Wiki

A/B Testing (see Multivariate Testing) - A process by which more than one component of a Website may be tested in a live environment. Companies perform A/B testing to determine which versions of a piece of content will perform better. This can include which will generate more page views, or which will 'convert' the reader to an action.

A/B testing requires some analytics appliance to measure. Most products like Google Analytics, Omniture, and Nielsen Net Ratings have functionality that allow for A/B testing.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) - A group of technologies that allows for the development of rich and efficient internet applications. AJAX enables data on a Web page to be changed (in response to user input or otherwise) without the browser agent having to reload the entire page. In most cases, JavaScript is used to request data (usually in XML format) from the Web server and dynamically display that content within the current document.

Apache HTTP Server - An open source Web server developed by the Apache Software Foundation available for most operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. Apache is currently the most widely used Web server in the world.

Many modules are available to extend Apache's functionality to include programming languages, enhanced security, and various file system access. Microsoft's Internet Information Services is Apache HTTP Server's largest competitor.

Application Server - Framework that manages the complete processing and delivery of an application. Application Servers rely on server-side dynamic processing and database interactions. An Application server can manage database, Web server, and processing languages in one package. Some common application servers are .NET, J2EE, Ruby on Rails, and Apache integrated with PHP.