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Definitions
Commonly used Internet terms and their definitions.
Archie
A system for locating files that are publicly available by anonymous FTP.
Boolean logic
A symbolic language that is used to describe to a Search Engine what you are, and are not, searching for. Using Boolean Logic typically means that you connect your chosen Keywords using the words and, or, and not.
Browser
A browser is an application or computer program that allows your system to look at the Internet. Browsers like Netscape take advantage of whatever multimedia presentation is included in a site. Others, called line browsers, only allow text alone to be used.
Chat Groups
An Internet service where multiple people can conduct real-time discussions by typing in their comments and reading the responses of other participants.
Client
See Browser.
Configure a Viewer
A message displayed by many browsers indicating that you do not have the proper software installed on your computer to see or hear the multimedia file you are trying to access. Also see Viewer.
Discussion Groups
See Mailing Lists.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions. A list of the most commonly asked questions on the specified topic and their answers. Many newsgroups have an associated list of FAQs.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. A method used to exchange files between computers.
Gopher
An older Internet service that provides a wide range of information in a typewritten format. Unlike the World Wide Web, gopher does not support hyperlinks or multimedia displays.
Helper Apes
Software programs that work with your browser that are designed to display a particular type of multimedia data file.
Home Page
The opening page or title page of a Web site.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks, or links, are words or pictures on a Web page that connect to a separate page or to another part of the same page. Your browser should indicate hyperlinked words by displaying them in a different color or type style. Hyperlinked pictures can be identified by a change in the cursor as you point to the picture. To access the link, click the hyperlinked word or picture.
Hypertext
Hypertext, or links, are words on a Web page that connect to a separate page or to another part of the same page. Your browser should indicate hypertext words by displaying them in a different color or type style. To access the link, click the hypertext word. Hypertext is not confined to the Internet, however. Windows Help files, for example, also feature linking text.
HTML
The Hypertext Markup Language. The language in which World Wide Web pages are written.
IRC
See Chat Groups.
Java
A language used on the World Wide Web which provides enhanced display capabilities.
Keyword
A word or phrase which describes the information being sought, usually used when searching the Internet for information on a particular topic.
Link
See Hyperlink.
Listserv
See Mailing Lists.
Mailing Lists
Lists of the e-mail addresses of people interested in a specified topic. Addressing an e-mail message to a mailing list allows all members of the list to receive and reply to the message.
Netiquette
The informal set of rules for polite behavior on the Internet.
Newsgroups
An Internet service that allows users to post e-mail messages in a public location so they may be read and responded to by any interested user.
Search Engine
A tool to help you find information on the Internet relating to a particular topic.
Server
Software that allows a computer to perform a specific function for another computer. The World Wide Web and Gopher are examples of systems run on server software.
Smileys
Symbols used to convey emotions in e-mail and other typed messages.
Surfing
A common Internet term describing what you're doing when you are jumping from Web site to Web site.
Telnet
An Internet tool that allows a user to log into a remote computer as if the user were physically using that remote computer.
Threads
All of the correspondence related to a particular topic in a newsgroup.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, the address that tells your software what kind of information is located in a site and where to find it. URLs point to all kinds of Internet components: Web sites,newsgroups, and various databases.
Usenet
See Newsgroups.
Veronica
A network-wide index to computerized archives throughout the world allowing users to search all gophers sites for files and information.
Viewer
See Helper Apps.
Web Page
A Web page is one component of a Web site. It can be a simple presentation that contains only text. Or it can be a more sophisticated presentation that includes graphics, sound, and animation. Related Web pages may link together to form a site, or they may have text linking toother sites on other servers.
Web Site
A Web site is a computer holding images and programs that present information to Web users. The site can be large and complicated or small and simple. Either way, the images and information reside on the site's server.
WWW or World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is one of the many means by which people use the Internet. Using a multimedia system that allows diverse portions of the Internet to be linked together (hyperlinks), it presents information to the Internet user via text, graphics, audio,animation, and video.
For More Information:
- NetLingo: The Internet Language
- Online Dictionary of Computing
- Definitions of Internet Terms
- ZDNet AnchorDesk Acromania
- Zen and the Art of the Internet - Glossary