ALT attribute
HTML code that works in combination with graphical tags to provide alternative text for graphical elements.

Animated Gif
An animation created by combining multiple GIF images in one file. The result is multiple images, displayed one after another, that give the appearance of movement.

Animation
Animation is the creation of a timed sequence of graphic images or frames together to give the appearance of continuous movement.

ASP (Active Server Page)
A web page with an .asp file extension, which indicates a dynamically created web page that uses ActiveX scripting. When a web browser requests an .asp page, the server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser.

Backend / Frontend
The 'Backend' is where the site administrator manages the site and it's content. The "Frontend" is the web site that your visitors see.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can travel through a path (phone line, cable etc.) in a given time, usually measured in seconds.

Banner ad
An image file that displays an online advertisement, typically sized for placement at the top or bottom of a web page and linked to another page. The most common size for a banner ad is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels tall.

Bitmap Image
A pixel-based image (.BMP). Its quality decreases when the image is enlarged

Blog
Blog is short for weblog. Basically an informal journal of ones thoughts, comments, and philosophies, updated frequently and normally reflecting the views of the blog's creator.

Browser
The software used to view, manage, and access web pages by interpreting hypertext and hyperlinks. Web pages may be view slightly (in some cases drastically) different depending on the brand and version of browser used. The two most common browsers used are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. There are many other browsers that work just as well such as Firefox and Opera to name a few.

Content Management System (CMS)
This is software used to automate the process of creating, publishing, and maintaining content of a website. Web site content may be kept up to date by individuals who do not have special knowledge about HTML or other Web technologies.

Copy
Refers to written material to be used on a web site. This may include text from brochures, advertisements, promotional material, description of products or services etc.

Database
A database is basically an electronic filing system. Information is organized for easy access and usually structured in a way that you can search, sort and analyze rapidly. A collection of client names, addresses, and phone numbers may form the content of a database for example.

Domain name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. On the Web, the domain name is the part of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that tells a domain name server where to forward a request for a web page. For example, the domain name of this web site is sampled.org. Since IP addresses are merely strings of numbers, the Domain Name system was developed to make it easier for people to remember the site addresses.

E-Commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services via the Internet.

Firewall
A Firewall protects any networked server from damage (intentional or otherwise) by those who log in to it. A Firewall could be a dedicated computer equipped with security measures such as a dial-back feature, or it could be software-based protection..

Flash
Macromedia Flash is an application for developing rich content, user interfaces, and web applications.
The Macromedia Flash Player is a multiple-platform client. Web users must download and install the player in order to view and interact with Macromedia Flash content. The Macromedia Flash Player is installed on 97% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide.

Font
A particular typeface in a specific point size. For example Times New Roman at a size of 12 point is an example of a specific font.

Form
A form can contain text boxes, check boxes, and radio buttons for a user to enter data. Users can then submit the form (eg. membership form) to the receiver.

Frame
Frames, which divide web pages into multiple, scrollable regions, you can display more than one HTML document in the same browser window. Some browers do not support frames.

Gif (Graphic Interchange Format)
A commonly used graphics file format for image files on the Internet. It enables the reduction of image size by using a high compression rate, which results in a small file size.

Home page
A website's main page. It acts as the starting point for users to access information on the site. Generally, the home page file is called index.html or index.htm. This informs the browser that it is the "first" page on a web site.

Hosting
Web hosting refers to the housing of a web site. Your web site must physically reside on a computer (a server) that's connected to the Internet so that your site is always available to the rest of the world. Web hosts offer their clients a space on a Web server (or an entire Web server) for a web site for a monthly or yearly fee. Check out sampled's affordable web hosting packages here.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
HTML is programming language used in the creation of Web pages. It specifies how text will be formatted and displayed in a web browser.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
The protocol that performs the request and retrieve functions of a server. Commonly seen as the first part of a web site address. When a browser sees "HTTP" at the beginning of an address, it knows that it is viewing a web page.

Hyperlink
This is the highlighted, clickable link in text or images on a web page that takes you to another place on the same page, another page or a whole other site.

Hypertext
Any text within a document that is linked to another location within the same document, same web site, or a different site altogether. Clicking hypertext with your mouse will activate the link. Textual links are usually underlined and are of a different color than the rest of the text.

I.P. Address (Internet Protocol Address)
A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, eg 69.57.134.83 . It is used to identify a computer connected to the Internet. Most people use Domain Names to identify computers which are easier for people to remember.

Iframe
A floating frame inserted within a Web page. This Iframe may contain and display the content of one page within another. For example these definitions are in an Iframe.

Internet
The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer, or interact with users at another computer elsewhere in the world.

Intranet
A private network of computers within an organization or company. The main purposes of an intranet are to share company information and computing resources among employees also to facilitate working in groups. An intranet is not a web site that can be accessed by the general public and in general acts like a private version of the Internet.

IP (Internet Protocol)
The international standard for addressing and sending data via the Internet.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)
A company that provides Internet access and related services to consumers and businesses usually for a fee.

JPEG
A JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg), which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote the standard, is a graphics file format (similar to GIF) which is used more for photographs and other images containing many colors and shading.

Link
The most common form of link is a highlighted word or picture that can be selected by the user resulting in the immediate delivery and view of another file. Also called hypertext link and hyperlink.

Marketing
The process of making customers aware of products and services, attracting new customers to a product or service, keeping existing customers interested in a product or service. Online marketing may involve such elements as banner ads, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, Pay-Per-Click or simply having a web site is an excellent marketing tool.

Menu
Textual or graphical choices and commands that are displayed on the screen and can be selected by the user. Common forms of menus include drop-down menus and shortcut menus.

Merchant Account
A merchant account enables retailers to accept web-based credit card payments from their customers by using a special account where money from credit card sales is first routed to and held before transfer to your own business account. This process is usually fully automated in E-commerce transactions. Money may be transferred into your standard business account in real-time or during various points in a 24 hour period.

Meta tag
An HTML tag which provides information about a web document. They provide such information as the author, date of creation or latest update for the page, and keywords which indicate the subject matter. Search engines often use keywords from meta tags to index their databases but most true search engines de-emphasize or completely ignore META tags

Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)
Perl is a programming language particularly strong for text processing and is one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts.

PHP
PHP is a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language that lets you create dynamic web pages. PHP-enabled web pages are treated just like regular HTML pages and you can create and edit them the same way you normally create regular HTML pages.

Pixel
The smallest unit (point) of an image displayed on a computer screen. The quality of an image depends on the number of pixels per inch that make up the image. Short for "picture element".

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
PNG is a graphics format much like a GIF or JPEG but it enables compression of images without any loss of quality, including high-resolution images.

Script
This is a programming term that refers to a set of instructions (a program) that is used to automate certain application tasks. Scrips are usually written in a simplified programming language, such as JavaScript, VBScript, or Perl.

Search Engine
Internet search engines like Google help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, involves making the web page clearly describe its subject, making sure it contains useful, accurate information in Meta tags. The higher a web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

Shopping Cart
Software that operates on an online storefront. It Allows consumers to select merchandise; review what they have selected; make modifications or additions; and purchase the merchandise. This feature is usually present on an E-commerce site.

Site Statistics
A detailed report on the performance of a web site or a particular web page. Statistical items include unique visits or "hits", how people found your site, what pages they went to and for how long, plus many other useful facts and statistics. If you are a member of sampled's hosting program you have access to your site statistics through use of your control panel.

Target Market
A defined group of clients or consumers which a particular service or product is marketed to. Age, geographic location, gender and/or socio-economic grouping often define target markets.

Thumbnail
A smaller version of an image, which is usually lower-resolution than the original. Thumbnail images usually link to a larger, better quality image sometimes in another window or page. Thumbnails are useful for creating an online galleries or displaying may products on one page as they are small files and load quickly.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
A way of specifying the location of something on the Internet, for example "http://www.sampled.org/glossary.htm" is the URL for this glossary. This unique, identifying address is most commonly entered into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or FireFox.

Video Clip
A short video sequence that can be included or embedded into a web page.

Web Master
The person responsible for maintaining a specific web site.

Web page
A single, World Wide Web document or individual URLtypically written in HTML. Web pages can contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other web pages and files.

Web site
A website is a collection of web pages on the World Wide Web that can be owned and managed by an individual, company or organization. A Web site usually contains a home page and additional pages that include information, images, links to other pages and files.

WiFi
Short for ‘wireless fidelity'. WiFi is a way to connect computers over a network without wires, wireless local area networks (WLAN). The correct name for WiFi is IEEE 802.11b (eight oh two dot eleven). You will find WiFi access available in homes, coffee shops, bookstores, offices, airports, schools, hotels, and other public places. These are known as WiFi hotspots where users can surf the Internet and receive emails on the move.