| Lingo | Why you need to know it |
| advermation: the cross between advertising and information. It's a form of online advertising portrayed not so much as a marketing message as it is information to the viewer. | Unlike TV viewers, internet users can easily click past an advertisement. Informative ads that don't turn a user off are more likely to result in page views. |
| angry garden salad: a slang term for a poorly designed and incorrectly coded website interface (when you click one link, it launches something completely different) | Make sure your interface is user-friendly and your links are functioning correctly; otherwise, visitors will head out the door and not come back. |
| cornea gumbo: a visually distracting and over-designed website with too many graphics, images and animation | Another website no-no. Overstimulation can overwhelm the visitor and muddle your brand and company message. |
| infosnacking: the act of jumping online at various times throughout the day for brief intervals | Because you only have internet users' attention for short moments, information needs to be in brief, catchy and easily digestible chunks. |
| interstitial: a form of ad that appears in a pop-up browser window when a user moves from one page to another. Different from banner ads, they can contain large graphics, streaming media or applets. | Interstitials are just one more advertising option for you--and one users are guaranteed to see. However, they're not a favorite of internet users because they slow down access to the destination page. |
| mash-up: a web-based application that combines two or more services or tools from diverse websites to create a unique, multilevel tool | Mash-ups are where web apps are headed, so creating them and/or implementing them into your website puts you on the same page as today's web users. |
| PeelAway: a new form of pop-up ad that appears in the top right-hand corner of a web page. Resembles the page of a book that can be "peeled away" to reveal the ad underneath | This form of pop-up ad doesn't get in the way as others do, yet is still effective. |
| Plugoo: a widget that's connected to your IM provider, allowing you to chat in real time with your site visitors | Being easily accessible to your customers adds credibility, puts your brand top-of-mind and builds trust and loyalty. |
| rasterbator: a web designer who suffers from CDM, or compulsive digital manipulation, in addition to obsessively tweaking designs and abusing Photoshop | Whether you hire out or design yourself, a rasterbator will end up producing an undesirable website--one that suffers from cornea gumbo (see above definition). |
| TweetBeep: likened to Google Alerts for Twitter, TweetBeep is a free tracking and alert service that monitors conversations mentioning you, your company's name and more, and sends you e-mails as these mentions occur. | It's always good to know who's talking about you and what they're saying. TweetBeep is good for staying tuned in to your industry, managing your company's reputation and networking. |