Backbone
This is the main connections that make up the foundations of the Internet. The backbone includes connections between large organisations, governmental agencies and online business.
Bandwidth
The amount of business data that can be transferred over an online network at any given time. If a network is said to be 6 Megabytes, the network can theoretically carry a maximum of 6 Megabytes of data at any one time.
Blog
Short for Weblog, the early blogs were little more than online diaries. Today, online business keep in touch with their customers via blogs. People write about every conceivable subject on millions of blogs worldwide.
Central Processor
The brains of all computer is the CPU or Central Processing Unit. All of the instructions that a computer is given are processed through this chip and it associated processors. A CPU is often also referred to as a microprocessor.
Domain Name
The name used to identify an individual business website on the Internet. Domains are identified by the suffix that can include: .com and .co.uk.
Domain Name Parking
Businesses that want to protect a group of domain names can register them, but not put them live on the Internet. This is called parking the domain name.
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
A method of stopping the copying of any digital content that an online business might sell. DRM can be attached to any digital file. The most common are electronic books, music and movies.
Firewall
This can be a piece of software or hardware that forms a protective wall between a computer or server and the Internet. Firewalls are used by online business as a security precaution to stop malicious attacks occurring such as virus infection or hacker attacks.
Hosting
All business websites are stored on a server. This is a specialised computer with masses of storage space and a fast connection to the Internet.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
The language that the entire world wide web is based on. Every web page on every website is written in a form of HTML.
Internet Browser
A specialised application that enables an entrepreneurs customers to view the contents of pages within an online business. Common Internet browsers include Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox.
IP Address
Each computer connected to the Internet must have a unique address so that it can be located on the Internet. IP addresses are like phone numbers for computers.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group)
An image format that is often used on the Internet when full-colour images are required for a web page. The continuous tone that some images contain is preserved even when the image file is compressed.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
A form of online advertising that enables a business to place an ad on a website and only pay for that ad space when a potential customer clicks on the link that is embedded in the advertisement.
RSS (RDF Site Summary)
To be able to keep track of a number of blogs that people want to read, and to save them having to visit each blog individually to see what is new, the RSS feed of a blog sends the subscriber details of only new information that the blog owner has posted.
Server
A specialised computer that stores information such as the pages that make up a website. Servers can also act at the gateways to connect computer peripherals together such as one printer being shared by many computers.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) For a search engine like Google to locate a website and the pages it contains, the search engine creates an index of the content of each web page. Optimising your website for this index means more people can find it with their Internet browsers.
Session ID
A security feature that many E-commerce enabled website use. A session ID is used to identify a visitor to a website they have previously visited. It can contain their payment details so these don’t have to be entered again.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
All online E-commerce enabled websites use SSL to encrypt the flow of data from the Internet browser on the customers computer and the server where the website is stored.
Web 2.0
The umbrella term that is often used to describe the rise of online social networking websites like Facebook that many internet entrepreneurs have made their fortunes creating. It is also used to define websites that use data from a number of sources to create new content – often called mashups.
Webtop
The computer desktop mimicked the physical desktop of the office with folders, storage boxes and a bin. Programs that are installed on a computer are run on the desktop. Programs that can now be run and used completely on the Internet are said to be Webtop applications.
