Web Vocabluary #7

Heat Map – a picture of a web page that shows where users click when they visit a particular page. The areas that are clicked most often appear in red (hot spot), while the areas clicked least often appear in blue or with no color at all.

Heat maps are a tool used by web developers as part of their website usability testing routines. Understanding how your visitors behave when they visit your web site is crucial to improving its effectiveness. Click here for source

 

WCAG - stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and is a set of guidelines used by web designers and developers to help improve the accessibility of their web sites to people with disabilities.

The recommendations in the guidelines are divided into 3 different levels of priority. These are, level A, AA and AAA. People sometimes talk about their site being double A or triple A compliant, referring to the extent to which they have implemented the accessibility guidelines.

WCAG is created by the W3 consortium and has been a controversial set of guidelines. On 3 November 2008, WCAG 2.0 became a W3C Proposed Recommendation which is actually a lot more concrete than it sounds. Click here for source

 

Screen Reader – a piece of software interprets what is currently on a users computer screen.

The screen reader reads aloud what it finds on screen or outputs what it finds to a braille keyboard. Screen readers are mostly used by people that are blind, have a visual impairment or a learning disability. It is important that web sites are built in such as way as to be accessible to screen readers and their users.  Click here for source

Landing Page – a marketing term used to describe a page on a web site that is designed specifically to close a sale. It is sometimes called a lead capture page.

Visitors usually arrive at this page through some kind of online or print advertising and the landing page will probably contains some kind of special offer.

Specific pages can be created for an advertising campaign to measure the effectiveness of a campaign. Different variations of the landing page are sometimes tested to see which converts the highest number of visitors to customers.  Click here for source

Direct Traffic – occurs when a visitor to a web site types the name of a web site directly into the address bar of their browser, they arrive at site they have requested. Web sites of well known companies with strong brands usually receive more direct traffic than other web sites.  Click here for source

"Oracle to Buy Sun"

With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle finds reciprocal benefits.

"There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris. Java is one of the computer industry's best-known brands and most widely deployed technologies, and it is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle's fastest growing business, is built on top of Sun's Java language and software. Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle's largest business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris. Oracle is as committed as ever to Linux and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance our strong industry partnerships."

About:

Oracle Corporation specializes in developing and marketing enterprise software products — particularly database management systems. Through organic growth and a number of high-profile acquisitions, Oracle enlarged its share of the software market. By 2007 Oracle ranked third on the list of largest software companies in the world, after Microsoft and IBM. Subsequently it became larger than IBM after its acquisition of Hyperion and BEA.

The corporation has arguably become best-known due to association with its flagship Oracle database. The company also builds tools for database development, middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software.  Click here for source

Sun is one of the largest sellers of server computers and is known for systems based on its Sparc chips. It has a vast software portfolio, including the Solaris operating system, the open-source MySQL database and the Java programming language. Click here for source

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