The following is a list of terms commonly used when discussing the Internet. This glossary includes entries created using some selected excerpts from NetLingo.com.

For further explanation of these and other Internet phrases, visit:
• NetLingo: The Internet Dictionary
• Webopedia: Online Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms

.NET - Pronounced "dot net," this is a next generation, language-neutral platform created by Microsoft that makes it possible to develop a single application that can function as both a piece of software on a user's desktop and within a page on the Internet. On the Web, .NET pages have .aspx file extensions (rather than .htm or .html).

ASP - Active Server Page is a server side scripting language developed by Microsoft that is used to make a Web page more dynamic and responsive to user input. ASP pages have .asp file extensions (rather than .htm or .html). (The term ASP also refers to an Application Service Provider, which is a company that you might pay to host an application for you, as opposed to purchasing and installing the software yourself.)

Blog - A Web site where users can post a chronological, up-to-date e-journal of their thoughts using simple, easy-to-use tools.

Browser - A program that views Web pages and accesses documents on the Internet (e.g., Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, Mozilla, Firefox). Browsers interpret the Web page's code, such as HTML, to render the page that you see. NOTE: The earliest browsers were entirely text-based and were unable to view images. Still today some Web users have text-based browsers which is why well designed Web sites do not rely on images for navigation or conveying crucial information to the visitor.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface is a standard script for running programs on a server from a Web page. Scripts are most commonly used for processing information a user supplies in a form.

Client - A computer that can request information (such as a Web page) from a server. Your PC becomes a client when it connects remotely to a host.

Cookie - Small text files that are stored on your hard drive by certain Web sites to be accessed at a later time. Cookies contain information that identifies each user, for example: login or username, passwords, shopping cart information, preferences, and so on. When a user revisits a Web site, his or her computer automatically "serves up" the cookie, which establishes the user's identity, thus eliminating the need for the customer to reenter the information.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are a feature of HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how Web pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any page on a particular Web site.

Domain Name - The text address of a Web site (e.g., www.hillel.org) that corresponds to an IP address (e.g., 209.190.246.134).

Download - To transfer files from one computer to another, such as from a server to a PC. Upload would be from your PC to the server.

Extranet - A network connecting two or more intranets, which allows companies or organizations to share resources and communicate over the Internet while remaining within a private space.

Flash - A bandwidth friendly and browser independent graphics animation technology created by Macromedia, most commonly found in animated Web advertisements and rich-media Web sites.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol is the method of sending and receiving files over the Internet by logging onto a server, either anonymously or by username and password.

GIF - Graphics Interchange Format is one of the two common image formats used on the World Wide Web. Unlike JPEGs, GIFs can be animated or made transparent, and are often the format used for text. GIF files have the file extension .gif.

Gopher - A browsing and searching system that lets you look for and retrieve documents of interest from all over the Internet. It is a menu-based system that doesn't require you to know the details of host or file names. Developed at the University of Minnesota, it was named after the school's mascot.

Homepage - The front page of a Web site; a starting point for navigation.

Host - A computer that functions as the beginning and end point of data transfers. An Internet host has a unique IP address and domain name.

HTML - Hypertext Markup Language is the fundamental code used in nearly all Web pages. The purpose of HTML is to display text in a browser window. However as Web technologies have grown to include interactivity and multimedia, other forms of code often accompany HTML on the page (e.g., CSS, JavaScript, XML, ASP, ColdFusion).

HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the method of delivering hypertext documents from a Web server to a browser client.

Hypertext - A system for writing and displaying text that can be linked in multiple ways to related documents and available at several levels of detail. The term was coined by Ted Nelson to refer to a nonlinear system of information browsing and retrieval based on associative links between documents.

Internet - A global public network of computers that can communicate and transfer data with one another. The Internet began as ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a project by the U.S. Department of Defense. ARPANet came online in 1969 and was soon used by researchers at universities and science institutes.

Intranet - A private network of computers, usually within a company or organization.

IP Address - The Internet Protocol Address is numeric identity of a server or a user on a network, such as the Internet.

ISP - An Internet Service Provider is a company that provides access to the Internet to its customers.

Java - Developed by Sun Microsystems, it is a programming language specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded through the Internet without fear of viruses or other harm to computers or files.

JavaScript - A scripting language to enable Web page authors to design interactive sites. Although it is often confused with Java, JavaScript is a distinct language and was developed independently. JavaScript can interact with HTML source code, enabling Web developers to jazz up their sites with dynamic content.

JPEG or JPG - One of the two common image formats used on the World Wide Web. JPEGs can download fast and have better resolution, so they are often the format used for photographs. JPEG files have the file extension .jpg.

MP3 - MPEG Third Layer has become the standard for storing and transmitting music across the Internet in a compressed, digital format that preserves the quality of the original recording.

PDF - Portable Document Format, viewable using Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, has become the de facto standard for the exchange of written documents on the Internet. Its popularity is due to the fact that PDF files appear the same across all computers and browsers.

Podcast - An audio show (including talk shows, tutorials, music, or other such content) usually in MP3 format that is automatically downloaded and copied to one's digital music player (such as an iPod, hence the term "Podcast") as soon as it is released.

Protocol - A specification of how computers talk to one another over a network (e.g., http, ftp, telnet, ip).

RSS - Rich Site Summary (or Really Simple Syndication) is an XML format for syndicating Web content that makes it easy to share frequently updated information (most commonly news articles or blog postings) between Web sites.

Server - A host computer on a network that "serves" up information requested of it. For example, Web servers handle requests for Web pages.

Shell Account - An Internet account that is set up so your local computer can connect to the Internet as a terminal on a multi-user Unix system, allowing you to use normal Unix commands and to store and process information on the host computer.

Telnet - One of the oldest Internet activities is Telnet (terminal emulation protocol). It is a text-based Internet program that connects a computer to a remote server and is primarily used to access online databases or to read articles stored on university servers. It can also be used to check e-mail.

Unix - An operating system (another example of an operating system is Microsoft Windows) invented in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs. More commonly used on servers than clients.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator is a fancy way of saying an Internet address (e.g., http://www.hillel.org or ftp://www.hillel.org or telnet://www.hillel.org).

Web Site - A place on the World Wide Web that's comprised of files organized into a hierarchy. Each file or document contains text or graphics that appear as digital information on a computer screen.

Whois - A Web-based utility that allows you to look up the owners of domain names.

WWW - The World Wide Web is what comes to mind when most people think of the Internet. The Web is a collection of graphical pages on the Internet that can be read and interacted with by computer. You navigate the Web using a browser and clicking on hypertext links. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee in the CERN research institute in Switzerland.

WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get, pronounced "wizzywig," describes a Web design tool that allows the author to view a Web page exactly as it will appear to his or her visitors when published.

XML - Extensible Markup Language is related to HTML, but allows web authors to create their own tags to provide functionality not offered by HTML for use on Web pages.

Last modified: December 2, 2005