LAN (Local Area Network) - Cabling system (Ethernet, Token Ring or FDDI Leased lines, etc.) which connect users together and permit file sharing and file transfer as in the case with e-mail.

Lead - A word used to describe a customer's contact information. Many affiliate programs reward their affiliates for their leads instead of their sales.

Legacy System - The existing system in use by a financial institution for processing payment card transactions.

Link Farm - A series of Web sites linking to each other in order to increase rankings.

Link Popularity - A measure of how "popular" a web page is on the Internet as measured by the number of inbound links pointing to your web page. Link popularity is one of the main factors used to help determine search engine rankings.

Linking - Placing a link to another Web page (usually on another Web site) on one of your own Web pages.

Links - URLs placed within a Web page so that when they're clicked on the browser is served with a different Web page, often on a completely different Web site.

Listservers (Listserv) - A software program used to manage e-mail discussion groups.

Log File - A file maintained on a server showing where all files accessed are stored. Log file analysis reveals the visitors to your site, where they came from, and which queries were used to access your site. WebTrends is an example of log file analysis software.

Looksmart - Often confused as a search engine, Looksmart is actually considered a directory. Looksmart changed from directory submission to a pay per click model.

Lossy - A term coined by graphics programmers to refer to a technique of shrinking file sizes by giving away some precision of detail. JPEG is the most common of these. By reducing the so-called quality of a picture when you save it, you can make the file size smaller. Many pictures can take a lot of loss of fine detail before it becomes noticeable on a Web page.

Lurk - To hang around a Newsgroup without participating. A person who is lurking is just listening to the discussion. Lurking is encouraged for beginning users who wish to become acquainted with a particular discussion before joining in.

Lycos - One of the top 15 search engines.