The following is a list of definitions of commonly used terms
related to web designing, web hosting, computers and the internet.
For terms not listed here you may consult many different online
dictionaries and encyclopedias. One of our favorites is Internet.com
Webopedia.
- Bandwidth
- Browser
- CGI
- Color Pallet
- Crawler
- Dedicated
Line
- DHTML
- Dialup
- Domain Name
- Dynamic
IP Address
- E-Commerce
- E-mail
- GIF
- HTML
- HTTP
- Hyperlink
- Indexing
- Internet
- IP
- ISP
- Java
- JavaScript
- JPEG
- Keyword and Keyword
Phrase
- Link
- Merchant ID
- OCR
- Platform
- Portal
- Screen
Resolution
- Search
Directory
- Search
Engine
- Shopping Cart
- Spider
- SSL
- Static
IP Address
- Streaming Media
- TCP/IP
- URL
- VB
- VBScript
- Web Address
- Web Cam
- WWW
The amount of information or data that can be sent over a network
connection in a given period of time. Bandwidth is usually stated in
bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), or megabits per
second (mps).
A program that allows you to view web pages on the world wide
web. Popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator.
Abbreviation for Common Gateway Interface. A specification for
transferring information between a World Wide Web server and a CGI
program. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return
data that conforms to the CGI specification. The program could be
written in any programming language, including C, Perl, Java, or
Visual Basic.
CGI programs are the most common way for Web servers to interact
dynamically with users. Many HTML pages that contain forms, for
example, use a CGI program to process the form's data once it's
submitted. Another increasingly common way to provide dynamic
feedback for Web users is to include scripts or programs that run on
the user's machine rather than the Web server. These programs can be
Java applets, Java scripts, or ActiveX controls. These technologies
are known collectively as client-side solutions, while the use of
CGI is a server-side solution because the processing occurs on the
Web server.
One problem with CGI is that each time a CGI script is executed,
a new process is started. For busy Web sites, this can slow down the
server noticeably. A more efficient solution, but one that is
also more difficult to implement, is to use the server's API, such
as ISAPI or NSAPI. Another increasingly popular solution is to use
Java servlets.
Similar to an artists pallet, it is the group of colors that can
be used at any given time to produce a given picture or web page.
An automated program that follows URLs on web pages to gather
information on those web pages in order to index them. Search
engines utilize programs to create their massive indexes.
A telephone line that is reserved for the singular purpose of
providing a data connection between two computers.
Abbreviation for Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language.
An extension of HTML giving greater control over the layout of
page elements and the ability to have web pages which change and
interact with the user without having to communicate with the
server.
DHTML was created by Microsoft and can be viewed in Internet Explorer
4.0 and Netscape Communicator 4.0 - but, Microsoft and
Netscape disagree on how DHTML should be implemented.
A temporary connection between computers established over a
telephone line.
An address of a web site most commonly represented as www.yourname.com
for a commercial or business site, www.yourname.org for an
organization (usually non-profit) or www.yourname.net for an
Internet network.
It's a computer address represented as a series of numbers separated by periods which is used to uniquely identify your computer on the internet or a computer network. It's
considered to be dynamic because it changes. It's usually assigned
to your computer each time your computer connects to your Internet
Service Provider (ISP).
Abbreviation for Electronic Commerce. The conducting of business
communication and transactions over networks and through computers
or the Internet. As most restrictively defined, electronic commerce
is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of
funds, through digital communications.
Abbreviation for Electronic Mail. Electronic mail is sent over the Internet and in addition to text
it can contain pictures as well as sound files.
Pronounced jiff or giff (hard g) stands for graphics interchange
format, a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide
Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color and various
resolutions. It also includes data compression, making it especially
effective for scanned photos.
Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language. The tag-based ASCII language used to create pages on the World
Wide Web.
Abbreviation for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer HTML files.
A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that,
when clicked on with your mouse, brings you to another place within the document or to
another document somewhere else on the Internet altogether.
The process that takes place after "spidering" the web pages.
This is where pages are organized by keywords and keyword phrases
and the information is stored on servers to be used later for
searching web sites and web pages.
A collection of millions of interconnected computers around the
world, capable of exchanging massive amounts of information to
millions of people.
Abbreviation for Internet Protocol --
the standard format for data transfer used by all computers on the
Internet to enable them to communicate.
Abbreviation for Internet Service Provider. This is basically like your utility company for access to the
internet. They are most commonly reached via a local phone call through your computer modem. However with the advent of cable modems and
ASDL, an ISP can now be your cable company, phone company or even a satellite
company. America Online, Compuserve, MSN and Earthlink are
some of the most popular Internet Service Providers.
Java is a general purpose programming language with a number of
features that make the language well suited for use on the World
Wide Web. Small Java applications are called Java applets and can be
downloaded from a Web server and run on your computer by a
Java-compatible Web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
A scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors
to design interactive sites. Although it shares many of the features
and structures of the full Java language, it was developed
independently. JavaScript can interact with HTML source code,
enabling Web authors to spice up their sites with dynamic content.
JavaScript is endorsed by a number of software companies and is an
open language that anyone can use without purchasing a license. It
is supported by recent browsers from Netscape and Microsoft, though
Internet Explorer supports only a subset, which Microsoft calls
Jscript.
Abbreviation for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and pronounced
jay-peg. JPEG is a lossy (in contrast to lossless) compression technique for color images.
Although it can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size,
some detail is lost (hence, lossy) in the compression.
These are the words that you type into a search engine. A
keyword phrase is a set of words that are to be matched exactly as
they are typed in and used to find pages that contain that exact phrase. They are also the words incorporated into web sites so
that people can find the site.
A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that,
when clicked on with your mouse, brings you to another place within the document or to
another document altogether.
To be able to process online credit card transactions you must obtain a
Merchant ID from your the bank where you have your Merchant Account.
Abbreviation for Optical Character Recognition. Refers to the
process of converting text in a graphic form, as scanned from paper, and
converting it to ASCII text that a computer can represent and manipulate efficiently. This process requires a scanner peripheral hardware device and OCR software.
The type of hardware and operating system that a computer system
runs software applications on. For example, a common platform today is a
computer system running an Intel Pentium III CPU with a Windows 98 operating
system. Often as a more generic usage of platform, just the hardware
is used to define the platform such as PC or Mac, or just the
operating system is used such as Windows NT, or Unix.
It is a web site that is designed with the intention of being your starting point
for entering the Internet. Portals have a lot of similarities to search engines and search
directories, but with several added extras like free e-mail, stock
quotes, horoscopes, local news, weather, television, movies, and
more. Most of these extras are customizable to your personal preferences.
Yahoo and most of the major search engines and directories are
trying to become all things for everyone or Portals.
The number of colors and pixels capable of being displayed on
a computer monitor at a given time. These days, typically the lowest
resolution is 256 colors at 640x480 pixels. Other common resolutions
are 64,000 colors (hi-color) at 800x600 pixels, millions of colors
(true color) at 1024x768 pixels. As monitor sizes increase so do
pixel resolutions. Some higher pixel resolutions are 1152x864,
1280x1024, 1600x1200, etc.
This is a web site that allows you to find information by
browsing or searching through the directory. Directories are usually
organized by topic and subtopics and alphabetized so that you can
find the web site that you want. Although it may resemble a
search engine it has a key difference. People organize and rate the
information contained within it whereas a search engine is for the
most part fully automated.
A remotely accessible program that lets you do keyword searches
for information on the Internet. There are several types of search
engines; the search may cover titles of documents, URLs, headers, or
the full text.
A piece of a software program that acts similar to a shopping
cart in a "brick and mortar" store. You would use it while shopping
online. It allows you to make and store merchandise selections,
totaling them along the way and allowing you to review them before
checkout or final purchase.
A program that follows URLs on web pages to gather
information on those web pages in order to index them in a database to be used by search engines
Abbreviation for Secure Socket Layer. A protocol designed by
Netscape Communications Corporation to provide encrypted and secure
communications on the Internet.
It's a computer address represented as series of numbers separated by periods used to
identify your computer on the internet or a computer network. It's
considered static because it remains constant. It looks something
like this: 200.169.70.8
The process of utilizing data as it comes to a PC in real time, instead of
waiting for all if it to be delivered. For instance, you can hear or
see an audio or video file while it is being downloaded to your
computer instead of having to wait for the whole file to be
downloaded. This capability is also desirable to listen and
watch Radio and TV broadcasts to the internet.
Abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
These protocols are the basis for all internet communication
and are part of most all computer and network operating systems.
Abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator. A draft standard for
specifying the location of an object on the Internet, such as a file
or a newsgroup. URLs are used extensively on the World-Wide Web.
They are used in HTML documents to specify the target of a hyperlink
which is often another HTML document (possibly stored on another
computer). These are the links that you click on to go from page to page
or location to location on the web.
Abbreviation for Visual Basic. A programming language and environment developed by Microsoft.
Based on the BASIC language, Visual Basic was one of the first
products to provide a graphical programming environment and a paint
metaphor for developing user interfaces. Instead of worrying about
syntax details, the Visual Basic programmer can add a substantial
amount of code simply by dragging and dropping controls, such as
buttons and dialog boxes, and then defining their appearance and
behavior.
Short for Visual Basic Scripting Edition, a scripting language
developed by Microsoft and supported by Microsoft's Internet
Explorer Web browser. VBScript is based on the Visual Basic
programming language, but is much simpler. In many ways, it is
similar to JavaScript. It enables Web authors to include interactive
controls, such as buttons and scrollbars, on their Web pages.
See URL.
A camera that is linked to the World Wide Web so that it’s video is made available to
anyone on the internet to see in real time.
Abbreviation for World Wide Web. The massive collection of millions of Web Sites that reside on
the Internet.
