Browser – A software program running on a computer that can request, load and display documents available on the Internet. ABCi audits are designed to only count human-initiated browser activity. ABCi audits screen out activity initiated by automated methods.

Census-Based Audit Method – requires direct access to the Web site’s entire log file. Auditors then work to determine if there is any misleading online activity. Results are typically more consistent than a panel-based or survey method.

Communication Error –the failure of a browser or server to successfully request or transfer a document. ABCi audits only count successful requests or transfers.

Cookie – a uniquely identifying file on the user’s computer. There are two types of cookies: persistent cookies and session cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are erased when the browser exits. Persistent cookies remain on the user’s hard drive until the user erases them or until they expire. Cookies track a user's Web site activity.

Internal Page Impressions – Web site activity that is generated by individuals with IP addresses known to be associated with the Web site such as employees or vendors working on the Web site. Internal page impression activity is not counted in an ABCi audit.

IP Address –a numerical address assigned to each computer on a network. IP addresses allow computers to be identified by location and activity.

Log file – records all activity on a given Web site. Log files may collect a variety of data including: date and time stamp, URL served, IP address of requestor, user and more.

Page Impression – the number of times a Web page is viewed.

Panel-Based Audience Measurement – conducted by polling a pre-selected group for information on their usage of the Internet and specific Web sites. The results are then projected over a larger audience.

Spiders and Robots – programs that run without human intervention. These programs automatically scan and “fetch” data from Web sites and send that to search engines or other data users. Large search engines use multiple spiders and robots to browse the Internet. Spiders and robots are displayed as unique users or visitors in the Web site’s log files. Activity generated from identified spiders and robots are not human-generated and are not accounted in an ABCi audit. Our auditors have found that spiders and robots can account for 20 to 25 percent of a Web site's traffic.

Unique User/Unique Browser/Unique Machine – a unique individual or browser who accesses an individual Web site during a specific period of time.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – the identifying "address" of any page on the Web (i.e. www.xyz.com). URLs are always unique and contain all the information needed to locate a page.

User Registration – personal information contributed by an individual to a Web site, such as the visitor’s age, gender, ZIP code, etc. User registration allows a Web site to determine the number of unique visitors and tracks visitor behavior within the Web site. Registrations also provide a method of collecting demographic data.

Visit – a series of interactions by an individual with a specific Web site.

ABC Interactive services provided by Audit Bureau of Verification Services, Inc., a subsidiary of the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

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