Web Terminology and Definitions
If you are somewhat unfamiliar with the World Wide Web, you may find
that (as with any technology which is new to you) there are some words and
acronyms which you need to know to understand discussions about the Web.
In fact, some concepts have multiple and even mis-used names associated
with them. Here are some very brief definitions of some of the terms
you are most likely to encounter in your travels and in our papers.
- Browser
- Software
which formats Web pages for viewing; the Web client
- CERN
- European Particle Physics Laboratory in
Switzerland; the place where
Tim Berners-Lee
worked when he created the Web in 1990
- Domain Name
-
the portion of a Web site's address (or URL) which has been
registered with one of the name authority organizations; normally, it has two
parts: a unique name of the site owner's choosing, a dot, and finally the
"top level domain" (e.g. "com") or
"country code" (e.g. "us"); it does not include the
"www" which is used traditionally for Web sites - that is used to identify a
particular machine within the domain
- GIF
- Graphics Interchange Format; a graphics format used on Web pages
- HTML
- Hypertext Markup Language; the format
of pages on the Web
- Internet
- Computers on networks linked to each other throughout
the world
- JPEG
- Joint Photographic Experts Group; a graphics
format used on Web pages
- Home Page
- The first page you see
when you start your browser --
often used (erroneously) to mean the first of a logical set of related
Web pages or the Welcome Page or even the entire Web site
- Hyperlink or hypertext
- A special part of a Web
page (it may be text or graphic) which causes a new page to be displayed
when it is selected, often by clicking on it
- NCSA
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champlain campus; the folks who created
Mosaic,
the first browser which combined text, color, and graphics and initiated the boom in Web use.
Its code was used as the basis for other popular browsers such as Netscape and MSIE.
- MPEG
- Moving Picture Experts Group; a format
used on Web pages to show motion; video
- PNG
- Portable Network Graphics; a graphics
format used on Web pages
- URL
-
Uniform Resource Locator; a Web address -- ours at
Artronic Development
is http://www.arde.com/
- Web Page
- All the text, graphics, and sound visible with a
single access to a Web site; what you see when you request a
particular URL
- Web Server
- The hardware and software required to make Web pages
available for delivery to others on networks connected with yours
- Web Site
- A collection of electronic "pages" of information on a Web server
- Webmaster
- The person or people responsible for the technical
operation of a Web site
- Welcome Page
- The first page a reader sees
when accessing your URL
- World Wide Web
- An Internet service facilitating
access to electronic information -- also known as the Web, WWW, or W3
This page is available in "DOC" format for use in
devices such as the 3Com/Palm
using compatible applications.
(Updated 23 Jul 2008)
