Simply Media - Hints and Tips

Sick of jargon? We like to keep things simple.

ABC | DEF | GHI | JKL | MNO | PQR | STU | VWXYZ

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G: Gif

H: Hit | Home Page | Hosting | HTML | Hyperlink

I: Image Map | Internet | Internet Address | Internet Explorer

Gif
Pronounced jiff or giff (hard g) stands for graphics interchange format, a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color and various resolutions. It also includes data compression, but because it is limited to 256 colors, it is more effective for scanned images such as illustrations rather than color photos.

Hit
(1) Also called a page hit. The retrieval of any item, like a page or agraphic, from a Web server. For example, when a visitor calls up a Web page with four graphics, that's five hits, one for the page and four for the graphics. For this reason, hits often aren't a good indication of Web traffic. Compare with page view.
(2) Any time a piece of data matches criteria you set. For example, each of the matches from a Yahoo or any other search engine search is called a hit.

Home page
The main page of a Web site. Typically, the home page serves as an index or table of contents to other documents stored at the site.

Hosting
See Web site Hosting

HTML
Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML is similar to SGML, although it is not a strict subset.

HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. The correct structure for an HTML document starts with <HTML><HEAD>(enter here what document is about)<BODY> and ends with </BODY></HTML>. All the information you'd like to include in your Web page fits in between the <BODY> and </BODY> tags.

There are hundreds of other tags used to format and layout the information in a Web page. Tags are also used to specify hypertext links. These allow Web developers to direct users to other Web pages with only a click of the mouse on either an image or word(s). For a more complete list of tags, check out some of the URLs below.

Hyperlink
An element in an electronic document that links to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document. Typically, you click on the hyperlink to follow the link. Hyperlinks are the most essential ingredient of all hypertext systems, including the World Wide Web.

Image Map
A single graphic image containing more than one hot spot. For example, imagine a graphic of a bowl of fruit. When you click on a banana, the system displays the number of calories in a banana and when you click on an apple, it displays the number of calories in an apple.

Image maps are used extensively on the World Wide Web. Each hot spot in a Web image map takes you to a different Web page.
Image map is sometimes spelled as one word: imagemap.

Internet
A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.

Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well.

There are a variety of ways to access the Internet. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP).

The Internet is not synonymous with World Wide Web.

Internet Address
An Internet address uniquely identifies a node on the Internet. Internet address may also refer to the name or IP of a Web site (URL). The term Internet address can also represent someone's e-mail address.