Internet Survivor Guide Index

Glossary of Common Internet Terms

Ad Clicks	Action from a user clicking on an advertisement to get more information. This number refers to the actual number of times a particular ad (or group of ads) was actually clicked on by users.
Ad Views	Display of an advertisement on the HTML page a user is viewing. This is a number that refers to the number of times an ad (or group of ads) appeared on a page that users "could" view. This number includes the number of times it was actually clicked on but it does not mean that all users actually ever looked at the ad ... only that it appeared on a page that had been visited. The term "Impressions" means the same thing.
ASP	An acronym for Active Server Pages which is a Microsoft technology of embedded scripting using either VBscript or Jscript (a Javascript alternate from Microsoft) to permit dynamic functionality, including database integration. Similar to PHP in that all processing is performed on the web server and the page returned to the browser is plain HTML.
Authentication	Technique by which access to Internet or Intranet resources requires the user to identify himself or herself using a name and password.
Bandwidth	Measure (in kilobytes of data transferred) of the traffic on the site. This is like the volume of water that flows through a particular pipe. High Bandwidth is a relative, though ambiguous, term referring to a large amount of data that can flow to/from a computer at one time.
Branding	The traditional marketing practice of associating a logo or "tag line" with a company or product.
Browser	A program used to locate and view HTML documents (Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Explorer, for example.)
Click Through Rate	Percentage of users who clicked on a viewed advertisement (Ad Clicks) out of the total number of times it was displayed (Ad Views or Impressions). This is a good indication of the effectiveness of a banner ad. However as the Internet (and its users) has matured, the average rates have declined. Traditional marketing concepts such as "branding" remain viable considerations when considering the values of an internet banner campaign.
Client	The browser and, by inferrance, the computer used by a visitor to a Web site.
Client Errors	An error occurring due to an invalid request by the visitor's browser. Client errors are in the 400-range. See "Return Code" definition.
Cold Fusion	A server based scripting technology developed by Alaire and now owned by Macromedia. Using files with the .cfm suffix, this technology enables dynamic capabilities and database integration similar to PHP and ASP.
Compression	The ability to reduce the size of a file in kilobytes by prossessing with a utility application. Popular compression formats for the web are .ZIP (typically for Windows users) and .SIT (originally the standard Macintosh format but now also available for Windows). Most files available for downloading on the Internet are compressed to reduce the file size and thus the time required for transfer. Various graphics formats are, by the nature of their specification, already compressed such as JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats.
DNS	The Domain Name System is a huge database that is distributed among the entire Internet and contains the information that is required to associate every Domain Name with its appropriate IP address. The database containing this information is updated constantly since without knowing what IP address to route the traffic to, the domain names will not be located by the browser. You can think of this as a person living at a particular address. When they move to a different location, the mailing address needs to change in order to find them.
Domain Name	The text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer (web server) on the Internet. Any particular Domain Name can be owned (rented is actually more appropriate) by a company or individual. An IP address is associated with a particular server or location on a network that is owned by a hosting company or Internet Service Provider. When you choose to host your domain with a particular company, the name is associated with a particular IP number provided by that host. If you move the domain name to a different provider, the IP address will change.
Domain Name Lookup	The process of converting a numeric IP address into a text name (for example, 208.135.99.36 is converted to www.notamall.com).
Forms	An HTML page which passes variables back to the server. Forms are used to collect information from users and most often, to transmit the data to the hosting server. From there, the information can be processed and returned to the browser or initiate various actions by the server. There are two different ways that forms can send data to the server, Post and Get. The post method tranfers the data in a form by sending it in named pairs (the field name + the data in that field). Aside from needing to be practical, there is no limit on the size of the data being transmitted and most contact forms submit data in this manner. The "get" method adds the data to the URL and is very useful in ecommerce where you can move from one page to another with data entered in a form moving with you. This can often be seen by URLs that have "?=blahblahblah" after the page name.
FTP	File Transfer Protocol is a standard method of sending files between computers over the Internet. Because FTP is not terribly secure, SFTP has been developed to improve upon the old standards. Most web publishing software uses FTP (and optionally SFTP for newer applications) to transfer data to and from a remote web server.
GIF	Graphics Interchange Format is an image file format commonly used in HTML documents. This format allows a maximum or 256 colors in any given file and supports transparency which allows a background image or color to show through. Frame based animation is also supported and most of the banner ads are created in this file format. It is best used for illustration/line art as opposed to photographic images due to the limited color palette. Also see "JPEG" and "PNG"
Hit	An action on the Web site, such as when a user views a page or downloads a file. Note than a "hit" occurs on every element on an HTML page. Thus, a page containing 5 separate images would be logged by server as 6 hits ... one for each image and one for the HTML file itself. This can allow for an inflated number of site visitors when someone uses this statistic to convey the traffic on a particular website. "User sessions" should be considered if knowing the actual number of visitors to a site is important.
Home Page	The main, usually the default, page of a Web site. The home page provides visitors with an overview and links to the rest of the site. A home page is most useful for large and complex sites because there is always the possibility of "going home" and starting over again. Of course good navigation design can minimize the chance of visitors getting lost but a clear and recognizable home page is always a good idea.
HTML	Hyper Text Markup Language is used to write documents for the World Wide Web and to specify hypertext links between related objects and documents. The basic construction of an HTML file is very simple and requires only the most basic text editor to create. HTML becomes complicated when it includes code for scripted functionality (like Javascript) and the host of current technologies that can turn a basic page of static information into a dynamic and interactive experience.
HTTP	Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a Web server and a Web browser.
IP Address	Internet Protocol address identifying a computer connected to the Internet.
JPEG	Joint Photographic Expert Group (.JPEG or .JPG) is a compression method for storing an image in digital format. It is typically best used for "photographic" images where a full range of colors is desired but it does not support transparency and is a lossy compression format. It supports a range of compression values (low quality small files to higher quality large files) which vary the amount of data loss to the original image.
Log File	A file in which the web server records activity initiated by requests to the server such as the IP address of the client machine, the file requested, the browser version of the client, etc. Log files are used to generate useful reports by a wide variety of applications that deciphers the data in the log to make it meaningful to site owners and developers. From a Log File Report, statistics regarding traffic, most popular pages, most downloaded files, and much more can easily be analyzed.
Lossy/Lossless	This relates to forms of image compression that either "lose" data or do not lose data from the original image. PNG is a lossless image compression format while JPEG and GIF are Lossey formats because data is lost during compression in the later formats. A PNG image is typically larger in k-size than a JPEG produced from the same image but various artifacts (like blurring or puddling of the colors and loss of detail) does not occur.
Page Views	Also called Page Impressions. Hit to HTML pages only (access to non-HTML documents are not counted).
PHP	An acronym (some say a recursive acronym, if that needs to be stated) for Hypertext PreProcessor. It is a free (open source) scripting language that runs by having the server interpret special "tags" in the code of a web page. The server can be instructed to do many things with PHP tags including accessing a database on the server. When the page is displayed to the user, the PHP code has been converted to plain HTML. This is a very powerful and popular scripting method to create dynamic websites and e-commerce applications.
Platform	The operating system (i.e. Macintosh, Windows 98, Windows NT, etc.) used by a visitor to your Web site.
PNG	The Portable Networks Graphics format is the newest of the "browser readable" image formats (not yet supported completely in all browsers) and provides lossless compression, various color levels including 24bit "true color", and transparency. While most useful for professional image production it can not generally attain the degree of compression possible with GIF and JPEG formats.
Protocol	An established method of exchanging data over the Internet.
Referrer	URL of an HTML page that refers to your Web site.
Return Code	The return status of the request which specifies whether the transfer was successful and why. The "404" error is likely the most common error that a user will see on the Internet and occurs when there is no file of the name specified at that particular address. It is common for search engines to retain links to pages that have been deleted or renamed. Possible "Success" codes are: 200 = Success: OK 201 = Success: Created 202 = Success: Accepted 203 = Success: Partial Information 204 = Success: No Response 300 = Success: Redirected 301 = Success: Moved 302 = Success: Found 303 = Success: New Method 304 = Success: Not Modified Possible "Failed" codes are: 400 = Failed: Bad Request 401 = Failed: Unauthorized 402 = Failed: Payment Required 403 = Failed: Forbidden 404 = Failed: Not Found 500 = Failed: Internal Error 501 = Failed: Not Implemented 502 = Failed: Overloaded Temporarily 503 = Failed: Gateway Timeout
Scripts	An HTML page which passes variables back to the server.
Search Engines	A databased website containing information which can be used to find sites of interest.
Server (Web)	A computer that hosts information available to anyone accessing the Internet. Activity on a Web server is recorded in a log file.
Server Errors	An error occurring at the server. Server errors are in the 500-range. See "Return Code" definition.
Site (Web)	A location on the Internet containing HTML documents that visitors can view using a browser.
Spiders	An automated program that searches the internet. The most common spiders compile indexes of webpages for search engines such as Google. Other spiders are used to "harvest" email addresses that appear on web pages for use in spam mailings.
Suffix (Domain Name)	The two (or more) digit suffix of a domain name originally was useful in identifying the type of organization using that name. To some extent that still applies with .gov, .edu and .mil. However use of .net and .org no longer requires any authoritative certification and the addition of new suffixes makes it less of a viable rule. The original suffixes were: .com = Commercial .edu = Educational .int = International .gov = Government .mil = Military .net = Network .org = Organization Some of the newer suffixes are: .info .biz .cc .tv Other suffixes identify a country, eg.: .jp = Japan .it = Italy .de = Germany
URL	Universal Resource Locator is a means of identifying an exact location on the Internet. For example, http://www.notamall.com/Internet/glossary.php is the URL which defines the use of HTTP to access this web page (index.php) in the /Internet/ directory on the NotAMall Web site. A URL is comprised of four parts: the Protocol Type (HTTP), the Machine or Domain Name (notamall.com), the Directory Path (/Internet/), and the File Name (index.php). The file name suffix depends upon the type of technology in use by the particular website and can be one of many such as .htm, .html, .php, .cfm, .asp or others.
User Address	The domain name or IP address for the remote user.
User Agent	The fields in an extended Web server log file indicating the browser and the platform used by a visitor.
User Session	A session of activity (all hits) for one visitor to a Web site. A unique user is determined by the IP address or domain name. By default, a user session is terminated when a user falls inactive for more than 30 minutes.
World Wide Web (WWW, the Web, W3)	The Web is a hypertext-based, distributed system developed to provide Internet users an easy, intuitive means of accessing information. The WWW is fundamentally based upon a distributed and connected system of computers (servers) all over the world. The internet utilizes standardized communication protocals such that each hosting server can communicate appropriately with the other and allow access by clients using browser and other standard software.