A to Z of Web Terminology - Learn the lingo!
Anchor Text - A keyword linking to a specific web page.
Bandwidth - How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in one second.
Blog - web log - A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger."
Browser - A software programme such as Internet Explorer and FireFox, which is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
Cookie - The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheet - A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements.
DHTML - Dynamic HyperText Markup Language - DHTML refers to web pages that use a combination of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
DNS - Domain Name System - The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain names into IP numbers.
Download - Transferring data (usually a file) from a another computer to the computer you are are using. The opposite of upload.
Email - Electronic Mail Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.
Ethernet - A very common method of networking computers in a LAN.
Fire Wall - A combination of hardware and software that separates a Network into two or more parts for security purposes.
FTP - File Transfer Protocol - A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files.
GIF - Graphic Interchange Format - A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.
Gigabyte - 1000 or more scientifically specific, 1024 Megabytes.
Hit - a hit is a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server; thus in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 hits would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics.
Home Page - This is usually the main page of a website, acting as the introduction page to the rest of the site.
Host - Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network.
HTML - HyperText Markup Language - The coding language used to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web.
HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol -The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet.
Hypertext or Hyperlink - A text link that contains links to other documents.
Internet - The collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols. The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet.
Intranet - A private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use.
IP Number - Internet Protocol Number - Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2
ISP - Internet Service Provider - An organisation which provides access to the Internet.
Java - Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.
JavaScript - JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive. When JavaScript is included in an HTML file it relies upon the browser to interpret the JavaScript. When JavaScript is combined with Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called DHTML.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group - JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed to line art or simple logo art.
Kilobyte - A thousand bytes. More specifically, it is 1024 bytes.
LAN - Local Area Network - A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.
Linux - A widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system. Linux was first released by its inventor Linus Torvalds in 1991.
Login - The account name used to gain access to a computer system via a username and password.
Megabyte - A million bytes or more specifically, 1024 kilobytes.
Meta Tag - A specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not normally displayed to the user. Meta tags contain information about the page itself, hence the name ("meta" means "about this subject")
Typical uses of Meta tags are to include information for search engines to help them better categorize a page.
Modem - A device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a computer. A modem allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system.
Network - Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network.
Open Source Software - Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes.
Password - A code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters.
PDF - Portable Document Format - A file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used.
Ping - To check if a server is running.
Plug-in - A smaller piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software.
PNG - Portable Network Graphics - PNG is a graphics format specifically designed for use on the World Wide Web. PNG enable compression of images without any loss of quality, including high-resolution images.
Router - A special-purpose computer or software package that handles the connection between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
RSS - Real Simple Syndication - A commonly used protocol for syndication and sharing of content. RSS is an XML-based summary of a web site, usually used for syndication and other kinds of content-sharing. There are RSS "feeds" which are sources of RSS information about web sites, and RSS "readers" which read RSS feeds and display their content to users.
Search Engine - A web-based system for searching the information available on the Web.
Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents of other systems and creating a database of the results. Other search engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in a database, and some combine the two approaches.
Security Certificate - A chunk of information that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization - The practice of designing web pages in a certain specific manner so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines.
Server - A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers.
SQL - Structured Query Language - A specialized language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength and many smaller database applications can be addressed using SQL.
SSL - Secure Socket Layer - A protocol designed to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet.
TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system.
Terabyte - 1000 gigabytes.
TLD - Top Level Domain - The last (right-hand) part of a complete Domain Name commonly referred to as the domain extension, e.g. .com
Unix - A computer operating system - the basic software running on a computer, underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator
VPN - Virtual Private Network - refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.
WAN - Wide Area Network - Any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.
Website - The entire collection of web pages within a website, and normally sharing the same URL.
Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity - A popular term for a form of wireless data communication, basically Wi-Fi is "Wireless Ethernet".
WWW - World Wide Web - World Wide Web (or simply Web for short) is a term frequently used when referring to "The Internet".
XML - eXtensible Markup Language - A widely used system for defining data formats.
