Web Definitions

Throughout my new series of posts called Simples, I will be using a few terms that you may or may not be familiar with. This post will list these along with a very simple definition and a link to view a more in depth description. This list will be updated on regular basis and you can suggest new definitions by tweeting @leonbarrett with the hashtag #sizdef.

Web Browser – The piece of software that is used to view Web Pages. You may only know this as the blue ‘e’ (Internet Explorer) icon on your desktop. There are many (better) browsers that you can use, such as Safari, FireFox or Chrome.

Email Client – The piece of software that is used to read emails on your computer. If you don’t use one, why not give Mozilla Thunderbird a go.

RSS – Really Simple Syndication. A format of delivering a feed of updated content to a user, without them having to visit the originating website.

FTP – File Transfer Protocol. A method for exchanging files over the internet. Take a look at my post for more info http://www.blog.sizzla-media.co.uk/2009/10/31/ftp-wtf/

HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language. A markup language for creating web pages.

CSS – Cascading Style Sheet. A way of styling HTML

Javascript – A programming language for creating dynamic content for web pages

jQuery - A library for quickly creating Javascript code.

MySQL – A database technology used to store information online

PHP – PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Render – The process that a web browser uses to turn HTML into a web page.

Server – A computer that serves files to a client. In web development, the server is hosted by a company that you pay money to manage. The server holds the HTML and other files that make up a website.

Hosting provider – A company that manages a web server, such as Dreamhost (this is my affiliate link)

Domain name – The unique URL (address) that refers to your website. For example mine is http://www.blog.sizzla-media.co.uk

API – Application Programming Interface. A method implemented by software or a web application that allows another application to interact with it. Twitter has an API that allows you to update your status from another application, such as a desktop client.

ASP.NET – A web application framework developed by Microsoft that allows programmers to create interactive web applications, services and tools.

Flash – A interactive, multimedia platform developed by Adobe that allows programmers to create engaging, interactive multimedia applications for web, desktop and mobile.

Silverlight – Similar to Flash but developed by Microsoft. Enables developers to use existing web skills to build interactive content.

Web App – An interactive application or programme that is accessed via a web browser and is written using web technologies such as PHP, HTML and Javascript.

Platform – In computing terms, the hardware set up or software framwork used. Such as Apple’s OS X or Microsoft’s Windows.

The Cloud/Cloud Computing – Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering services over the Internet. It outsources the processing and hosting work to data centres via the internet.

3G - The third generation of mobile standards in use. Broadly offers faster connection speed and the transmission of video and multimedia data.

Wi-Fi – A wireless standard used to transmit data between devices over a network. Commonly found in Mobile Phones and Computers.

Router – A device that is primarily used to route traffic to multiple computer devices. For example sharing one internet connection with multiple computers