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Small Business Websites That Work: Glossary

Book cover: Small Business Websites That Work By Sean McManus

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Affiliate programme
A scheme where you are paid for referring customers to another website by including a link to it on your website.

Attachment
A file (such as a word processing document, a spreadsheet or a picture file) that is sent with an email message. Recipients will need to use a program like the one that created the file to read it, even if they can understand the email message it accompanied without needing any extra programs.

Autoresponder
A program that issues an immediate standardised response to incoming email.

Bookmark
A shortcut to a webpage. When you bookmark a webpage, the browser stores its title and address. Next time you want to visit that webpage, you just need to select it from the bookmarks list. In Internet Explorer, bookmarks are called favourites. You can have as many bookmarks as you want.

Browser
A program used to read webpages. Leading browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Opera.

Content
The words, pictures, videos, sounds and programs that you put on your website.

Database
A collection of organised, searchable information.

Directory
A hierarchically-structured guide to websites.

Domain name
The part of the website address that is common to the addresses of all the pages on the website. In the address 'www.sbwtw.com/index.shtm' the domain name is 'www.sbwtw.com'. The domain name identifies the server where the website is stored.

Download
To copy files (including webpages) over an internet connection into your computer.

Ecommerce
Electronic commerce usually refers to trading conducted over the internet.

Email
Short for electronic mail. Computer messages that are addressed to individual people and stored in a mailbox. People connect to the internet and use email software to download their messages. Appropriate software includes Outlook and Eudora. There are also websites, such as www.hotmail.com, that will let you access your email using a web browser. An email address always has an @ sign in it, and often follows the format 'name@domainname.com'.

Favourites
See bookmark

Filter
Incoming email can be automatically sorted using filters which direct the email to appropriate folders. Someone might have email from their friends go into a folder called 'friends' and have junkmail automatically sent to the Trash folder unread. Filtering software can also be used to block access to certain websites based on words they contain, for example to protect children from sites that include swearing.

Firewall
A firewall is a program that polices all the communications going between a computer and the internet. If unauthorised programs try to hack in, or viruses try to send messages out, the firewall will block them.

Forms
Forms enable data to be entered into webpages for processing by the server. They can include text boxes of different sizes, round buttons of which only one can be selected (eg 'yes or no'), square checkboxes of which any number can be selected (eg, 'I like chocolate, tea and toast') and buttons which tell the browser to process the information when clicked.

Example form for you to play with:

Choose either Yes No
Choose your favourite fireman:
Tick the box!

Graphics
Pictures on a computer screen.

Hoax virus warning
Chain letters that spread fear and alarm about viruses that don't exist.

Homepage
A website's homepage is the first page that you see when you type in the website address. The browser's homepage is the page that opens up whenever the browser is first started, or when the 'Home' button on the browser is clicked.

Host
A server

Icon
On a webpage, an icon is a small picture that shows what the associated link does. An icon of an envelope might represent an email link. Outside of webpages, icons are often used to represent different files so they can be moved around the hard disk with the mouse and can be opened by clicking on them.

Internet
A global network of computers that enables data and email messages to be quickly distributed worldwide. The world wide web and newsgroups are built on top of the internet technology.

ISP — Internet Service Provider
A company that provides a user's connection to the internet, often using a phone line, cable modem or dedicated high speed line.

Keyword
A word used when searching for information on a computer to tell the computer what you're looking for.

Link
A link is text or a picture on a webpage which when clicked will take you to a different webpage. Links can be formed between any two files anywhere on the internet and can jump to the middle of a file as well. Links are one-way, but the back button on the browser can be used to return. Reciprocal links are where two sites agree to link to each other.

Log
A record of all the files sent out from a website's server.

Navigation
Used to refer to how people find their way around websites

Navbar
Short for 'navigation bar', this is a panel with links to other parts of the same website. It's often made of graphics that look like buttons.

Newsgroup
A discussion group that uses the internet but is independent of the worldwide web. Newsreader software is used to access newsgroups. Some websites allow people to read and post messages to newsgroups, but are only providing a gateway to the newsgroups: they don't own them and the newsgroups can still be reached without going through that website.

Pixels
The dots that make up a screen display.

Plug-in
Plug-ins are programs that enable browsers to process webpages containing new types of file from the internet, such as virtual reality models, interactive animations or music.

Pop-up
A window that opens up on top of the existing window and is usually smaller than the main window. Click here to see what one looks like now

Portal
A portal is a website that provides a start page for people coming onto the internet. Typical portals offer a search engine, the latest news headlines, shopping facilities and free web email accounts.

Resolution
This refers to the amount of detail a user can see on their computer screen and is unrelated to the screen's physical size. A typical resolution for a PC is 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels deep.

Scroll
In olden times, paper scrolls would be unfurled at the bottom and rolled up at the top to see a new page. Scrolling the screen is similar: the document is moved up or down through the window, or left or right, so that a different part of it can be seen.

Search engine
A search engine is a website that has a vast database of webpages all over the internet that you can search by keyword to find what you need.

Server
A server is the computer that stores your website and makes it available to the internet, sending out the webpages as they are requested by website visitors.

Shareware
Shareware is software that is free for anybody to copy and try out, but which must be registered and paid for if it's used beyond the trial period.

Shopping cart
A page on a website where you can store items you're interested in buying before confirming the sale. It enables shoppers to buy multiple items in one transaction.

Signature
A few lines of text that are automatically added to the end of an email by your email program. These are used to include contact details and disclaimers, but can include any message.

Sitemap
A directory of one website with links to all of the pages on it.

Spam
Junk email

Surfing the web
Spending time visiting websites and following links between them, exploring where they lead.

Traffic
Refers to the number of visitors a website gets.

URL
Short for Universal Resource Locator. Each webpage has its own URL, which uniquely identifies that page on the web. The URL is shown in the browser's location box and by typing it in you can go straight to a particular webpage.

Virus
A hidden program capable of copying itself between disks and computers, and often able to spread itself by stowing away on emails. These programs can cause considerable damage by deleting files on machines they infect.

Webpage
A document that's viewed over the worldwide web that can include text, graphics, animation, forms and interactive features. Pages that don't fit on a single screen can be scrolled in the browser window.

Website
A group of webpages that are operated by the same person and usually have a common theme and the same domain name.

Website address
To get to a website, you type in its website address. For websites that have bought their own domain name, the website address is the same as the domain name. Others might have a website address that is based on their hosting company's domain name.

Window
A box on screen in which a program runs, or information is shown.

Worldwide web
The web sits on top of the internet and makes it easier to exchange information. The web has popularised the internet and made it possible to easily create and publish webpages, and easily find and read them.

Find out more

Visit the homepage for Small Business Websites That Work.

Credits

© Sean McManus. All rights reserved.

Visit www.sean.co.uk for free chapters from Sean's coding books (including Mission Python, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps and Coder Academy) and more!

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