Website Design Glossary

Whether you're a doctor in Ayer, a massage therapist in Groton, or a restaurant owner in Westford or Chelmsford, chances are some of the website design lingo may be foreign to you. Here are definitions for common terms you may hear during the website design process:

  • Browser – Computer software that locates and displays web pages, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox, and Safari.

  • Domain Name – A name used to identify websites, such as www.LorindaWebDesign.com, or other locations on the Internet.

  • Email Attachment – The means for sending a copy of a document, photograph, etc., through email.

  • Flash Animation – An interactive vector graphic program that creates advanced animation for web pages.

  • FTP – File Transfer Protocol. This is the means for posting your website to the server that hosts your website on the Internet.

  • GIF – Graphic Interchange Format. This is a common type of digital image used on the web that only contains 256 colors or less.

  • Hosting Service – This term refers to a company that allows you to use their server to house your website.

  • HTML – Hypertext Markup Language. This is one of the computer languages (code) that we use to create websites.

  • HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is a process that transmits the pages of your website over the Internet for users to view.

  • Internet – A network of computers around the world that are linked together. Not to be confused with the World Wide Web itself, which merely uses the Internet to connect to various websites.

  • JavaScript – A programming language that allows website designers to use features such as animated images, enhanced forms, or simple databases.

  • JPEG – Joint Photographic Extension Group. This is a common type of digital image, such as a photograph, that contains millions of colors.

  • Search Engine – A website or computer program, used by Google and Yahoo for example, that gathers and catalogs information about websites on the Internet.

  • Server – A special computer that holds and delivers (or "serves") the web pages that constitute your website and makes them available on the Internet.

  • URL – Uniform Resource Locator. The Internet address of your website consists of 2 main parts: the access protocol (such as http) and your domain name (such as www.LorindaWebDesign.com). The complete URL for Lorinda Web Design is http://www.LorindaWebDesign.com. Some URLs may contain additional parts following the domain name, which direct the user to a subsection of the website.

  • Website – A set of interconnected web pages that are stored on a server and are viewed on the World Wide Web. Not all Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.

  • Word “Doc” – Refers to a document created using Microsoft Word.

  • WWW – World Wide Web. This is a system of Internet servers that support links to web pages on any server set up as a web server.

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