Stickiness

stickiness

Refers to the continued use of a product or service. If users are enticed to remain on a Web site for long periods, the site is said to be "sticky." However, stickiness in general is a fundamental issue in information technology. The longer people use a product or service, the greater their investment and the less likely they will switch to something else. For example, after using an e-mail address for a long time, switching to another service means notifying numerous people. Since there is often no e-mail forwarding, and most people have long forgotten who has their address, users are not inclined to change providers.

After years of programming mainframe applications, enterprises are not always inclined to switch to non-mainframe architectures. The cost, time and problems reprogramming applications detract from other potential hardware savings.

The same goes for software, whether operating systems or applications. Once people are used to a particular way of running the computer, they are loath to change. Procedures are habit forming, and humans easily adapt to routines that feel comfortable even if not entirely satisfactory. See sticky.

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Stickiness 

the capability of a highly viscous liquid or of an elastically plastic viscous body to hold firmly to a solid surface in the form of a sufficiently thick layer. Objects and their materials are called sticky if they combine adhesion (the ability to stick to a given surface) with cohesion (interlinking of molecules within the sticking body).

The phenomenon of stickiness is a specific characteristic of solutions or melts of macromolecular compounds, of natural and synthetic resins, and of disperse systems containing polymers. Stickiness is a useful property for glues, varnishes, paints, lutes, and some lubricating and sealing compounds. However, in some molded materials (such as plastics and bread dough), stickiness is often detrimental, since it causes difficulty in manufacturing the finished product. Stickiness can be reduced or totally eliminated by lyophobization of the surface (that is, by weakening the molecular interaction between the surface and the substance of the adhering material); surface-active agents are usually used for this purpose.

L. A. SHITS