Glossary
TDS
A traffic distribution system: software that sorts clicks by GEO, device, language, IP or bot signals and sends each group to its own destination. Keitaro started out calling itself a TDS, and trackers still do the job.
Also called: traffic distribution system, traffic direction system, traffic distributor.
In practice a TDS is what lets a single link serve many audiences: visitors from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the offer that accepts them, everyone else to a fallback, desktop users to a different lander, known data-center IPs to a neutral page. A modern tracker does the same routing and adds the reporting, so the 2 words are often used interchangeably.
The catch is that the same filtering powers cloaking: sending reviewers' IPs one way and users another is a TDS rule with a different purpose, and ad platforms suspend accounts for it. The acronym also carries baggage outside the industry: security researchers use it for criminal redirect networks that deliver malware. Expect a hosting provider or an abuse desk to read the word that way.