203. Online Advertising › key terms and concepts A software tool that collects data on website users based on metrics Web analytics to measure its performance. This is what allows you to browse the World Wide Web. Examples of Web browser browsers include Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox. 8.3 history Online advertising rapidly followed the developing Internet. As consumers are spending more time online, and hours spent on the Internet are eclipsing other media, the medium becomes increasingly important to any advertiser. According to Wikipedia, the first clickable banner advert was sold to a law firm in 1993 by Global Network Navigator. HotWired, an early web magazine, was the first to sell advertising space in large quantities to a number of advertisers. One of the first of these was AT&T (a US telecoms company), which went online in October 1994. Figure 8.1 An early banner ad for AT&T. This was part of a campaign that AT&T was running to promote the Internet to consumers, and included television and outdoor advertising. Believe it or not, this was cutting edge back in ’94! In 1996, the interactive advert was born. HP’s Shockwave “Pong” banner was the first rich media advert: you could play Pong in the banner. This ushered in a new wave of advertising, where users could interact with an advert without leaving the page they were visiting. Figure 8.2 The first rich media advert: HP’s shockwave “Pong”. Source: University of Pennsylvania200