Glossary of Terms
If you are new to website design and development, many of the terms and acronyms associated with it can be confusing. While there are many more extensive Web related glossaries available on the internet, we have compiled a listing of the terms that are relevant to this site.
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
AJAX
An acronym that stands for Asynchronous JavaScript
and XML. It is a type of programming made popular
in 2005 by Google. It isn’t
a new programming language, rather, a new way
to use existing standards. Using AJAX, better,
faster, more intuitive web applications can
be created. It is based on JavaScript and HTTP
requests.
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Apache Server
A web server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X.
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Application
Web applications are used to implement Webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, wiki's, discussion boards, Weblogs, and many other functions.
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ASP
An acronym for Active Server Page. A dynamically generated web page, generally using ActiveX scripting, a Microsoft technology. When a browser or a search engine spider requests an ASP page from a server, the server generates the web page with HTML code and gives it to the browser or spider.
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Auto Responders
An automated email response setup and configured by the incoming email address owner.
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Blog
Blog is short for Weblog and is a Web page that has short, frequent updates made to it. Similar to a Web journal or "what's new" page.
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Branding/Brand Identity
A brand includes a name, logo, slogan, and/or design scheme associated with a product or service. Brand recognition is created by the use of the product or service, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it. A brand often includes a logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, and sound, which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.
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Breadcrumb
In Web design a breadcrumb or breadcrumb trail is the part of the navigation that shows you where you are, similar to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". Breadcrumb trails are often found near the top of Web pages and define both the current location within the site hierarchy as well as primary pages above the current page.
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Browser
The software used to view, manage, and access web pages by interpreting hypertext and hyperlinks. Some of the most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Web pages sometimes appear differently depending on the brand and version of the browser they are viewed in.
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Business Graphics
Images and complete graphics package schemes related to Branding. Including but not limited to letterheads, business cards, logos, webpages, print ads, and other marketing literature.
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Catchall Address
An email address set up to collect all emails
sent to an invalid address within a valid domain.
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CGI
An acronym that stands for Common Gateway Interface. Used on Web servers to transmit data between scripts and/or applications and then return the data to the Web page or browser. CGI scripts are often created using the Perl programming language, and can generate dynamic Web content (including e-commerce shopping baskets, discussion groups, survey forms, current news, etc.).
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Corporate Identity
Another term sometimes used interchangeably with Branding.
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CSS
A language for the Web to define the style (look and feel) of a Web page. Cascading Style Sheets can define: fonts, colors, layouts, and more.
With Cascading Style sheets, both web designers and end users can create style templates (sheet) that specifies how different text elements (paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, etc.) appear on a web page. Currently, not all browsers interpret CSS formatting in the same manner.
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Domain Registration
The process of registering an internet address for a webpage and email with the Internic, the recognized group that manages internet domains.
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Dreamweaver CS3
A web development tool owned by Adobe Systems.
Serves as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) HTML editor and has notable support for
many other web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript,
and various server-side scripting frameworks.
The software is available for both the Mac and
Windows platforms.
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Flash Professional CS3
Vector graphic animation software from Adobe that allows Flash graphics to look the same across all browsers, as long as the plug-in is installed. One of the advantages of Flash animations is their relatively fast download time. Flash banners have more features than standard GIF Animation banners, including advanced animation, quicker downloads, and streaming functions. Flash files are represented by the .fla or .swf extension.
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Forwarding
The process of sending an email to an alternate email inbox location. This process can be manual or automated.
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FrontPage Extensions
A set of bots unique to Microsoft that provide functionality to websites. FrontPage Extensions must be configured on a web server to be active.
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Horde webmail
Horde is a PHP-based Web application framework. It offers applications such as the Horde IMP email client, a groupware package (calendar, notes, tasks, file manager), a wiki (a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it), and a time and task tracking software.
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Hosting
A web hosting service is a type of Internet
hosting service that allows individuals and
organizations to provide their own websites
accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts
are companies that provide space on a server
they own for use by their clients as well as
providing Internet connectivity, typically in
a data center. Web hosts can also provide data
center space and connectivity to the Internet
for servers they do not own to be located in
their data center, called colocation.
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HTML, XHTML
HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, and XHTML, which is extensible to be compliant with XML rules, is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document — by denoting certain text as headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on — and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects. HTML is written in the form of labels (known as tags), surrounded by symbols.
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Illustrator CS3
Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program developed and marketed by Adobe Systems, and its CS3 edition is part of Adobe’s newest release of its Creative Suite.
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JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape. JavaScript can make web pages more animated and dynamic in terms of graphics and navigation. One of the most common graphic JavaScript effects is called a mouseover, and Javascript navigation is commonly created using drop-down menus.
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Landing Page/Home page
This is the default page that appears when the visitor types your address into the browsers address bar. This is the gateway page to the rest of your site.
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Linux operating system
A Unix-like computer operating system. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; its underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.
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Logo
Graphic or text based visual representation of an organization or individual. A graphical element, symbol, or icon that, together with its logotype (which is set in a unique typeface or arranged in a particular way) form a trademark or brand. A typical logo is designed to cause immediate recognition by the viewer. The logo is one aspect of the brand of a company or economic entity, and the shapes, colors, fonts and images are usually different from others in a similar market.
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Menu system/Navigation
Menu systems, also known as navigation, are presented to allow a website visitor to move throughout the website in an organized manner. Menu topics are related to information sections located within the website.
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MySQL
MySQL is popular for web applications and acts as the database component many platforms (Linux/Mac/Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP/Perl/Python), and for open-source bug tracking tools like Bugzilla. Its popularity for use with web application is closely tied to the popularity of PHP, which is often combined with MySQL. PHP and MySQL are essential components for running popular content management systems such as WordPress and many blogging platforms.
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OS
Acronym for Operating System. It is software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. An operating system processes raw system data and user input, and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. At the foundation of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking and managing file systems. Operating Systems themselves have no user interfaces; the user of an OS is an application, not a person. The operating system forms a platform for other system software and for application software. Linux, Mac OS, and Windows are some of the most popular OS's.
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Stands for Portable Document Format. Created by Adobe Systems in its software program Adobe Acrobat as a universal browser. Files can be downloaded via the web and viewed page by page, provided the users computer has installed the necessary plug-in which can be downloaded from Adobe's own web site.
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Photoshop Extended CS3
Photoshop is a graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. It has been described as "an industry standard for graphics professionals." Adobe’s newest version, Photoshop Extended, is part of its Creative Suite 3, and includes all the same features of Adobe Photoshop CS3 with the addition of capabilities for scientific imaging, 3D, and high end film and video users.
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PHP
Abbreviation for Hypertext Pre-Processor. Hypertext is any text that can be chosen by a reader and which causes another document to be retrieved and displayed.
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POP3
An acronym that stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. In computing, local e-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), an application-layer Internet standard protocol, to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) connection. Nearly all subscribers to individual Internet service provider e-mail accounts access their e-mail with client software that uses POP3.
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RSS Feeds
An acronym that stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.
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Search Engine
A search engine is a program that searches documents (i.e. web pages, which are HTML-documents) for specified keywords and returns the list of documents. A search engine has two parts, a spider and an indexer. The spider is the program that fetches the documents, and the indexer reads the documents and creates an index based on the words or ideas contained in each document.
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SEO (Search Engine Optimiztion)
The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
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SMTP
An acronym that stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP is a relatively simple, text-based protocol, where one or more recipients of a message are specified (and in most cases verified to exist) and then the message text is transferred. It is a client-server protocol, where the client transmits an email message to the server.
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Software
Application Software is what most people think of when they think of software. Typical examples include office suites and video games. Application software is often purchased separately from computer hardware. Sometimes applications are bundled with the computer, but that does not change the fact that they run as independent applications. Applications are almost always independent programs from the operating system, though they are often tailored for specific platforms.
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Spiders/Robots
Spiders and Robots (or "bots") are simply automated programs that explore the Web, looking for information. The most common kinds of Spiders are the ones that collect Web addresses for the Search Engines to catalogue.
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Technical support
Support services offered by a company to help a computer user solve problems. Excellanz Graphic & Web Design Services offers the best technical support available anywhere in the world to its customers.
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URL
An acronym that stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the address of a document or other resource on the Internet. The syntax of a URL consists of three elements.
For example, the URL for a home page is commonly written as: http://www.companyname.com/index.html
The http:// is the protocol.
The www.companyname.com is the domain name.
The index.html is the path name.
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Web Server
The term ‘Web Server’ can mean one of two things:
1. A computer program who’s task is to accept HTTP requests from clients, which are known as ‘Web Browsers’, such as Internet Explorer, or Firefox, and serves back to them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are Web pages such as HTML documents and link objects like images or Flash animations.
2. A computer itself that runs the computer program which performs the function described above.
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Website
A website is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or more Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN.
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Website Design
Web design is a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media delivery via Internet in the form of Markup language suitable for interpretation by Web browser and display as Graphical user interface (GUI).
The intent of web design is to create a web site -- a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs), and forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into the web page by the designer by using HTML/XHTML tags.
Excellanz Graphic & Web Design Services delivers world-class website design and development services on a personal and customized basis to every customer. Call us today to get started!
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XML
XML=eXtensible Markup Language. A markup language used for writing other markup languages. XML is sometimes called a "meta" language because it describes how to write new languages. It allows for the creation of applications that are streamlined for the use of the owner.
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24-hour FTP and Control Panel access
Excellanz Graphic & Web Design Services hosting provides the resources for you to work on your website or your hosting setup around the clock. FTP specifically refers to the protocol used to move files from your local computer to the webserver across the internet. Control Panel access refers to your ability to access a control and configuration function to manage your hosting.
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