Glossary
So it’s said – there’s different strokes for different folks.
However, with regard to terminology, it’s best if we’re all on the same page. Therefore, please utilize the following definitions when reading various terms used throughout these pages.
- Bandwidth
- Simply put, the more bandwidth your server has available, the more information that it can send over the internet in a given period of time. That’s why it is very difficult to stream video or music files over a dial-up connection. Too much information is being squeezed through too small a ’pipe,’ i.e., not enough bandwidth. Most cable modem plans or DSL plans do not suffer from this problem.
- CSS
- Cascading Style Sheets are used to create the formatting and positioning commands that tell your browser how to display the content that is marked up or written with XHTML.
- Database
- A collection of information stored in one central location. Many times, this is the source from which information is pulled to display products or information dynamically on a website.
- Flash
- A technology that allows for animation or moving graphics on a website.
- Go-Live
- The point at which a website or application becomes published on the Internet and is available to the public.
- Home Page
- Your home page is the individual web page that people first see when they type your domain name, i.e., yourname.com, into their web browser. Think of it as the front door to your house and make it a welcoming place.
- Hosting
- A services that stores your information (or website) on a server, allowing it to be accessed by users on the Internet.
- Merchant Account
- A bank account that allows for the receipt of credit card funds.
- Navigation
- The means by which a user can click from page to a different page on a website.
- Payment Gateway
- Allows the secure transfer of user credit card funds from your website to your merchant account.
- Search Engine
- An online directory of websites, such as Google, Yahoo!, DMOZ, Dogpile, etc.
- Search Engine Optimization
- A set of practices that attempts to make a website more attractive to search engines, thereby encouraging, but not guaranteeing, higher search rankings.
- Section 508
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that all goods and services used by the government of the United States, including web pages, be fully handicap accessible. It identifies specific standards for Internet and Web accessibility.
- Usability
- A set of properties that makes something easy to use.
- Weight
- When used herein, weight relates to the size of the underlying file being discussed. A web page with greater weight will, because it is has greater overall size, take longer to open in a web browser versus a web page with less weight.
- XHTML
- HTML is the language of the web. It stands for HyperText Markup Language. Your web pages are most likely written in HTML. XHTML is an eXtensible version of HTML; one that requires the programmer to adhere to a more stringer set of rules and guidelines in order for the code to pass compliance testing.
