Web page related glossary

Bandwidth

A measure of data transmission (on digital networks) over time. Usually specified in bits per second, (can be converted to bytes per second by dividing by 8), or in Gigabytes per month.

Broadband

An Internet connection account with bandwidth above around 128kbps (128 kilobits (16 kilobytes) per second).

Bit

A singular electronic signal that at any one time can be either ON or OFF (denoted by 1 or 0 respectively). Most computers use eight bits to encode numbers and other information for processing and storage. Any eight such bits is known is as a byte.

Byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte...

Unit of computer storage or memory. 1 byte (made from eight bits) stores a single decimal number, letter, or computer instruction. 1,000 bytes is 1 kilobyte, 1,000,000 bytes (or 1,000 kilobytes) is 1 megabyte, 1,000 megabytes is 1 gigabyte, 1,000 gigabytes is 1 terabyte (1,000,000,000,000 or one-thousand-million bytes).

Download, Upload

Transfer of computer data from server to client or client to server (respectively). Where servers are computers that serve files and other resources to any number clients, and clients are computers that make use of those files and recourses.

Design

(1) the process of analysing a problem or need, inventing/finding/creating concepts for solving the problem or meeting the need and describing every detail of the finished product/system/article (conceptually) ready for production or implementation.

(2) a visual arrangement of lines, shapes and textures, including views of three dimensional forms. Used for communication, expression or decoration.

GUI, Interface

The interface between computer and human, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs "gooeys") are made up of images and text on the screen to communicate to the computer user, and a pointing device and keyboard for the user to communicate to the computer.

Hypertext, HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a way to mark parts of documents to indicate semantic meaning or structure. Hypertext is text marked up with HTML.

Hits, Visits, Page Views...

Hits: Each time a Web Client requests a file from a Web Server this is counted as one 'hit'. Hits are an inaccurate measure of web site usage, (not very useful as one person viewing one web page once, will cause several hits as a web page is made up of several files).

Visits: Usually number of people that have accessed any file on the web site or web page, therefore ignores hits to other files is an accurate measure of web page usage. Unique Visitors ignores repeat visits from the same people. Sometimes this is calculated by ignoring repeat visits from the Hit Count, which is not accurate as it is based on Hits.

Page Views: A measure of the number of times a web page is accessed, more accurate than Hits as it only counts the web page files, but less accurate than Unique Visits as repeat visitors are counted each time.

All three quantities can be useful for different purposes.

Image

A picture, photograph, illustration, logo or other graphical element on a computer. Made up of pixels (dots of colour) set very close together. Raster images are stored by remembering the colour of every pixel in the image, vector images are stored by remembering mathematical equations for lines and areas of the images and the colours of each line and area.

Internet

A world-wide network of computers, usually communicating over the standard computer protocol set 'TCP/IP'.

Load

The current work-load on a computer's recourses.

Server-Side Processing

This is when Web Servers process Web Pages (usually altering the files in some way) before sending them to Web Clients. The processes are repeated each time a Web Page is served, the altered file is not saved/stored on the Web Server.

User

The person using a tool, reading a book, watching a film, visiting a web site , etc...

Web Browser, Web Client

Web Browsers are the (main) software applications used to access the Web. They send requests to Web Serves and present the Web Pages sent back. Web Client refers to the Web Browsers and/or the computer on which the browser is running.

Web Design

The practice of designing all aspects of Web Sites. See Design (1).

Web Development

The practice of programming the files that make up Web Pages.

Web Host, Web Server

A computer acting as a Server to serve web page files to Web Clients

Web Site, Web Page

A Web Site is a collection of Web Pages that are designed to work together or can be thought of as a unified 'place' on the Web.

A Web Page is an HTML document as would be rendered by a Web Browser, and can include other files embedded into it (such as Images and other files that contribute toward the presentation or functions on a page). These embeded files must be downloaded separately to the HTML file, Web Browsers handle the downloading of all files needed and renders them in place when a User views a Web Page.

W3C Web Standards

The Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a body of professionals from Web related industries that create and document standard practices for the creation of Web Sites and especially the computer code used to create Web Pages.

World Wide Web (WWW, Web)

The Web is a world-wide human communication network using the Internet, Web Servers and Web Clients to provide Users with access to and means to publish Web Sites.