An attribute of a website that keeps people on the site for a long period of time. For example, news, educational material and interesting information give people incentive to stay, allowing the site to display more ads and messages.
However, stickiness 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 email address for a long time, switching to another service means notifying people. Since there is often no email forwarding, and most people have long forgotten who has their address, users are not inclined to change providers.
After years of programming for one computer environment, enterprises are not inclined to switch to another. The cost, time and problems reprogramming applications detracts from 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. See
sticky connection and
sticky timer.