Glossary - Understanding Sponsored Search - page 264

Search terms : words entered by the searcher. Search engines will then look for
these words in their index and return matching results. Also known as search query
(Source: Quirk) (see Chapter 3 keywords).
Searcher : a person engaged in information searching (see Chapter 5 customers).
Searching : exploration of the Web by following one interesting link to another, usu-
ally with a definite objective and a planned search strategy. In comparison, surfing is
exploration definite in objective but not in strategy, and browsing is exploration with-
out a definite objective or search strategy (Source: BusinessDictionary) (see Chapter
3 keywords).
Second-price auction : an auction in which the bidder who submitted the highest bid
is awarded the object being sold and pays a price equal to the second highest bid (see
Chapter 8 auctions).
Secondary research : collection of existing research data (Source: Quirk) (see
Chapter 7 analytics).
Segment : a grouping of customers, defined by Web site activity or other data that can
be used to target them effectively (Source: WebTrends) (see Chapter 6 BAM!).
Sell-through rate : the percentage of ad inventory sold as opposed to traded or bar-
tered (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 2 model).
Server-side : transactions that take place on the server (Source: Quirk) (see Chapter
2 model).
Server-side tracking : the process of analyzing Web server log files. Server-side ana-
lytic tools make sense of raw data to generate meaningful reports and trends analysis
(Source: SEMPO) (see Chapter 2 model).
Session cookies : these are temporary and are erased when the browser exits at the
end of a Web-surfing session (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 2 model).
Session duration : the period that a session lasts (see Chapter 2 model).
Session IDs : dynamic parameters, such as session IDs generated by cookies for each indi-
vidual user. Session IDs cause search engines to see a different URL for each page each
time that they return to recrawl a Web site (Source: SEMPO) (see Chapter 2 model).
Search session length : the number of queries in a session (see Chapter 2 model).
Session : several meanings depending on context (Source: modified from IAB) (see
Chapter 7 analytics):

• A sequence of Internet activity made by one user at one site. If a user makes no

request from a site during a thirty-minute period of time, the next content or ad
request would then constitute the beginning of a new visit.
A series of transactions performed by a user that can be tracked across successive •

Web sites. For example, in a single session, a user may start on a publisher's Web
site, click on an advertisement, and then go to an advertiser's Web site and make
a purchase.
A sequence of queries submitted by a searcher in one period of interaction with a

•

search engine and around a similar topic.