ActiveX is a programming/scripting language developed by Microsoft to produce animations and interactivity in web browsers. It has been used by hackers to introduce viruses to unsuspecting machines. 

Apache is a free open source program used by web servers to handle web requests and serve up web resources.

Bandwidth is the amount of information that may be transmitted at any given time along a data line and is usually measured in Megabits per second.

Banner ad is an advertising banner displayed on a sites to advertise. If a user clicks on the banner it will usually take them to that site.

Back/Forward Buttons can be found in most browsers' Tool Bar. The Back button returns you to the last viewed document while the forward button will display the next page, document but only if it has been previously displayed. 

Banner CTR stands for click through rate and means the ratio of persons who click through on the banner against the number of times the banner is displayed expressed as a percentage. This gives a measure of how effective the banner is.

Blog (short for "web log") is a type of web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal (or log) for an individual. A blog would typically updated regularly. Old Blogs are usually archived and the software will allow this content to be searched.  It should be noted that the contents of Blogs are usually the opinion of its owner and should therefore be carefully evaluated.

Bookmarker/Favourites are used to store a link within your browser to sites or pages you have visited and to which you may like to revisit. 

Boolean Logic is the term used to describe the way to combine terms using "operators" such as "AND," "OR," "AND NOT" and sometimes "NEAR." AND requires all terms appear in a record. OR retrieves records with either term. AND NOT excludes terms. Parentheses may be used to sequence operations and group words. Always enclose terms joined by OR with parentheses.

Browsers   are software programs that enable you to view html documents on the world wide web (WWW). 

Bounce is the term used to describe the return of an email that has failed to reach its destination. 

Cache is an area of memory within a computer where web pages and page elements (graphics etc) are stored when a page is downloaded from the Internet.  The page will remain in memory until it is removed.  If a page is revisited, and that page still resides in the cache, then the page will load much faster because it is not necessary to re download the page. 

CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface.  CGI is used to pass data from an website form to a script on the server.  CGI can be found in many application e.g. hit counters. 

Channels are provided to automatically download information to the subscribers desktop.  The user subscribes to a channel and information will be automatically downloaded or updated  to his/her desktop without the users need to visit the website. 

CACHED LINK is a link that allows the user to view a particular version of a web page.  This version will be the version of that page when the particular search engines spider last visited the site.  This web page may have been subsequently changed or updated.

Client is the term used to refer to an application that requests data from another computer.  

Client-side script is a program or script that is downloaded and run from the client application as opposed to running server side. JavaScript is an example of client-side scripting.

Clipboard is a Windows program that temporarily retains data that has been cut or copied from other programs.

Compressed files are files that have been processed to reduce there size either for storage or transmissions purposes.  Web Image files like GIF, PNG and JPEG are often compressed before inclusion in a web site to dramatically recude the sites download time

Content Management System is a software package that will allow people to make updates to their own website, as opposed to hiring a  professional web developer. 

Cookies are files that are created and written to by programming/scripting languages.   The most common JavaScript cookies, create client side cookies that are read/written to a user's hard drive by a JavaScript program that runs in the web browser when a user visits a web site.  Server Side Cookies can be created by languages like asp, php and run on the server and not the client.   

Domain Name, Domain Name Server(DNS)Entry Any of these terms refers to the initial part of a URL, down to the first /, where the domain and name of the host or SERVER computer are listed (most often in reversed order, name first, then domain). The domain name gives you who "published" a page, made it public by putting it on the Web.
A domain name is translated in huge tables standardized across the Internet into a numeric IP address unique the host computer sought. These tables are maintained on computers called "Domain Name Servers." Whenever you ask the browser to find a URL, the browser must consult the table on the domain name server that particular computer is networked to consult. Domain Name Server entry" frequently appears a browser error message when you try to enter a URL. If this lookup fails for any reason, the "lacks DNS entry" error occurs. The most common remedy is simply to try the URL again, when the domain name server is less busy, and it will find the entry (the corresponding numeric IP address).

Extensions or File extensions are the letters that appear at the end of a filename and are usually preceded by a full stop.  These extension usually indicate the file type.  i.e. .html indicates that the file is of type HTML   and can be opened in a web browser.  .doc indicates that the file is of type MS Word and can be opened by Microsoft word.  

Favorites (sometimes called bookmarks) a folderin Internet Explorer used to store shortcuts or links to web sites that you wish to return to. 

Firewall is a type of proxy server with additional features. Firewalls are usually placed between the users of a LAN and the Internet (some ISPs also use firewalls). The firewall can be set to screen for incoming viruses and only allow access to certain resources on the Internet as a security measure. It can also cache previously visited sites to avoid excessive use of bandwidth.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is the protocol used to transmit files over the Internet.

FTPC (File Transfer Protocol Client) is a client application used to upload and download files from a remote server using FTP.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a compressed graphic file normally used for images and animations (e.g. logos, cartoons, etc) that do not require too many colors (maximum 256). The file name takes the form of filename.gif.

Host Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.

History is a folder in Internet Explorer that stores shortcuts of web pages you've visited.

HTML Hypertext Markup Language is the basic language used to write basic web pages.   HTML is parsed by your web browser when a web page downloads and consists of tags (commands to tell the browser how to render the text, where to load in graphics etc on the web page) as well as the actual text.  Scripting languages are interlaced with html to provide dynamic functionality to web sites. 

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the protocol used to transmit web pages over the Internet.

Hyperlinks are text  or images that when clicked will load a new page or take the user to a new part of the web page. 

ISP Internet Service Provider.

IP Address or IP Number (Internet Protocol number or address).   Every machine on the Internet has a unique IP address consisting of 4 separate numbers separated by dots .e.g. 115.321.248.9.  These Ip addresses are usually hidden behind or represented by a domain name which is easier for the individual to remember.

Java is a  network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems and is specifically designed to develop software that can be downloaded run on a clients computer.  Java is said to be platform independant in that it does not have to be compiled to run on a specific type of pc i.e. apple pc or windows pc.   Java applets are small programs that can run within web pages to provide small applications animations etc.

Javascript A simple programming language developed by Netscape to enable greater interactivity in Web pages and enabling dynamic functionality to be included in web sites.  Although Javascript share some characteristics with Java, it is completely independent. 

Jpeg (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a compressed graphic file normally used for images (e.g. photographs) that require many colors (i.e. millions). The file name takes the form of filename.jpg.

Keyword(S) A word searched for in a search command.  Keywords are searched in any order.

LAN (Local Area Network) is a set of connected computers.

Link is created in html documents to allow the user to call/load another page or be transferred to another part of the page. 

Metatags are HTML tags that are written into the head section of an HTML page and convey different kinds of information, but don't actually show on the page as text. For example the title, description and keywords for the page. Some search engines use metatags to index pages.

News Groups are electronic bulletin boards where messages can be posted (similar to an e-mail) and then read and replied to by anyone who subscribes to the News Group (subscription costs nothing).

Path  refers to the location of a file or folder in relation to other files or folders.  A program may have an associated data path that tells the software where to locates its data.  e.g. c:\program files\some sofware\datafolder

PDF or .pdf or pdf file is an abbreviation of Portable Document Format, which is a  file format developed by Adobe Systems and is used to capture almost any kind of document in its original format.  Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader, which is built into most web  browsers or can be  downloaded free from Adobe.

Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language and is an open source server side programming language extensively used for web scripts and to process data passed via the Common Gateway Interface from HTML forms etc. Perl scripts are not embedded within HTML pages and do not download to the web browser but reside on the server. They execute by being triggered from commands within HTML pages or other scripts and may produce HTML output that does download to the web browser.

PHP PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is an open source server sideprogramming language extensively used for web scripts and to process data passed via the Common Gateway Interface from HTML forms etc. PHP can be written as scripts that reside on the server and may produce HTML output that downloads to the web browser. Alternatively, PHP can be embedded within HTML pages that are then saved with a .php file extension. The PHP sections of the page are then parsed by the PHP engine on the server and the PHP code stripped out before the page is downloaded to the web browser.

PICS stands for Platform for Internet Content Selection. This lays down a standard for filtering content. Their website can be found at http://www.w3.org/PICS/. Your web browser can be set to exclude web sites with a particular PICS rating (or web sites that don't have a PICS rating). A web site owner can visit the PICS site and fill in a questionnaire that will produce the required code to paste into the web site pages to give the site a PICS rating.

Plug-in is a program added to a web browser in order to add multimedia capabilities. e.g. Flash plug-in, Java plug-in.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a compressed graphic file normally used for images. The file name takes the form of filename.png.

POP stands for Post Office Protocol and is the standard protocol used to send and receive e-mail.

Popularity Ranking of search results Some search engines(e.g.Google  ) rank the order in which search results appear primarily by counting the links from other web pages to it. 

Protocol is an agreed way for two computers to communicate. e.g. http:// tells your web browser that the data downloading is Hypertext Transfer Protocoland should be rendered as a web page. 

Proxy Servers are used by ISPs and other organizations to save bandwidth. They intercept requests and check to see if they hold a copy of the requested resource in cache.  If they hold the requested resouce in cache they will return it without sending the request on.  This process can sometimes lead to out of date versions of a page being served.  

Reciprocal Link is a link agreement between two web sites where each site places a link on its site to the other.

Relevancy Ranking of search results  is a method to determine the order in which search results are displayed.  Each search tool uses its own unique algorithm to determine the ranking.  Factors such as how often your terms occur in documents, whether they occur together as a phrase, and whether they are in title or how near the top of the text affect this ranking.  Popularity is another ranking system.

Search Engines are dedicated web sites set up to allow users to search for web sites dedicated to particular subjects. The term search engine normally refers to sites that use robot programs to index other web sites, as opposed to online directories that use human editors to index other web sites.

Search Engine Optimization describes methods used to make web pages gain a higher ranking in search engines.  

Server describes any application that serves another - for example the computers that hold web pages are called servers since they serve up web resources to client applications such as web browsers.

Server-side script is a program or script that runs on a web server but does not download to a web browser (although it may download output from the script). There are a number of server-side scripting languages such as asp, PHPand Perl.  Each language will require the installation of an appropriate interpreter on the server.

Short cuts are small files that hold information about where a file is located. Clicking on a shortcut will cause the application to start

Spam is unsolicited e-mail. The term spamming is also sometimes used by search engines to mean web sites that try to gain a higher listing by submitting hundreds of almost identical pages or by inserting hundreds of keywords within a web document.  Spamming a search engine can result in the exclusion from the engines listings.

SSL Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol devised to secure the transmission of sensitive information across an unsecure network like the internet.  All information traversing the connection will be encrypted to ensure that third parties cannot understand its content.  . An SSL URL is preceded by https:// instead of http://.   SSL is often used to transmit credit card details on e commerce channels.

Shtml, usually seen as .shtml A file name extension that identifies web pages containing SSI commands.

SSI commands SSI stands for "server-side include," a type of HTML instruction telling a computer that serves Web pages to dynamically generate data, usually by inserting certain variable contents into a fixed template or boilerplate Web page. Used especially in database searches.

Stop Words  refer to words that frequently occur within web pages.  E.g. and or in etc.  These words will generally be ignored in searches. 

Subject-Based Popularity Ranking of search results A variation on popularity ranking in which the links in pages on the same subject are used in ranking search results. Used by Teoma.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) -- This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software. See also IP Address.

Telnet is a protocol used to logon to a remote computer. The method provides a remote console allowing resident commands to be implemented.

Title(of a document) The official title of a document from the "meta" field called title. The text of this meta title field may or may not also occur in the visible body of the document.  This title appear in the top bar of your window when the page is displayed.  The title also appears in search engine results

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is often called an Internet Address.  It normally takes the form protocol:// host/directory/filename

Xhtml A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a hybrid between HTML and XML that is more universally acceptable in Web pages and search engines than XML.

Xml Extensible Markup Language, a dilution for Web page use of SGML (Standard General Markup Language), which is not readily viewable in ordinary browsers and is difficult to apply to Web pages. XML is very useful (among other things) for pages emerging from databases and other applications where parts of the page are standardized and must reappear many times.

ZIP file is a file that has been compressed in order to take up less space on a hard drive or download faster over the Internet.