In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition

Appendix A. GLOSSARY OF TERMS

ARPANET

The immediate precursor to the Internet created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). No one lost any money on the ARPANET, a fact that leads many people to remember it fondly.

ASP

Acronym for application service provider. Software usage and distribution systems in which programs are hosted on servers, not installed on separate desktops. In the late 1990s, the perceived advantages of this approach included providing a steady revenue stream for software companies, less software piracy, and easier management of upgrades. The disadvantage to these systems was that nobody bought them.

banner ad

A type of web-based advertisement. The standard banner size is 468×60 pixels (about 5 square inches). Nobody watches ...