technique is used to improve your search engine rankings but you have to be careful to only exchange links with websites that are relevant to your audience otherwise both websites risk being penalised by search engines.
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Remote Hosting
Having your online booking system and other software systems running on the vendor’s server at the vendor’s location.
Resolution
A measurement of the quality of an image based on the number of pixels that make up the image. For web images, a resolution of 72 PPI (pixels per inch square also called DPI for dots per inch square) is the norm.
Robots
Software programs used by search engines to crawl websites, store their addresses, and index the keywords and text of pages. Also referred to as spiders or crawlers.
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Search Engine
A search engine is a database system designed to index and categorise Internet addresses, otherwise known as URLs, for example www.mybeachholiday.com.
Search Engine Marketing
A form of marketing that allows promoting products or services on the Internet through management of information presented by search engines and directories. An example is 'pay per click'.
Search Engine Optimisation
Techniques used to improve a web page's results in a search. You do not need to pay the search engines for this.
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Search Ranking
A numerical rating, of a website, developed by Google as part of its algorithms for determining search engine listings.
Secure Payment Page
Credit card details are entered by the customer on a secure payment page. A secure page receives and sends information to the bank in encrypted form so it cannot be read by third parties. The credit card information is never sent to the operator’s computer.
Secure Socket Layer
See SSL.
SEM
See 'search engine marketing'.
SEO
See 'search engine optimisation'.
SERP
Stands for 'search engine results page' and is the page of site listings that a search engine returns to in response to a user’s search query.
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Server
Customised computers that process requests for data, e-mail, file transfers, and other network services from other computers.
Social Media
The various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio.
Social Networking
Form of communication that users do using social medias. Most popular networks at the moment are Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, LinkedIn but there are countless more.
Spam
Unsolicited e-mail or content on the Internet.
Spiders
See 'robots'.
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SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
An SSL certificate is an electronic key that will ensure an online transaction is secure.
Supplier
A business that can commit to real-time availability and transact for a real-time booking (“e-commerce enabled” tourism operator)
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TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol)
The two primary sets of rules that establish a connection between two computers, so they can exchange or transmit data over the Internet.
Tag
Symbol used in HTML to identify the type, structure, and format of a web page's element.
Third (3rd) Party Online Booking Networks
See 'affiliated online booking networks'.
Title Tag
Symbol used in HTML to identify the title of a web page.
TripAdvisor
Website that allows users to review and comment about tourism-related experiences www.tripadvisor.com.
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Tourism Exchange Australia (TXA)
A partnership between the ATDW and V3. The TXA is the technology that allows tourism product from ATDW to be book live online and distributed through many distribution channels such as travel websites like About Australia and
Tourism Operator
A tourism business
TXA
See Tourism Exchange Australia
TXA Enabled
The ability to connect to the TXA and have your product distributed across many travel websites
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Unique visitors
Stands for 'uniform resource locator'. This suite of letters, e.g.,http://www.mysite.com is used to specify the address of websites and web pages.
Usability
Refers to the elegance and clarity of a web design for easy user interaction. Refers to an important statistical measurement which is used to determine a website's 'audience' or reach in a given time period. Each individual who visits a website is counted and through the use of cookies it can be dertermined if the individual is a first time visitor, ie. unique visitor, or is making a return visit.
URL (Uniform Resource Locater)
The URL is the Internet address that takes you to a website, or specific page or file within a website, for example, http://en.travelnt.com/search/accommodation.aspx. Broken down, a URL contains:
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the protocol for exchanging information between computers - e.g. http://, https:// or ftp://
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the domain name - eg. travelnt.com
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the hierarchical name for the file - eg. /search/accommodation.aspx.
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Usability
Relates to a website's ease of use and is commonly defined as having three core components:
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effectiveness - how well a task can be completed
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efficiency - how easy or quick it is to complete the task
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satisfaction - the user's perception or opinion of the system.
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Vendor
The seller or distributor of an online booking system or other software system.
Visits
The number of times people open your site in their browser. If John comes to your site 20 times in a week, he counts as 20 visits. A high ratio of visits to visitors means you’ve got a loyal audience.
Virus
A malicious computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer, without the permission or knowledge of the computer user.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A secure private network that uses the Internet to transmit data. Only computers with the correct access key will be able to access the network. Benefits of a VPN can include:
V3
VCubed Pty Ltd an Australian technology company. V3 and ATDW are behind the TXA development.
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WAN (Wide Area Network)
A network of interconnected computers covering a larger geographical area than a LAN.
W3C
See 'World Wide Web consortium'.
Waiting List Management
A booking system can record customers who have requested a booking after all places have been taken. The system will then alert the operator when a suitable place becomes available.
Waymarking
Locations noted with GPS , imagery and notes. Useful for tourists needing more lcoal information or touring routes.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 describes a growing trend online towards content made by web users, rather than traditional publishers. It is an umbrella term used to describe online technologies that facilitate interaction and exchange of information online.
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Web Developer
Person who knows how to program websites using HTML, CSS and programming languages such as PHP and ASP.
Web Form
A form displayed on a web page on which customers can enter their details.
Web Graphic Designer
A graphic designer who specialises in designing web-friendly illustrations and website layouts. A web graphic designer is not the same profession as a print graphic designer as web and print graphics have different requirements.
Web Host
See 'host'.
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Web Page
A web page is a single page of a website. A website is made of many web pages.
Website
Online profile of a company that consists of interrelated web pages.
Website Analytics & Tracking
The use of third party software on a website to track web pages visited, time spent and functions performed by customers while visiting the website. This is invaluable to understanding what customers are interested in, and how your website can be improved.
Website Developer
See 'web developer'.
Website Hosting
A service provided by an ISP or specialised web hosting company, where your website and its associated files are stored on a dedicated web server. The host company maintains the connection to the Internet for your website.
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White Label
'White label pages' are supplier web pages which can be imported and customised by third party websites. For example, a supplier's booking page through V3 which can linked to a distributors website and rebranded to corporate website style.
Wireless
Where data is transferred via radio frequencies rather than wired connections. For example, wireless Internet, mobile telephones, GPS, cordless keyboard and mouse, cordless telephones and satellite television.
World Wide Web Consortium
The group that is steering standards development for the World Wide Web www.w3c.org.
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XHTML
reworking of HTML 4.0.
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Yahoo!
A popular search engine. The Australian URL is www.yahoo7.com.au.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share
video clips. located at www.youtube.com.