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WEB SERVICES - WEBSITE GLOSSARY
Websites
Glossary
Just a few simple terms for the technically challenged (including us sometimes!!!)
adobe acrobat reader
see PDF
address (e-mail)
One of the best ways to stay connected to the world, your work colleagues and your friends around the world. Example: info@cpr.co.uk
address (website)
Website addresses usually begin with www (for the world wide web). Example: www.cpr.co.uk and www.apple.combookmarks
A good way to keep a recorded shortcut in your website browser. Go to the toolbar, click on Favourites and then Add to Favourites. Simple.
bounce
An electronic mail message that is undeliverable and returns an error notification to the sender is said to ‘bounce’. Very irritating.
broadband
Usually refers to an always on, fast connection to the internet, from speeds of half a meg upwards. Nothing less.
browser
see web browser.
CD-ROM
A compact disk that functions as read-only memory.
cookie
Nothing to do with biscuits. Simply a collection of information, usually including a username and the current date and time, stored on the local computer of a person using the World Wide Web, used chiefly by websites to identify users who have previously registered or visited the site.
cyberspace
A term coined by William Gibson for the Internet when it was purely a science-fiction and literary concept. It refers to the lack of any real sense of physical location on the Internet.
database
A collection of organised information that can be held on a computer, stored, searched and displayed.
dial-up
Relating to a network connection to the Internet, which requires that a telephone number be dialed usually at slow modem speeds. Fast disappearing with the advent of affordable broadband.
DNS
Domain Name System or Server. A website’s dns must be safety stored somewhere so that other computer’s can find your website’s domain.
domain name
A unique name that is used to identify one site from another, eg cpr.co.uk
download
To transfer (data including text and pictures or programs) from a server or host computer to one's own computer or device.
e-Business
electronic business, any business conducted using electronic media; any business that makes some or all of its revenue via Internet technology usually involving credit card transactions via a secure webserver.
e-Commerce
Commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet.
e-Mail
sending and receiving messages over the Internet.
e-Marketing
promoting businesses and organisations over the Internet, also described sometimes as search engine promotion or marketing.
encryption
To alter (a file, for example) using a secret code so as to be unintelligible to unauthorized parties.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions or frequently answered questions. Often the place where you are lucky to find the answers to any of your questions!
firewall
Any of a number of security schemes that prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to a computer network or that monitor transfers of information to and from the network. Blame the firewall when you can’t access websites you really need to!
flash
A browser independent vector-graphic animation technology. Flash animations can feature video, music and fast moving graphics. Browsers require the necessary plug-ins to view then. Download the free Flash Player plug-in HERE.
gif
a graphics file format used to store images - one of two popular ways of storing graphics for a webpage. See also JPEG. GIFs can be animated and feature transparent areas, JPEGs can not.
hit
A misleading term often referred to as a measure of a website’s success (aka “we’ve had thousands of hits this week”. But one website user can “hit” a site hundreds or even thousands of times in one visit, with each hit recorded for text, jpeg images, headlines etc one every website page. Stick to website user statistics as a better way to judge a website’s popularity.
homepage
Usually the opening or main page of a website, intended chiefly to greet visitors and provide information about the site or its owner. Although a Splashpage sometimes precedes the homepage.
html
HyperText Markup Language. The codes and commands that are used to define and format a webpage. These commands let you choose the colour, style and position of text, links and images within the page.
http
HyperText Transfer Protocol. The way in which a Web browser talks to a webserver to request information.
hypertext
A hypertext link (usually underlined in blue) takes website visitors from one page to another or one website to another.
internet or net
An interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via the TCP/IP protocol.
intranet
a mini, private Internet that's only accessible to users on a company's internal network.
ISP
Internet Service Provider. A company that provides users with a link to the Internet via broadband connections or simple dial ups.
javascript
A scripting language from Netscape that is only marginally related to Java. Java and JavaScript are not the same thing. JavaScript was designed to resemble Java, which in turn looks a lot like C and C++. The difference is that Java was built as a general-purpose object language, while JavaScript is intended to provide a quicker and simpler language for enhancing Web pages and servers. JavaScript is embedded as a small program in a web page that is interpreted and executed by the Web client. The scriptor controls the time and nature of the execution, and JavaScript functions can be called from within a Web document, often executed by mouse functions, buttons, or other actions from the user. JavaScript can be used to fully control Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers, including all the familiar browser attributes.
jpeg
a graphics file format used to store images - often used to store photographic or high-quality images (with respect to the web) that can be displayed on a website.
keyword
a word that you type in a search engine to help you find relevant website information.
link
see hypertext link.
metatags
are lines of code hidden within your web pages and is used to help a search engine correctly index and summarise the contents of the page.
mp3
A coding standard for compression of audio data. Music files sizes can be dramatically reduced when saved in this format with minimal reduction in sound quality, hence the popularity on the web when downloading music.
modem
modulator/demodulator. A piece of equipment that connects computers to each other for sending communications via telephone lines.
offline
not connected to the Internet.
online
connected to the Internet.
pdf
A file format created by Adobe, initially to provide a standard form for storing and editing printed publishable documents. Because documents in .pdf format can easily be seen and printed by users on a variety of computer and platform types, they are very common on the internet. To view files of this type download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader HERE
plug-in
With regards to the web a plug-in is usually a little bit of software that adds a specific feature or service to your computer. The idea is that the new component simply plugs in to the existing system. For example, there are number of plug-ins for the Internet Explorer that enables it to display different types of audio or video files. See also Acrobat reader, Flash, Quicktime and RealPlayer.
realplayer
A plug-in application developed by Real Networks, that allows a user to hear audio and video saved in various file formats. Realplayer also plays streaming media, that is, audio or video that is being broadcast live over the internet. Clicking on some hyperlinks will cause your browser to activate RealPlayer. You can purchase the professional plugin (used for editing and creating RealPlayer files) or simply download the free RealPlayer plug-in HERE.
search engine
A generic search engine searches the internet for related sites based on manually input words or phrases and lists them in order of importance based on their particular criteria using spiders. (See Spiders) You have probably used one of the major search engines at some time. These include Google, MSN, Yahoo and AOL. For explanations of more terminology see the Search Engine Glossary below.
secure site
usually a website with a secure connection which is difficult to hack into. You can identify a secure website by virtue of its “https” address.
shopping cart/basket
The shopping area of a website. Time to get your credit card ready!
quicktime
A video and animation system developed by Apple Computer. QuickTime is built into the Macintosh operating system and is used by most Mac applications that include video or animation. PCs can also run files in QuickTime format, but they require a special QuickTime plug-in. QuickTime supports most encoding formats, including Cinepak, JPEG MPEG and MP3. You can purchase the professional plugin (used for editing and creating Quicktime files) or simply download the free Quicktime Player plug-in HERE.
URL
Unique Resource Locator, or the web address to you and me.
virus
A computer virus used by computer geeks to spoil things for everyone else. Take precautions by installing an antivirus program such as the free download at www.grisoft.com
W3C
World Wide Web Consortium, an academic and industrial consortium devoted to the development of Web standards and technologies. Used to ensure that websites are friendly to visually disabled viewers.
web browser
What you are using to view this website, such as Internet Exporer. This is a graphical browser, which means it they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video. See Plug-ins
webcam
A camera designed to take digital photographs and transmit them over the Internet or other network.
webpage
A document on the World Wide Web, consisting of an HTML file and any related files for scripts and graphics, and often hyperlinked to other documents on the Web.
webserver
Used to host the world’s billions of websites, computers which are online and available to the internet 24/7.
website
A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization. So now you know!
worm
A malicious program that replicates itself until it fills all of the storage space on a drive or network. See also: virus.
search engine glossary
keywords and key phrases
Keyword and key phrases are the words you input for a search on a search engine. For example 'cars' is a keyword and 'new and used cars' would be a key phrase.
link popularity
Link popularity is related to the number of links you have within your website. These can be internal or external links. Internal links are links to other pages within your site and external links are links to other sites, preferably with related content. Some of the search engines place importance on link popularity when ranking websites.
metatags
These are lines of code hidden within your web pages. CPR Works creates these tags or optimises existing tags to make them more 'search engine friendly'.
pay for inclusion (PFI)
Pay for inclusion or PFI is a way of guaranteeing that search engines will index your website within a short period of time. This said, directories such as Yahoo do not guarantee your site will appear in the search engine results even with paid for inclusion.
pay per click (PPC)
Pay per click campaigns or PPC are a way of promoting a website quickly and efficiently as you are guaranteed a good placement within the 'sponsored' results with the search engines. (there is more information on 'sponsored' and 'organic' results within this glossary) There are 2 major drawbacks with this type of campaign. Firstly it can be very expensive to run anything more than a short term campaign. Secondly, there is nothing to stop unscrupulous competitors from paying people to click your links until you campaign funds are effectively drained. An actual case of this practice was reported recently in the national press.
reciprocal links
These are links between your site and other related web sites and vice versa.
search engine
A generic search engine searches the internet for related sites based on manually input words or phrases and lists them in order of importance based on their particular criteria using spiders. (See Spiders) You have probably used one of the major search engines at some time. These include Google, MSN, Yahoo and AOL.
search engine optimisation or search engine marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (or Search Engine Marketing) is the process of increasing visibility of your online business to achieve top search engine rankings for relevant, targeted key phrases with the major search engines.
search engine results pages (SERPs)
Search engine results pages or SERPS are the pages that appear when you input a word or phrase into your search engine. The resulting links go to websites which that particular search engine regards as having the most relevance to your search word or phrase.
search engine submissions
Search engine submission is the process of submitting your website to search engines for inclusion in their results pages. Most of the major search engine optimisation companies use software to submit websites, but some search engines will only accept manual submissions.
spiders
Spiders, named because they crawl around the World Wide Web, do just that. It is a software robot that serves a search engine by exploring the net, collecting web page addresses and page contents, and following links from them to other addresses to collect still more web information, also known as a worm or crawler.
If you have any suggestions for our glossary - please email us HERE