Mail Server - A software program that distributes files or information in response to requests sent via e-mail. Internet examples include Almanac and netlib. Mail servers have also been used in BITNet to provide FTP-like services.

Mailbot - A program that automatically responds to incoming e-mail requests. See Infobot or Autoresponder.

Mailing list - An e-mail address that expands to multiple e-mail addresses. Usually they are confined to specific topics of information.

Manual Submission - The process of submitting Web sites or Web pages to search engines and directories for inclusion in their databases using specific guidelines unique to each index.

MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) - Is Microsoft's standard for the interface to e-mail.

Mbps (Megabits per second) - 1 megabit = 1,000 kilobits) is a measurement of digital transmission speeds.

Megabit - Approximately one million bits of data.

Megabyte - Approximately one million bytes of data

Merchant - The party which offers goods for sale or provides services in exchange for payment. A merchant that accepts payment cards must have a relationship with an Acquirer.

Meta - A prefix meaning "information about". Information about data, or more specifically, the descriptive information provided in Meta tags in an HTML or XML document header about that document. Active efforts are ongoing to propose standards for machine and human readable metadata to be used with web resources to aid in resource discovery.

Meta Search - Searching multiple databases and combining results.

Meta Tags - Information placed in the HTML header of a Web page, providing information that is not visible to browsers. Commands that instruct the browser or search engines to perform specific tasks, identify keywords, site definitions, page authors, plug-in requirements, etc. that are invisible to the user. The most common meta tags relevant to search engines are keyword and description tags.

Metafile - A graphics format that combines the features of bitmap and vector graphics. Common types of metafile formats are CGM, Corel Draw CDR files, encapsulated Postscript EPS files, Adobe Illustrator, Word Perfect Graphics WPG files, PICT, and RTF.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) - A protocol that permits sounds from musical instruments to be converted to a program and read by a computer.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) - A specification in multimedia documents.

Mirror Sites - Multiple copies of Web sites or Web pages, often on different servers.

Misspellings - People quite often spell words incorrectly when using search engines. Pages which use common misspellings will quite often receive extra hits, so it is a useful technique to include common misspellings of words in alt tags, keywords, page names and titles.

Modem (Modulator Demodulator) - A hardware device that connects to the phone lines that permits computers to exchange information. Modems convert binary data into analogue for the purpose of passing that data over copper phone lines.

Moderator - A person, or small group of people, who manage moderated mailing lists and Usenet newsgroups. Moderators are responsible for determining which e-mail submissions are passed onto a list.

MSN - One of the top 5 search engines.

Multi-tasking - The simultaneous execution of two or more assignments by one program or the co-ordinated use of one program that performs many functions at the same time.