Sick of jargon? We like to keep things simple.
ABC | DEF | GHI | JKL | MNO | PQR | STU | VWXYZ
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S: Scripting | Search Engine | SEM | SEO | Shockwave | Site Map |
Site Navigation | Spider | Splash Page | SSL | Sticky Content
T: Tag | Traffic
U: URL | URL Forwarding
Scripting
(skript´ing lang´gwij) (n.) A high-level programming language that is interpreted by another program at runtime rather than compiled by the computer’s processor as other programming languages (such as C and C++) are. Scripting languages, which can be embedded within HTML, commonly are used to add functionality to a Web page, such as different menu styles or graphic displays or to serve dynamic advertisements. These types of languages are client-side scripting languages, affecting the data that the end user sees in a browser window. Other scripting languages are server-side scripting languages that manipulate the data, usually in a database, on the server.
Scripting languages came about largely because of the development of the Internet as a communications tool. JavaScript, ASP, JSP, PHP, Perl, Tcl and Python are examples of scripting languages.
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Search Engine
A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.
Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.
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SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Short for search engine marketing, SEM is often used to describe acts associated with researching, submitting and positioning a Web site within search engines to achieve maximum exposure of your Web site. SEM includes things such as search engine optimization, paid listings and other search-engine related services and functions that will increase exposure and traffic to your Web site.
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SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Short for search engine optimization, the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.
SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.
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Shockwave
A technology developed by Macromedia, Inc. that enables Web pages to include multimedia objects. To create a shockwave object, you use Macromedia's multimedia authoring tool called Director, and then compress the object with a program called Afterburner. You then insert a reference to the "shocked" file in your Web page. To see a Shockwave object, you need the Shockwave plug-in, a program that integrates seamlessly with your Web browser. The plug-in is freely available from Macromedia's Web site as either a Netscape Navigator plug-in or an ActiveX control.
Shockwave supports audio, animation, video and even processes user actions such as mouse clicks. It runs on all Windows platforms as well as the Macintosh.
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Site Map
A hierarchical visual model of the pages of a Web site. Site maps help users navigate through a Web site that has more than one page by showing the user a diagram of the entire site's contents. Similar to a book's table of contents, the site map makes it easier for a user to find information on a site without having to navigate through the site's many pages. Also, in SEO, a site map can make it easier for a search engine spider to find all a site's pages.
Not all Web sites will have a site map. The less intricate a site is the less need there is for a site map to guide users.
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Site Navigation
The site navigation is the menu within website in which to navigation through the site. Generally there is at least one menu area. This main menu is called the senior navigation. Additional navigation areas, such as the footer and side menus are called secondary navigation.
Good navigation should remain consistent across all pages, so that it easy for the view to use and find pages of interest.
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Spider
A program that automatically fetches Web pages. Spiders are used to feed pages to search engines. It's called a spider because it crawls over the Web. Another term for these programs is webcrawler.
Because most Web pages contain links to other pages, a spider can start almost anywhere. As soon as it sees a link to another page, it goes off and fetches it. Large search engines, like Alta Vista, have many spiders working in parallel.
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Splash Page
The page of a Web site that the user sees first before being given the option to continue to the main content of the site. Splash pages are used to promote a company, service or product or are used to inform the user of what kind of software or browser is necessary in order to view the rest of the site's pages. Often a splash page will consist of animated graphics and sounds that entice the user into exploring the rest of the Web site. Some splash pages will bring the user to the main Web site automatically, and some require the user to click on a link that will load the main page.
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SSL
(pronounced as separate letters) Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data - a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers.By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:.
Another protocol for transmitting data securely over the World Wide Web is Secure HTTP (S-HTTP). Whereas SSL creates a secure connection between a client and a server, over which any amount of data can be sent securely, S-HTTP is designed to transmit individual messages securely. SSL and S-HTTP, therefore, can be seen as complementary rather than competing technologies. Both protocols have been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard.
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Sticky content
Content that keeps users on the website in order to use (applications and games), or browse.
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Tag
(n) A command inserted in a document that specifies how the document, or a portion of the document, should be formatted. Tags are used by all format specifications that store documents as text files. This includes SGML and HTML.
(v) To mark a section of a document with a formatting command.
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Traffic
(traf´ik) (n.) (1) The load on a communications device or system. One of the principal jobs of a system administrator is to monitor traffic levels and take appropriate actions when traffic becomes heavy.
(2) The measurement of the amount of users that visit a Web site.
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URL
Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use, and the second part specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.
For example, the two URLs below point to two different files at the domain pcwebopedia.com. The first specifies an executable file that should be fetched using the FTP protocol; the second specifies a Web page that should be fetched using the HTTP protocol:
- ftp://www.pcwebopedia.com/stuff.exe
- http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html
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URL Forwarding
URL Redirection or Website Redirection. In short, when the user types in one address (URL) for a web site and is then redirected to a site, often on a different server than the domain.
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