Web Vocabulary
Blog or web log
A blog (short for "web log") is a type of web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal (or log) for an individual.
Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Blog software usually has an archive of old blog postings.
Many blogs can be searched for terms in the archive. Blogs have become a vibrant, fast-growing medium for communication in professional,
poltical, news, trendy, and other specialized web communities.
Cache
In browsers, "cache" is used to identify a space where web pages you have visited are stored in your computer.
A copy of documents you retrieve is stored in cache. When you use GO, BACK, or any other means to revisit a document,
the browser first checks to see if it is in cache and will retrieve it from there because it is much faster than retrieving
it from the server.
CMS (Content Management System)
A is a software system used for content management. The content managed includes computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web content. The idea behind a CMS is to make these files available inter-office, as well as over the web.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements. CSS was developed for use with HTML in Web pages but is also used in other situations, notably in applications built using XPFE. CSS is typically used to provide a single "library" of styles that are used over and over throughout a large number of related documents, as in a web site. A CSS file might specify that all numbered lists are to appear in italics. By changing that single specification the look of a large number of documents can be easily changed.
Domain name
Similar to a street address, servers on the Web have addresses to allow other computers to locate them electronically.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one computer to another, intact for viewing or other purposes.
GIF (graphical 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.
Image Resolution
Describes the detail an image holds. The term applies equally to digital images, film images, and other types of images.
Higher resolution means more image detail (printed images). Webready images are set at a lower resolution for fast loading web pages.
Homepage
the opening information provided by a website. Typically, a homepage provides background on the information provider, logo, and links to other web pages.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
A standardized language of computer code, imbedded in "source" documents behind all Web documents, containing the textual content, images, links to other documents (and possibly other applications such as sound or motion), and formatting instructions for display on the screen. When you view a Web page, you are looking at the product of this code working behind the scenes in conjunction with your browser. Browsers are programmed to interpret HTML for display.
IP Address or IP Number
(Internet Protocol number or address). A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP address. If a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the
Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
a method used when compressing photographic images.
Keywords(S)
A word searched for in a search command. Keywords are searched in any order. Use spaces to separate keywords in simple keyword searching. To search keywords exactly as keyed (in the same order), see PHRASE.
Meta Tags
A meta tag is a special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices.
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. There are many types of Open Source Software, mainly differing in the licensing term under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or must be) redistributed.
PDF or .pdf or pdf file
Abbreviation for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by Adobe Systems, that is used to capture almost any kind of document with the formatting in the original.
Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader, which is built into most browsers and can be downloaded free from Adobe.
PHP -- (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
PHP is a programming language used almost exclusively for creating software that is part of a web site. The PHP language is designed to be intermingled with the HTML that is used to create web pages. Unlike HTML, the PHP code is read and processed by the web server software (HTML is read and processed by the web browser software.)
Phrase (keyword)
More than one KEYWORD, searched exactly as keyed (all terms required to be in documents, in the order keyed). Enclosing keywords in quotations " " forms a phrase in AltaVista, , and some other search tools. Some times a phrase is called a "character string."
Relevancy Ranking of search results
The most common method for determining the order in which search results are displayed. Each search tool uses its own unique algorithm. Most use "fuzzy and" combined with factors such as how often your terms occur in documents, whether they occur together as a phrase, and whether they are in title or how near the top of the text. Popularity is another ranking system.
SEO -- (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines.
Server, Web Server
A computer running that software, assigned an IP address, and connected to the Internet so that it can provide documents via the
World Wide Web. Also called HOST computer. Web servers are the closest equivalent to what in the print world is called the "publisher"
of a print document. An important difference is that most print publishers carefully edit the content and quality of their publications
in an effort to market them and future publications. This convention is not required in the Web world, where anyone can be a publisher;
careful evaluation of Web pages is therefore mandatory. Also called a "Host."
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The URL identifies to a Web browser the address and type of Internet resource to which your computer is connecting. Types of resources include HTML servers, gopher servers, veronica servers, and ftp servers, each of which has its own set of protocols.
Web host
Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.
WIKI
A term meaning "quick" in Hawaiian, that is used for technology that gathers in one place a number of web pages focused on a theme, project, or collaboration. Wikis are generally used when users or group members are invited to develop, contribute, and update the content of the wiki. Wikis can be passworded in various ways to control or allow contributions. The most famous wiki is the Wikipedia.