Glossary of Terms
A B C D E F G H I J L M N P R S T U W
Address Book
The Address Book provides a convenient place to store contact information for easy retrieval by programs such as Microsoft Outlook Express. An Address Book is a feature of Internet Explorer. Features include:
- storing phone numbers and e-mail, home, business, and home page addresses
- finding people and businesses by using directory services
- creating groups of contacts for mailing lists
- importing names from your other address books
- printing all or part of your address book and take it with you.
Bookmarks
To mark a document or a specific place in a document for later retrieval. Nearly all web browsers support a bookmarking feature that lets you save the address (URL) of a web page so that you can easily re-visit the page at a later time. In Internet Explorer this feature is called Favorites.
Boolean logic
It is the process of linking topics in order to narrow or expand a search through the use of the terms AND, OR, or NOT.
AND links two terms and narrows a search. For example, if you search for "coffee and caffeine", only articles containing both terms will be retrieved.
OR links two terms and expands a search. For example, if you search for "cars or automobiles", articles in which either term appears will be retrieved.
NOT narrows a search by excluding articles containing the second search term. For example, if you search for "beer not ginger," all articles in which "beer" appears will be retrieved except for those also containing the word "ginger".
Browser
Abbreviation for web browser which is a software application used to locate and display web pages. Two popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they require plug-ins (additional software) for some formats.
Chat
Real-time communication between two users via a computer. Once a chat has been initiated, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the other user's monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature.
Cookies
A message given to a web browser by a web server. The browser stores the message on your hard drive in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
Customise
The action performed when changing the appearance of the desktop to suit you. It could be changes to the toolbar or icon appearance and/or location.
Download
To copy or save data from a website to a hard drive or disk.
Short for electronic mail, the transmission of messages over communications networks, telephone lines. The messages can be notes entered from the keyboard or electronic files stored on disk. Most mainframes, minicomputers, and computer networks have an e-mail system. The word can be spelt e-mail or email.
Favorites
Nearly all web browsers support a bookmarking/address book feature that lets you save the address (URL) of a web page so that you can easily re-visit the page at a later time. The equivalent of this in Netscape Navigator is "Bookmarks".
File transfer protocol
Abbreviation of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), the protocol used on the Internet for sending files.
Floating component bar
In Netscape Navigator the component bar allows access to the five primary components in Netscape Communicator.
Folders
Folders are used to store and organise files.
Frame
A feature supported by most modern web browsers that enables the web author to divide the browser display area into two or more sections (frames).
Gopher
Gopher is a menu-driven interface to Internet resources. Gopher servers are primarily text oriented with some graphics. No multimedia applications are available.
Home page
The first page of a website or the default web page for the browser selected by the user.
HTML
Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
Hyperlink
A hyperlink is an electronic path to another page or location (URL) on the Internet.
Hypertext transfer protocol
HTTP, short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested web page.
Icon
A small graphic that represents an object or program.
Inbox
Electronic mailbox for receiving email.
Internet
A global network connecting millions of computers.
Intranet
Intranet is an internal network designed to be used within the confines of a company, university or organisation.
Java
Java is a high-level programming language with a number of features that make it well suited for use on the World Wide Web.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language embedded in a web page to interact with HTML source code, enabling web authors to develop dynamic content.
Java applet
Java applets are small applications which can be downloaded from a web server and run inside Java compatible web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator on Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Java servlet
A Java servlet is a small application which runs on a server unlike the applet which runs in a browser.
Location toolbar
The location toolbar shows the location, or Internet address, of the page you are viewing.
Menu
A list of commands or options from which you can choose.
Meta search engines
A meta search engine searches a number of search engines simultaneously and integrates the results placing the most relevant matches first.
Metadata
Metadata describes and indexes web pages to make retrieval by search engine easier.
Multimedia
The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way.
Natural language
A search query which mimics natural speech rather than using keywords e.g. " how many people in Australia earn over A$50 000 per annum".
Navigation toolbar
The browser navigation toolbar is made up of a row of buttons that provide access to commonly used commands, such as "Print" " Back"," Forward" and "Save". Also as the name suggests there are two buttons used for navigation on the web, "Back" and "Forward".
Netiquette
The etiquette guidelines, for posting messages to online services, email, chat and Internet newsgroups.
Netscape Composer
Composer enables document creation for editing and publishing online documents.
Netscape Messenger
Messenger allows for the creation of HTML email with graphics. It also features encryption and decryption facility for privacy when sending email, filters messages into folders, and indexes email addresses for easier location.
Newsgroups
Same as forum, an online discussion group. On the Internet, there are literally thousands of newsgroups covering every conceivable interest.
Personal toolbar
The personal toolbar is a toolbar that can be customised.
Phrase/string searching
Phrase searching involves searching using a combination of words rather than one.
Plug-ins
Additional software required by browsers to run specific formats, e.g. audio or video.
Print preview
A print preview allows you to see exactly how a web page will appear when printed.
Progress bar
The progress bar, found at the bottom of the window, animates to show the progress of the current operation. The bar represents the percentage of a page loaded and kilobytes of external image left to be loaded.
Proximity search
A proximity search finds two words or a phrases which are located within a specified number of characters of each other. The search terms are more likely to be related and in the context that you intended you can still find a phrase or idea even when other words exist between the two terms.
Public domain
A copyright term meaning that something does not belong to a private individual or organisation. When someone places their work in the public domain it means that they are giving up their rights to it. Software and information available in the public domain is free.
Push and pull technology
Internet content can be delivered two ways: push or pull. In the push method, the web server initiates contact with the client (your workstation) when new information is ready to be transmitted. As long as there is an active internet connection, information can be pushed to the client from the server. In the pull method, the client asks the server to send any new information.
Pull-down menu
A menu of commands or options that appears when you select an item with a mouse. The item you select is generally at the top of the display screen, and the menu appears just below it, as if you had pulled it down. This feature is also referred to as a "drop down menu".
Relevance ranking
Relevance ranking is a search process which uses fuzzy logic to retrieve as many records as possible. A search on "black" and "white" might retrieve 20 records which include both terms. There may also be a further six records which contain only "black" and 15 which contain "white". The records that contain both words are the most relevant to the search and will be listed first. If there are no records which exactly match an enquiry, a relevance ranked search will still retrieve a list which matches part of the search text.
Screen grab/dump
To send a large amount of information from the screen to a printer, disk or a graphics software program. This is not the same as printing a screen to a printer. Screen grabs are utilised when the information on the screen is needed for inclusion in another piece of work.
Screen saver
A small program that takes over the display screen if there are no keystrokes or mouse movements for a specified duration. Many screen savers provide another benefit, hiding a user's work from would-be snoopers.
Scroll bar
A bar that appears on the side or bottom of a window to control which part of a list or document is currently in the window 's frame. The scroll bar makes it easy to move to any part of a file.
Search engine
A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.
Security indicator
A website certificate is an online security indicator document that certifies the site's identity so you know your information is going where you intend it to go. Some pages where monetary transactions occur will have a small key located on the screen to indicate security measures are being followed. In Netscape, an open or closed padlock is used to show whether the document is encrypted or not.
Servers
A computer or device on a network that manages network resources. For example, a file server is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store files on the server. A print server is a computer that manages one or more printers and a network server is a computer that manages network traffic. A database server is a computer system that processes database queries and a web server stores web pages.
Side menu
A menu type where the menu appears at the side of the screen in a windows environment.
Site address
The global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
Software
Software is often divided into two categories:
Systems software: Includes the operating system and all the utilities that enable the computer to function.
Applications software: Includes programs that do real work for users. For example, word processors, spreadsheets, and database management systems fall under the category of applications software.
Status message
The status message provides information about a link to a web page. The message can be a URL that appears when the cursor is over words or a picture that is a link to another website. The message also reports progress in contacting the required URL.
Telnet
The Telnet program runs on your computer and connects your PC to a server on the network. You can then enter commands through the Telnet program and they will be executed as if you were entering them directly on the server console. This enables you to control the server and communicate with other servers on the network.
Title bar
A bar on top of a window. The title bar contains the name of the file or application.
Toolbars
Toolbars allow you to organise the program the way you want to so you can find and use them quickly.
Toolbar buttons
Toolbar buttons are the graphical representation of commands. For example, the disk picture stands for the command "Save to disk", the printer picture stands for "Print".
Truncation
A search technique where the user can broaden the search by entering the root part of a word and abbreviating it with (usually) an asterisk * For example a search using garden* would return results containing the words garden, gardener, gardeners, gardens etc.
URL
Abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
Web browser
A software application used to locate and display web pages. The two most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Web page
A document on the World Wide Web. Every web page is identified by a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Website
A site (location) on the World Wide Web. Each website contains a home page, which is the first document users see when they enter the site.
WWW (World Wide Web)
WWW (World Wide Web) is a collection of different services and resources available on the Internet.
Last updated 8 August, 2007