BLOG (or WEB LOG)

A blog (short for "web log") is a type of web page that offers a series of posted items (short articles, photos, diary entries, etc.).
Blogs usually include a searchable archive of old postings.
Blogs have become a common medium for communication in professional, political, news, trendy, and other specialized web communities.
Many blogs provide RSS feeds, to which one can subscribe and receive alerts to new postings in selected blogs.

BOOLEAN LOGIC

A system of standardized words ("operators") used to connect search terms. These include AND, OR, NOT and sometimes NEAR.
AND requires all terms appear in a record. OR retrieves records with either term. NOT excludes terms.
Parentheses may be used to sequence operations and group words. Always enclose terms joined by OR with parentheses.

BROWSERS

Software programs that enable you to view web pages and other documents on the Internet.
They "translate" HTML-encoded files into the text, images, sounds, and other features you see.
The most commonly used browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (often called IE), Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, Opera, and Chrome.

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.

CASE SENSITIVE

Capital letters (upper case) retrieve only upper case. Most search tools are not case sensitive or only respond to initial capitals, as in proper names.

CGI

"Common Gateway Interface," the most common way Web programs interact dynamically with users.
Many search boxes and other applications that result in a page with content tailored to the user's search terms rely on CGI to process the data once it's submitted, to pass it to a background program in JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, or another programming language, and then to integrate the response into a display using HTML.

COOKIE

A message from a WEB SERVER computer, sent to and stored by your browser on your computer.
When your computer consults the originating server computer, the cookie is sent back to the server, allowing it to respond to you according to the cookie's contents.
The main use for cookies is to provide customized Web pages according to a profile of your interests. When you log onto a "customized" type of invitation on a Web page and fill in your name and other information, this may result in a cookie on your computer which that Web page will access to appear to "know" you and provide what you want.
If you fill out these forms, you may also receive e-mail and other solicitation independent of cookies.

DOMAIN, TOP LEVEL DOMAIN (TLD)

Hierarchical scheme for indicating logical and sometimes geographical venue of a web-page from the top-bar.
In the US, common domains are .edu (education), .gov (government agency), .net (top-bar related), .com (commercial), .org (nonprofit and research organizations).
Outside the US, domains usually indicate country: ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), au (Australia), jp (Japan), fr (France), etc.

DOMAIN NAME, DOMAIN NAME SERVER (DNS)ENTRY

Any of these terms refers to the initial part of a URL, down to the first /, where the domain and name of the host or SERVER computer are listed (most often in reversed order, name first, then domain).
The domain name gives you who "published" a page, made it public by putting it on the Web.
A domain name is translated in huge tables standardized across the Internet into a numeric IP address unique to the host computer sought. These tables are maintained on computers called "Domain Name Servers."
Whenever you ask the browser to find a URL, the browser must consult the table on the domain name server that particular computer is top-bared to consult.
"Domain Name Server entry" frequently appears as a browser error message when you try to enter a URL. If this lookup fails for any reason, the "lacks DNS entry" error occurs. The most common remedy is simply to try the URL again, when the domain name server is less busy, and it will find the entry (the corresponding numeric IP address).

 

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FRAMES

A format for web documents that divides the screen into segments, each with a scroll bar as if it were as "window" within the window. Usually, selecting a category of documents in one frame shows the contents of the category in another frame.
To go BACK in a frame, position the cursor in the frame an press the right mouse button, and select "Back in frame" (or Forward). You can adjust frame dimensions by positioning the cursor over the border between frames and dragging the border up/down or right/left holding the mouse button down over the border.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one computer to another, intact for viewing or other purposes.

HOST

Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language. A standardized language of computer code, embedded 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.
HTML often embeds within it other programming languages and applications such as SGML, XML, Javascript, CGI-script and more.
It is possible to deliver or access and execute virtually any program via the WWW.
You can see HTML by selecting the View pop-down menu tab, then "Document Source."

HYPERTEXT

On the World Wide Web, the feature, built into HTML, that allows a text area, image, or other object to become a "link" (as if in a chain) that retrieves another computer file (another Web page, image, sound file, or other document) on the Internet.
The range of possibilities is limited only by the ability of the computer retrieving the outside file to view, play, or otherwise open the incoming file. It needs to have software that can interact with the imported file.
Many software capabilities of this type are built into browsers or can be added as "plug-ins."

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.

JAVASCRIPT

A simple programming language developed by Netscape to enable greater interactivity in Web pages. It shares some characteristics with JAVA but is independent.
It interacts with HTML, enabling dynamic content and motion.

KEYWORD(S)

A word searched for in a search command. Keywords are searched in any order.
Use spaces to separate keywords in simple keyword searching.

LINK

The URL embedded in another document, so that if you click on the highlighted text or button referring to the link, you retrieve the outside URL.
If you search the field "link:", you retrieve on text in these embedded URLs which you do not see in the documents.

LINK "ROT"

Term used to describe the frustrating and frequent problem caused by the constant changing in URLs. A Web page or search tool offers a link and when you click on it, you get an error message (e.g., "not available") or a page saying the site has moved to a new URL.
Search engine spiders cannot keep up with the changes. URLs change frequently because the documents are moved to new computers, the file structure on the computer is reorganized, or sites are discontinued.
If there is no referring link to the new URL, there is little you can do but try to search for the same or an equivalent site from scratch.

 

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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.

RSS or RSS feeds

Short for "Really Simple Syndication" (a.k.a. Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary), refers to a group of XML based web-content distribution and republication (Web syndication) formats primarily used by news sites and weblogs (blogs).
Any website can issue an RSS feed. By subscribing to an RSS feed, you are alerted to new additions to the feed since you last read it.
In order to read RSS feeds, you must use a "feed reader," which formats the XML code into an easily readable format (feed readers are to XML and RSS feeds as web browsers are to HTML and web pages.)

SCRIPT

A script is a type of programming language that can be used to fetch and display Web pages. There are many kinds and uses of scripts on the Web. They can be used to create all or part of a page, and communicate with searchable databases. Forms (boxes) and many interactive links, which respond differently depending on what you enter, all require some kind of script language. When you find a question mark (?) in the URL of a page, some kind of script command was used in generating and/or delivering that page. Most search engine spiders are instructed not to crawl pages from scripts, although it is usually technically possible for them to do so (see Invisible Web for more information).

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."

SERVER-SIDE

Something that operates on the "server" computer (providing the Web page), as opposed to the "client" computer (which is you or someone else viewing the Web page). Usually it is a program or command or procedure or other application causes dynamic pages or animation or other interaction.

SHTML, usually seen as .shtml

An file name extension that identifies web pages containing SSI commands.

SPIDERS

Computer robot programs, referred to sometimes as "crawlers" or "knowledge-bots" or "knowbots" that are used by search engines to roam the World Wide Web via the Internet, visit sites and databases, and keep the search engine database of web pages up to date. They obtain new pages, update known pages, and delete obsolete ones. Their findings are then integrated into the "home" database. Most large search engines operate several robots all the time. Even so, the Web is so enormous that it can take six months for spiders to cover it, resulting in a certain degree of "out-of-datedness" (link rot) in all the search engines.

SSI commands

SSI stands for "server-side include," a type of HTML instruction telling a computer that serves Web pages to dynamically generate data, usually by inserting certain variable contents into a fixed template or boilerplate Web page. Used especially in database searches.

TCP/IP

(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) -- This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

TELNET

Internet service allowing one computer to log onto another, connecting as if not remote.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of any Web document. May be keyed in a browser's OPEN or LOCATION / GO TO box to retrieve a document.
There is a logic the layout of a URL:

1) Type of file - http:// (or ftp:// or telnet://)
2) Domain Name - (the computer the file is located on, and its location on the Internet)
3) Path - the path to the directory the file is in
4) Name of file - whatever the filename is (usually ending in htm, html, or php)

 

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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.

XHTML

A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a hybrid between HTML and XML that is more universally acceptable in Web pages and search engines than XML.

XML

Extensible Markup Language, a dilution for Web page use of SGML (Standard General Markup Language), which is not readily viewable in ordinary browsers and is difficult to apply to Web pages.
XML is very useful (among other things) for pages emerging from databases and other applications where parts of the page are standardized and must reappear many times. See XHTML.

 

Can't find the term you want?

" Search almost any computer jargon in the Webopedia, "the #1 online encyclopedia and search engine dedicated to computer technology" from Internet.com.

" Another excellent encyclopedia for computer jargon and many other topics is Wikipedia, "The Free Encyclopedia."

 

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