Web Site Jargon Explained

Many clients who are new to Web Site Design are often puzzled over some of the terms frequently associated with the Web Design process. For this reason we have provided a Glossary of Web Site Terminology enabling our clients to have a better understanding of Web Design and Development.

Accessibility

In the context of a Web site, accessibility refers to the degree that a Web site can be accessed by people with disabilities.

ActiveX

Microsoft's answer to JAVA. ActiveX (TM) is a technology and set of programming tools from Microsoft for building interactivity with users into Web pages and application programs. ActiveX includes what Microsoft used to call Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) and adds more. There are ActiveX controls and ActiveX documents. Controls are objects that can be imbedded into Web pages (for example, small messages that pop up unexpectedly or images that become active when selected with a mouse) or into application programs off the Web. Controls are roughly similar to Java applets. Documents are objects that are viewable and navigable with a viewer.

Alt Tags

Mainly used for screen readers (programs that can read the contents of a website back to somebody with sight difficulties). They provide a way to describe an image to a screen reader. Keywords can be used in the alt tags to help your search engine position. You will see the alt tag text of an image when you hover over it. Try hovering over the logos at the top of this page.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a measure of how fast data that can be transferred between two computers. Popular units include Kilobits per second (Kbps) or Megabits per second (Mbps).

Bookmark

A saved link to a web page kept with a list of other saved links.

Breadcrumbs

A trail to show what pages you have navigated through to get to where you are. These are normally found at the top of a page and make it very easy to jump back to a previous page. example : Customer Support > Jargon Buster

Browser

A browser is a software program that allows you to view and interact with various kinds of Internet resources available on the World Wide Web. A browser is commonly called a web browser.

Cookie

This is not a biscuit but this term refers to a piece of information the web site you are browsing stores on your computer. Common uses are to remember preferences, online shopping cart contents, log-in information. They are also used to track repeat visits to a web site or viewing of some web page advertisements.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

A technology used to control the presentation (and often the layout) of a Web page. CSS controls colours, font faces, text sizes, etc.

Clickable Image

A clickable image is any image that has instructions embedded in it so that clicking on it initiates some kind of action or result. On a web page, a clickable image is any image that has a URL or more than one URL embedded in it (i.e. hidden behind it). This can be accomplished simply by including an <A HREF> anchor tag in an HTML <IMG> (image) tag. Embedding more than one URL in an image requires constructing an image map.

Code-editor

A type of authoring tool that allows you to directly edit the HTML source of a Web page.

Content Management System (CMS)

In the context of a Web site a CMS is a collection of tools designed to allow the creation, modification organisation and removal of information from a Web site. It is common for a CMS to require users to have no knowledge of HTML in order to create new Web pages.

Document Type Declaration (DTD)

In the case of a Web page, the DTD is referred to in the first line of the Web page and specifies the language (HTML, XHTML, etc.) used in the Web page.

Domain Name

The domain name is the unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain names always have two or more parts separated by dots. A given server may have more than one domain name, but a given domain name points to only one server.

Download

The transfer of files from a remote machine (for example, a Web server operated by an ISP) to a user's machine.

E-commerce

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the process of buying, selling and transferring money through the internet.

Favicon

A small image or icon used by most recent web browsers (Internet Explorer 5 and above). It can be displayed in a number of different places depending on which browser you're using. Common places are the title bar, alongside the URL and the primary place in the bookmark list or favorites - hence favicon (favorites icon).

A customised image will appear if the web site in question has a favicon.ico file available. This helps emphasis company branding and makes the favorite/bookmark link stand out.

Favorites - Another term for bookmarks used by the Internet Explorer web browser. A saved link to a favourite web page.

File Size

The amount of space that a file takes up when stored on disk. File size is usually measured in bytes, kilobytes (K), megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

FTP is the most common way of transferring the files from one computer to another across a network (including the Internet). Despite its popularity FTP is insecure and usernames and passwords can be intercepted by third parties.

Flash

Flash is a vector-based, multimedia technology developed by Macromedia that can be embedded in HTML pages. Flash files can take the form of animations, games and even whole 'Web' sites.

Graphic Interchange Format (GIF)

Acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, GIF is a graphics file format that uses a compression scheme originally developed by CompuServe. Because GIF files are compressed, the file can be quickly and easily transmitted over a network. That's why it is the most commonly used graphics format on the World Wide Web.

Hits

This term refers to the number of files that are downloaded from a web server. Keeping track of hits is a way of measuring traffic to a website that can be misleading. The number of hits a site receives is usually much greater than the number of actual visitors. That's because a web page can contain more than one file. For example, each graphic element is a separate file, so a page with nine graphics would count as ten hits, one for each graphic and one for the HTML file. In this scenario, a page may have 10,000 hits, but only 1,000 visits.

Home Page

Also referred to as a web page, the home page is the starting point of a Web presentation often called an "index" page. It is a sort of table of contents for what is at the website, offering direct links to the different parts of the site.

HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML)

The language of the Web. Web pages are written in HTML. The language consists of simple tags used to define sections of a document (e.g.

This is a paragraph.

). HyperText also allows documents to be connected via links.

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The Internet is made up of computers communicating with each other through standard protocols. HyperText is one such protocol and is the one used to transfer Web pages.

Host

The term has several meanings. In Internet protocol specifications, the term "host" means any computer that has full two-way access to other computers on the Internet. In web site terms "host" or "hosting" usually refers to the company whose web server the site is stored on - or hosted by. The term "host" can also refer to a mainframe computer which acts as a large server to several workstations.

Internet

The Internet is worldwide collection of computers all connected together to form a huge network. These computers communicate with each other through a set of common software standards known as protocols. These protocols allow the sending and receiving of emails; viewing of Web pages; the transfer of files between one computer and another; instant messaging, etc.

Image Map

An image map is a graphic divided into regions or "hotspots.", that when clicked, accesses a web page that is linked to a particular region. A typical example of an image map is a website that offers national information organized by state. Clicking on a state on a map of the United States calls up the appropriate page.

Internet Protocol Address (IP Address)

Each machine connected to the Internet has an address known as an Internet Protocol address (IP address). The IP address takes the form of four numbers separated by dots, for example: 123.45.67.890

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

An ISP is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet

JavaScript

JavaScript is a client-side scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. JavaScript should not be confused with Java, the full featured programming language.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG or JPEG)

An acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group, an industry committee that developed a compression standard for still images, JPEG refers to the graphics file format that uses this compression standard. You will find JPEG files on the World Wide Web with the file extension .JPG.

Keywords

Words that people use to search for something on the internet. We make sure that the words you expect people to use to find your type of service are included in the content of your site and also in the metatags (see below). This all helps your search engine position over time.

Mark Up

The process by which documents are converted into Web pages by the insertion of HTML tags.

Meta Tags

An element of HTML coding on a website that is used by search engines to index a website. Most meta-tags are included within the 'header' code of a website and the most important tags are the title, description and keyword tags. Rules used by different search engines govern how such tags are used, how many characters they should contain, and how they should be formatted.

Multimedia

Multimedia refers to the simultaneous use of more than one type of media such as text with sound, moving or still images with music, and so on.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. A set of Internet functions that extends normal e-mail capabilities and enables computer files to be attached to e-mail. Files sent by MIME arrive at their destination as exact copies of the original so that you can send fully-formatted word processing files, spreadsheets, graphics images and software applications to other users via simple e-mail. Computer viruses are often transmitted via email attachments so if you receive an email with an attachment make sure you trust the source. Also make sure you have adequate Virus protection software and that the virus definitions are up to date.

Navigation Tools

Navigation tools allow users to find their way around a website or multimedia presentation. They can be hypertext links; clickable images or icons; or image maps. Navigation tools are usually present either at the bottom or top (or both) of each page or screen, and typically allow users to return to the previous page, move forward to the next page, jump to the top of the current page, and return to the home page.

Quick Response code (QR Tag)

A QR Tag is a two-dimensional barcode that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, URL, or other data.

Redirection

A way for a web site to automatically redirect you to a different URL or web page. For example if a web page was renamed or moved you would normally get a 404 Page Not Found error. Instead of this a small piece of code can be used to redirect the user to the pages new location or different page completely.

Robot

A robot is a program that is designed to automatically go out and explore the Internet for a specific purpose. Robots that record and index all of the contents of the network to create searchable databases are sometimes called spiders or Worms. WebCrawler and Lycos are popular examples of robots.

Search Engine

A search engine is a type of software that creates indexes of databases or Internet sites based on the titles of files, keywords, or the full text of files. The search engine has an interface that allows you to type what you're looking for into a blank field. It then gives you a list of the results of the search. When you use a search engine on the Web, the results are presented to you in hypertext, which means you can click on any item in the list to get the actual file.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a web site to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimizing a web site, including the content and structure of the web site's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process.

Server

A computer located on a network that provides information that other computers can use. For example, a server may allow access to Web pages, email, streaming video, etc.

Spider

A program that visits web sites and reads its pages and other information. Also called "bots", "robots" or "crawlers" and primarily used by search engines. The spider visits a web page and follows each link until all pages have been read. It then knows what information that site has, so when someone searches on a keyword if it is mentioned on the site then the relevant page will appear in the search listings.

Sitemap

A webpage that lists all the pages on a website. Search engines like to see a sitemap as it shows you are providing a good internal link structure.

Tags

Tags are descriptive formatting codes used in HTML documents that instruct a web browser how to display text and graphics on a web page. For example, to make text bold, the tag <B> is used at the beginning and end of the text.

Universal Resource Locator (URL)

An acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, a URL is the address for a resource or site (usually a directory or file) on the World Wide Web and the convention that web browsers use for locating files and other remote services

Upload

The process by which files are transferred from a local computer to a remote computer. For example, a person working an offline copy of a Web site would then upload files to a server operated by their ISP.

Usability

A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a task. In the context of Web pages this concerns how easy it is for a user to find the information they require from a given Web site.

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium, an international consortium of companies involved with the Internet and the Web. The W3C was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the original architect of the World Wide Web. The organization's purpose is to develop open standards so that the Web evolves in a single direction rather than being splintered among competing factions.

Web Designer

A person who designs Web pages. Usually a designer will produce a mock-up of a page in a graphics application (for example, Adobe Photoshop or The GIMP). Once a design has been approved by a client the designer will produce an HTML template, CSS files and all of the images needed to produce the Web site. These files will then be passed to a Web developer or directly to the client.

Web Page

A web page is a document created with HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) that is part of a group of hypertext documents or resources available on the World Wide Web. Collectively, these documents and resources form what is known as a website.

You can read HTML documents that reside somewhere on the Internet or on your local hard drive with a software program called a web browser. Web browsers read HTML documents and display them as formatted presentations, with any associated graphics, sound, and video, on a computer screen.

Web pages can contain hypertext links to other places within the same document, to other documents at the same website, or to documents at other websites. They can also contain fill-in forms, photos, large clickable images , sounds, and videos for downloading.

Web Server

A term often used to describe a computer that hosts a Web site. In actual fact the term refers to software running on that computer allowing Web pages to be requested and then sent to a user's Web browser.

Web Statistics

Statistics produced by analysing the access logs for a Web server. For a variety of reasons (covered in the text) Web statistics should be treated with caution as they are not reliable.

XML

eXtensible Markup Language. Basically it's a flexible way of describing common data/information. Widely used on the world wide web along with or instead of HTML, XML can be used by any individual(s) or companies that want to share information in a consistent way. The difference between XML and HTML is that the tags used in XML also tell you what sort of information the data is, a phone number, product code, price, etc.

A good example of XML use would be a price comparison site. Its spiders can look through various sites using common XML tags and extract the relevant product details to make a valid comparison. It would be programmed to know that would be the product code and is its price.