Dictionary of words, acronyms used by webmastersGlossary of Frequently Used Webmaster Terms

by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

From time to time I get queries from beginning webmasters about the meaning of terms they read on thesitewizard.com. To aid newcomers and laypersons to the webmaster scene, I have decided to compile a glossary of such terms. This list includes words, phrases, acronyms and any other terms that webmasters frequently use.

This list is meant for the beginning webmaster or even the layperson. As such, I try to simplify the concepts substantially.

This list is a work in progress. It is by no means an exhaustive list.

For Webmasters: Feel free to link to this page from your website if you think that it explains specific terms that you use there. You can even link directly to the term: for example, to link to the definition of WYSIWYG, use a URL like http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#wysiwyg For your convenience, the URL to use for a term is given immediately below the definition of that term.

CGI, Common Gateway Interface

CGI scripts are basically programs (software) that run on the computer where the web pages of a website are stored. They do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, if you search for something on thesitewizard.com using the Site Search facility on the left column of this page, your search query is passed on to a CGI script which does the actual searching.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#cgi

When you download a file from the Internet, you transfer it from some computer on the Internet to your own computer. Traditionally, "download" was used only when you transferred something from a larger computer, such as a mainframe, to a smaller computer. However, this is not the sense used by people nowadays when they speak of downloading on the Internet.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#downloading

When you read a web page like this one, you see some words in bold, some underlined, still others in large fonts and so on. These things are accomplished by means of hidden formatting code that are embedded in a web page. The formatting code tells the web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape or Safari, etc) how it should display the web page. This formatting code is known as HTML.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#html

FTP, File Transfer Protocol

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a method used to transfer a file from one computer to another across the Internet. It is often used by webmasters to publish their web pages on the Internet - they use FTP to transfer their web pages from their computer to their web server. The transfer of files is usually accomplished by a program called an FTP client. You can find a list of free FTP clients at http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/freeftpclients.shtml

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#ftp

Perl

Perl is a computer language. Webmasters often use programs written in Perl (sometimes called "Perl CGI scripts" or just "Perl scripts") to do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, Perl scripts can be used to search a website for a particular document, send email for a feedback form, conduct online polls, etc.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#perl

PHP scripts are basically programs (software) that run on the computer where the web pages of a website are stored. Since they are computer programs, they can do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, PHP scripts can be used to search a website for a particular document, send email for a feedback form, conduct online polls, etc.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#php

Uploading is usually used by webmasters to refer to the act of transferring a file from their own computer to another computer on the Internet. Traditionally, "upload" was used only when you transferred something from a smaller computer to a larger computer like a mainframe. However, this is not the sense used by people nowadays when they speak of uploading on the Internet.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#uploading

A web host is a company that has a computer (or many computers) that are permanently connected to the Internet. Documents (web pages) that are located on those computers can be read by anyone connected to the Internet.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#webhost

There are at least two senses in which the term "web server" is typically used. Firstly, a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet and allows other people to read web pages located on that computer is called a web server. For example, the pages that you are reading on thesitewizard.com are located on a web server (computer) somewhere in the world.

Secondly, a web server may refer to a computer program like Apache. Just because a computer is connected to the Internet doesn't mean that anyone else on the Internet can read the documents located on that computer. There needs to be a computer program running on that computer that allows people using a browser to read the web pages located there. This computer program is also called a web server.

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#webserver

When you design a web page or write a document with a WYSIWYG editor (or word processor), the editor displays the page exactly (or almost exactly) as it will appear when you publish the web page or when you print it out. WYSIWYG means that what you see on the screen is what you will get on output. You can find a list of free WYSIWYG web editors at http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmleditors.shtml

Note to webmasters: To link to this term from your site, use http://www.thesitewizard.com/faqs/glossary.shtml#wysiwyg

Copyright 2003 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.