Glossary

Below is an alphabetical glossary of the terms used on this web site and commonly used in discussions. You may scroll through the list or use the below letter to skip further down the page to the associated section.

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z

• A
  • AI
    File extension for Adobe Illustrator files, i.e. thisimage.ai
  • Accessibility
    The use of techniques when authoring a web site that allows people with disabilities ranging from visual problems to cognitive impairments to use the Internet ensuring the widest audience possible.
  • Acrobat Reader
    Plug-in from Adobe. It reads documents in PDF format on any platform.
  • Apache
    The most widely available HTTP server (web server) on the Internet. It supports the PERL and PHP languages.
  • ASP
    Active Server Pages. A specification that enables Web pages to be dynamically created using HTML, scripts, and reusable ActiveX server components.
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• B
  • Banner
    A small area of a window or screen used for advertising purposes, often consisting of GIF images. A standard size for this area is 486 x 60 pixels.
  • Browser
    A program used to view and navigate web sites such as FireFox or Internet Explorer.
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• C
  • Cache
    The location where visited web pages are stored on the clients computer, enabling them to be displayed more rapidly at the next visit. Each browser has its own cache on the hard drive.
  • Cascading Style Sheets
    A standard of the W3C which defines a simple mechanism for customising the formatting of Web pages, by defining fonts, colours of titles, paragraph spacing, etc.
  • CGI
    Common Gateway Interface. The server-side program or script used for advanced web site functionality
  • Client
    A computer or an application that calls on a server's services.
  • Cookies
    Text files downloaded onto a visitor's computer hard drive to store the visitor's actions in order to better customise their following visits.
  • CPM
    Cost Per thousand iMpressions. A means of paying for online advertising by the number of times the advert is displayed on a web site.
  • Content Management
    The technique of storing content in a database so that it may be updated easily and used for other functions.
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• D
  • Design
    The discipline of producing a structure, look and feel for a web site which pleases the eye, and is easy to use.
  • Domain Name
    A memorable name (e.g. vanbar.co.uk) which identifies a company, product or concept on the Internet. Usually prefixed with "www." to refer to a related web site, and an @ sign to produce an e-mail address.
  • Dynamic Pages
    Web pages automatically generated by a script such as Perl or PHP
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• E
  • Ecommerce
    Electronic commerce (also known as ebusiness.). Buying and selling products and services via the Internet.
  • Email Broadcasting
    Issuing emails to a group of people, usually with associated with email tracking.
  • Email Tracking
    A method by which emails that are broadcast are monitored to best determine the results and actions such as whether it was opened and if any links were clicked on.
  • Extranet
    A web site or part of a web site which is aimed at a known audience, who gain access through a username and password.
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• F
  • FAQ
    Frequently Asked Questions. A list of the most frequently asked questions along with their respective answers.
  • Flash
    Software from Macromedia for creating vector animations. A user's browser needs the Flash Player plug-in in order to interpret Flash animations. Often used for games and animations
  • FTP
    File Transfer Protocol. An Internet standard for uploading and downloading files over the Internet. FTP utilities are used to transfer Web pages and other files from your hard drive to a remote web server.
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• G
  • GIF
    Graphic Interchange Format. A Compuserve image format, now widespread on the Web. It enables the reduction of image size by using a high compression rate.
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• H
  • Hosting
    Every web site is stored on a computer - called a server - that is connected to the Internet. When your site is stored on one of these servers, your site is being "hosted" by the server.
  • HTML
    Hypertext Mark-up Language. The coding language to create web pages (HTML files). With HTML, you can "mark up" text by placing formatting commands called tags around it that tell the browser software how to format it for display.
  • HTTP
    HyperText Transfer Protocol. Standard protocol for transmitting web pages on the Internet.
  • HTTPS
    HTTP Over SSL. Protocol enabling the secured transmission of web pages.
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• I
  • Internet
    Abbreviation for International Network. A network of inter-connected computers which spans the globe.
  • Intranet
    A network built upon the same technologies as the Internet, but restricted in scope to a single organisation.
  • IP (Internet Protocol) Address Every computer on the Internet is identified by a numeric address (for example: 123.123.4.56). Each IP address has a corresponding DNS address (for example: www.vanbar.co.uk).
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• J
  • JavaScript
    A client side scripting language that complements HTML.
  • JPEG
    Joint Photographic Expert Group. A standard for file compression, more powerful than GIF, that can produce a 1:200 compression ratio.
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• K
  • Keyword
    A word entered by a visitor in a search engine to locate information or a site. Also refers to data associated with a web page's metadata
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• L
  • Linux
    Intel-processor-based operating system developed as an alternative to Unix. It is currently used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and is very popular for use on web servers.
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• M
  • Meta tags
    HTML tags that are not visible on a formatted page, but are used by search engines for indexing purposes
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• P
  • PSD
    File extension for Adobe Photoshop files, i.e. thisimage.psd
  • PDA
    Personal Digital Assistant - hand-held computer with small LCD screen and stylus for user input. Examples include Palm, Clie and Ipaq.
  • PDF
    Portable Document Format - electronic file which contains a document usually intended to be printed. Viewable on many software platforms.
  • Pay-per-Click (PPC)
    Each click on a link or a banner or advert generates a commission for the webmaster. Most commonly associated with Google Adwords. See Pay Per Click and Adwords for more detail.
  • PERL
    Practical Extraction and Report Language. A scripting language for developing CGI programs.
  • PHP
    Personal Home Page. Scripting language for web site functionality.
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• R
  • RSS
    Really Simple Syndication - specification for listing the content or news stories available on a web site through XML for the purposes of displaying the information as links in another web site or to feed into News Aggregation software.
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• S
  • Script
    A set of commands written in an interpreted language to automate certain application tasks. In the Internet world, a script is a program that runs on a server and processes requests in response to input from the browser. There is client scripting as well as server scripting.
  • SEO
    An abbreviation standing for 'Search Engine Optimisation'. This is process of ensureing that the information architecture of the website is geared towards the best natural, i.e. unpaid, ranking on the Search Engines.
  • Server
    A computer that stores information files, web pages and other services and responds to requests for information from remote client computers. The term server is also used to describe the software and operating system that makes the act of serving information possible.
  • Spam
    Junk or unsolicited e-mail.
  • SSL
    Secure Sockets Layers. A protocol developed by Netscape for securing data sent by the browser by encrypting it prior to it being transmitted. SSL delivers server authentication, data encryption, and message integrity.
  • SQL
    Structured Query Language. Relational database language developed by IBM.
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• T
  • Traffic
    Generic term for the level of visitors to a web site.
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• U
  • URL
    The Uniform Resource Locator is used to specify the address of web sites and web pages, for example http://www.vanbar.co.uk/
  • Unique Visitor
    A traffic measurement unit. A specific visitor, usually identified through their IP address, who has visited a site.
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• V
  • Viral Marketing
    A marketing strategy that is self-propogating. Often used to referred to releasing web content such as a game or video that people pass amongst themselves.
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• W
  • W3C
    World Wide Web Consortium. The international organisation that defines standards and rules for the Internet.
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• X
  • XHTML
    eXtensible HyperText Markup Language. Reformulation of HTML 4 according to XML rules. It is supported by HTML browsers and applications developed with XML.
  • XLL
    eXtensible Linking Language. An XML extension used to insert links that can point directly to a specific object (image, title, word, etc.) into a page.
  • XML
    eXtensible Markup Language. A re-defined version of SGML. It is seen as the successor of HTML. It enables the customising of tags which describes the layout and the very nature of data elements. It is very useful for sites maintaining large data volumes and on an intranet. Currently, only Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape 6 offers support for XML.
  • XSL
    eXtensible Style Sheet Language. A language for defining XML style sheets. It is on course to becoming a standard.
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• Z
  • Zip
    A format for compressed files on Windows systems often referred to as WinZip.
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