ActiveX is a set of technologies from Microsoft that enables interactive content for the World Wide Web. Before ActiveX, Web content was static, 2-dimensional text and graphics. With ActiveX, Web sites come alive using multimedia effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated applications that create a user experience comparable to that of high-quality CD-ROM titles. ActiveX provides the glue that ties together a wide assortment of technology building blocks to enable these "active" Web sites.

No, we aren’t talking about ‘adding-on’ to your hips or the house with this one. Quite simply, it is an add-on to a computer program that gives you more functions with the program. For example, if you use Firefox as your browser, there are add-ons which include things like toolbars, timers, and SEO functionalities. Other terms for add-ons might be plug-ins (like WordPress calls them) or extensions.

ADSL is an acronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, which is a way of getting internet access by transferring data over your telephone line. It isn’t as fast as cable but for most home computer users like us, it works just fine.

Adware as the name suggests is software that you might use on your computer that has advertisements. Some toolbars that you can download come with advertising features as well as with some games and may other things. In order to use these programs you usually must be online. Most of these are safe to use but you need to know that information is being gathered by the owners of the program for future marketing and programs. To be safe, always read the Privacy Agreement on these programs to see if what they say is in keeping with what you want and feel comfortable with.

Quite simply, an ‘Affiliate’ is someone who agrees to promote another person’s or company’s product on the Internet to earn commissions. It is the life-blood of Internet Marketing’ and many home based entrepreneurs are very successful when using affiliate marketing as a form of income.

A class of program that searches your hard drive and floppy disks for any known or potential viruses.

An e-mail utility that automatically replies to an e-mail message with a prewritten response when that e-mail comes into a specific e-mail or Internet, such as the one use in Outlook part of the Microsoft Office suite

An ‘avatar’ is a representation of a person online. It is a character or image that represents a real person. Some may use cartoonish representations and others may use images of things to represent them.

A ‘backup’ is essentially a copy of everything, all the files, documents, pictures, etc., you have on your hard drive. If you don’t have a backup, should your computer ’crash’, you can lose all the information you worked so hard on or need for your records. Personal valuables such as photos, music and videos files you may have loaded onto your computer can also be lost. You should back up your data often. Other things can happen too, like software corruption which can damage files

Bcc means ‘Blind Carbon Copy’. This is used when you want to send an email to a lot of people at one time but you don’t want each of them to view who else is receiving the same email. Another good reason to use the BCC function is to respect your clients, friends or family’s privacy. Your contacts will appreciate the fact that you are keeping their email details secure. No one likes spam.

The word ‘blog’ is shortened from ‘Weblog’ which is sort of like a website except that it’s easier to create, a lot less expensive, and you can make journal entries. Kind of like writing or keeping a diary. A ‘Weblog’ is simply a list of journal entries that are posted on a webpage. This allows regular folks to write about things they like, dislike etc as well as a fun place to share photos and videos.

Short for ‘robot’. It is an automated software program that gathers information automatically and performs certain functions as deemed by the website. They get tons of information that is also used by Search Engines such as Google helping it to determine the value and relevance of the website among other things.

Bounce e-mail (sometimes referred to as bounce mail) is electronic mail that is returned to the sender because it cannot be delivered for some reason.

Broadband signifies a ‘broaderband’ from which Internet data is sent. It is much faster than a phone line. There are basically two types of broadband. The biggest and fastest is via cable but this isn’t available everywhere so the second best is what they call ADSL or DSL which uses your existing phone line but is faster than a ‘dial –up’.

Your browser is the program that allows you to search the Internet or takes you to websites. Most people use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). There are other web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox or Apple’s Safari. These are free to download and there are versions for both MAC and PC. You can have more than one web browser to choose from on your computer.

An error in a ‘software’ program. These bugs can cause all sorts of problems with your computer so we really don’t like them. Most bugs are worked out before a program goes live on the Internet but even in the best case scenarios; bugs still happen.

A byte is a form of measurement of the size of computer files, memory on your computer and also the space on your hard disk. You might be familiar with the terms megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes. When you get to the ‘giga’ and ‘tera’ bytes…we are talking BIG files!

A cable modem allows you to connect through to the Internet without going through your phone line. It is many hundreds of times faster than a traditional phone line modem and it allows you to stay connected to the Internet. If you have cable connections with your TV, it is likely you can get a cable modem connection.

Cache [pronounced as 'cash'] is a high-speed storage mechanism. It can be a reserved section of main memory or an independent storage device. A type of caching called 'memory caching' uses high-speed SRAM[static] instead of the conventional and slower DRAM[dynamic]. It is very effective because several programs may access same data over and over. By storing these information in SRAM, the programs can access it easily than from a slower DRAM. Another one type of caching called 'disk caching' uses the convensional main memory as cache. This is because accessing a byte from RAM can be thousands of times faster than accessing it from the harddisk.

Caps Lock is a feature on your keyboard that allows you to use all of the letters in capitals. LIKE THIS. It’s best to keep the caps lock off unless you will be writing a good bit of text which you want capitalized. The button is usually found on the left side of most keyboards.
Many user names and passwords are case sensitive, so if you are attempting to enter either one of these and you may an error message.

You may have experienced a captcha in some of your surfing on the Internet. Websites need to be certain that you are a real person and not a ‘bot’ so it challenges the visitor to a test. It usually involves writing the text that you see in a small field. The text it wants you to copy may appear strange and hard to read but that is what makes real people different than robots. Humans can usually figure it out even though it is distorted.

Cc means ‘carbon copy’, just like in the old days when we used to put a piece of carbon paper between two sheets of paper when we were typing something. We usually did this either because we wanted to keep a copy for ourselves, or give the second copy to another person. The same principle applies here. If you are sending an email to someone but want others to receive it as well, you can simply put their email address in the Cc field. In this situation, the original recipient of the email will see that someone else also received a copy of the email. See Bcc.

In this case ‘certificate’ is referring to a secure certificate, an SSL certificate to be specific. It is a digital certificate that websites pay for that and can be displayed on the website that indicates to the visitor that it is a verifiable website and the owners of the site or merchant has been certified as authentic. It is to give you confidence that the site has been verified and safe to use. You can tell if a site has such a certificate by looking in the address bar on the page where you might be ordering a product for example. You should see https:// before the rest of the URL. If you see https:// it means it is a secure website. The website owner or merchant pays for this certificate and it goes for a defined amount of time so they can and do expire. It doesn’t mean that the safety of the site has changed as it just usually means they haven’t yet renewed their certificate. Again, the best way for you to trust the site is when you see the https:// in the address bar when you are on a page that is going to ask for any financial information from you such as credit card details.

A ‘character’ in the computer world is any letter, number, symbol, and even a space like when you click on the ‘space bar’.

Talk over the Internet using the computer to type in the words instead of speaking them out-loud.

An Internet place, were people gather togeather all at the same time to talk to one another using the computer. Often it is just a web page, like any other, and everyone is using an additional program, or an enhanced program to be able to type words in a box, and have it appear on top of the web-page so that the other people there (running the same program) can see it.It happens in "real time" meaning that it takes place immediately (or within a second or two)

Clip art refers to a collection of pictures or images that you can use on a document or blog or even a website.

Commercial software is simple software programs developed for commercial use. In most cases you actually purchase it in order to use it. You may have heard of ‘Freeware’ which is software that the public can download onto their computer and use for free. ‘Shareware’ is sort of free and sort of not. Shareware lets you use the software on a trial basis. Thirty days is a normal time frame; after which that you are given the option to purchase it. Some software programs can be downloaded directly to your computer from its website and others prefer to send you the CD’s in the mail. Most companies will offer both ways to choose from.

Where you can control what your desktop looks like, where you can change settings or perform maintenance on your computer. There are other types of control panels. Examples would be for your blogs or websites, allowing you to add content, images, and control how your site looks.

Cookies are simply collections of data that are left on your computer when you visit a website. The websites you visit save information from your visit which can be as simple as your username and password to more complex data such as your address.

Copyright on the Internet is just like it is in print. Copyright protects the author’s rights as the originator of the content. It means that others are not allowed to copy or republish the work of others. You can of course, ask for permission from the author to use their copyrighted material. © is the symbol for copyright. Copyright law applies to any form of content whether it be digital, audio, video or print. Even if you don’t see the copyright symbol, assume it is protected by copyright.

CSS refers to ‘Cascading Style Sheet’. These are used when you are formatting certain types of blogs and websites. In other words, when you want to modify the way your site looks then you would need to change the html code on the Cascading style sheet for your site.

Cut means to remove the word or image from the document you are editing and it puts it on the clipboard so that you can paste it elsewhere. The difference between cut and copy is that when you cut something it is removed whereas when you simply copy something, the copied material remains on the original document.

Unlike most computer terms, “cyberspace” does not have a standard, objective definition. Instead, it is used to describe the virtual world of computers. For example, an object in cyberspace refers to a block of data floating around a computer system or network.

A bug in computer lingo is an error of some sort. Programmers do their best to detect and eliminate as many of them as they can before brining a software program to the market. This process is called ‘debugging’ or to ‘debug’.

Default refers to the original settings of a program or system. They are the default settings. In many instances programs allow you to change things like the size and type of font, or the look of your computer display as a simple example. It is usually safe if you have any doubts about something to have it go back to the default settings and from there you can adjust things to the way you would like them.

Delete put simply means ‘erase’ or ‘get rid of’. You can delete words, photos, and articles, to name just a few.

Using an office metaphor, a desktop is a computer display area that represents the kinds of objects one might find on a real desktop: documents, phonebook, telephone, reference sources, writing (and possibly drawing) tools, project folders. A desktop can be contained in a window that is part of the total display area or can be "full-screen" (the total display area). Conceivably, you can have multiple desktops (for different projects or work environments you may have) and switch among them. In its Windows product, Microsoft provides what they call an Active Desktop. It includes representations of and access to desktop objects and also dynamic Web content as well, including integrated links to Web sites and information areas that are generated as the result of sites pushing requested information updates to the user.

Dial-up refers to the type of connection used to access the. Dial-up uses a modem that connects to the Internet over an analogue phone line.

A digital signature is a bit of code that can be attached to documents that certifies the creator’s identity.

A computer filing system. Directories are made up of folders and there may be folders within other folders. Essentially a directory organizes all the information you have on your computer and it allows you to find things and organize them more easily.

DNS means ‘Domain Name System’ which helps you find websites by their name rather than their IP address which is a bunch of numbers.

Part of your site’s address and allows the Internet to locate your site when you type in the name. Without an address it would never find it.

A domain name is the name of a website. You can buy your own domain name at a very low cost and use that domain name for a blog, a website, or just for the email address you can get with a domain name.

A domain suffix is that bit of a domain name after the (.) This is .com,.net,.org, .info and more. .com domain names are the most popular because when people are doing a search for something, they look for the names that have the suffix .com more than any other.

When you download, you are having information sent to your computer. When you surf the net and visit websites, you are in fact downloading because data is being displayed on your computer from another site on the Internet. You can also download other things like computer programs, program updates, music, photos, eBooks and much more.

The use of the ‘drag’ functionality allows you to move objects like folders, icons, photos and more to other files or position on your desktop or computer. All you need to do is single click on an icon for example, and hold the button down and then drag it to the folder or position you want it to be and then release the button.

An eBook is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a personal computer or by using an eBook reader. (An eBook reader can be a software application for use on a computer, such as Microsoft's free Reader application, or a book-sized computer that is used solely as a reading device. Users can purchase an eBook on diskette or CD, but the most popular method of getting an eBook is to purchase a downloadable file of the eBook (or other reading material) from a Web site (such as Barnes and Noble) to be read from the user's computer or reading device. Generally, an eBook can be downloaded in five minutes or less

Electronic Commerce means doing business on the Internet. Every time you buy something over the Internet you are participating in E-commerce.

E-mail as many people have come to realize once they have experienced it, is one of the best ways to communicate today. It is now quite routine to send letters, notices, photos and more via E-mail. Outlook is the most popular email client and is part of the Microsoft Office suite

The little funny characters you see typed that are supposed to indicate mood. When you see this   ;-) it signifies a smiley face. When you turn your head sideways so the parenthesis is on the bottom, it become the smile, and the semi-colon becomes the eyes (one winking). There are tons of them, see more here.

The ‘End User’ is as it implies. Who is whatever you or someone else has created designed for? Who is going to use it? This is the ‘End User’.

An ‘Ethernet’ cord is used to connect your computer to another computer or to a modem to name two uses. The ends look like a phone jack but it is a bit bigger

Facebook was launched in 2004 and it is called a ‘social networking website’. It’s a site that allows you to customize your personal profile to include photos, videos, and any other information that they want to share online.

This is the acronym for ‘Frequently Asked Questions.’ Knowing that most sites have an FAQ section can really help when you are looking for an answer to something. It can often save time if others have already asked that question and the site makes their response public.

A file is simply a location for stored data. Files can be opened, moved to folders, saved or deleted. They can even be downloaded and uploaded from and to the Internet.

A file extension appears as a suffix which tells you what kind of file it is. For example, if you see a file with a .exe after it, it means it is an executable file. This means if will perform a function when you open it, like download a software program to your computer. If you see the file name followed by .txt it means it is a file in text format. If it is .doc, it means it is a Microsoft Word document. There are many different file extensions which you will be familiar with over time.

A firewall is a way to block information from being put on your computer without your knowledge. In other words it is a form of protection for you. A firewall can prevent your computer from obtaining unwanted information from the Internet as well as having precious information removed from your own computer.

Firmware is a software program that provides instructions to your computer on how to do its job; how to communicate with other computer hardware. It usually comes from the computer manufacturer and needs to be updated every once in awhile to keep your computer functioning at its best. With PC, Windows Update usually takes care of keeping your firmware updated.

Flash is a format used in media production that allows for animation and also in certain circumstances to interact with certain websites.

A flash drive is a small, ultra-portable storage device which, unlike a hard drive or optical drive, has no moving parts. Most connect to the PC via a built-in USB port. Storage capacity ranges from as small as 16MB to as much as 64GB and more. Flash drives can be written and rewritten to an almost unlimited number of times, much like a standard hard drive. Also Known As: pen drive, USB drive, solid state drive

Folders store files. They can consist of documents, photos, music, videos or anything else you can think of. You can create a folder for whatever you want to store there so you can find it easily later on.

Historically, font refers to a specific typeface in a specific point size and style. Therefore, Times New Roman Bold 12 points is a single font while Times New Roman 10 points is another separate font. Today, in common usage font refers to any digital typeface that can normally be rendered in a variety of sizes and styles.

Format can refer to the format of the document you are creating to the formatting of a disk. Different computer operating systems may require that they be formatted in a particular way to work with your computer.

A website where you can sign up as a member, and then post questions, comments, or other text.  After you type what you have to say, and post it, it gets written to the page so that everyone can see it.  Very often it is a good place to exchange your knowledge, or get answers to questions about that particular subject.Example. If there is a mobile board, and John types in "What is the latest greatest mobile in the market" ... then another reader who knows the answer, can type in their response.Mary can come back the next day, or next week, and look up her post, and see what people had to say. Also called Message Board.

Freeware is just like it says…software that is provided at no charge.

Frozen in computer-speak means ‘stuck’, won’t do anything. You can click on your mouse all day and the computer won’t respond because it is locked up or ‘stuck’. The computer is said to be ‘frozen’. The best thing to do in this instance is to hit “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” a couple times to reboot your computer or if that doesn’t work to simply push the power button until your computer shuts down. Wait a few seconds before turning on again.

FTP is an acronym for Fire Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to transfer files between two computers on the Internet. FTP is a simple network protocol based on Internet Protocol and also a term used when referring to the process of copying files when using FTP technology. Most newbies on the computer won’t have a need to FTP a file.

A gateway is like a bridge between computers. When you login in to Facebook for example, a gateway is formed that allows you access to the computer network that supports Facebook.

GIF is a format for photos and graphics that allows the images to be compressed (made smaller) such s those used for icons or avatars. Because they are compressed, the quality or resolution is not as great as it would be in another format but this makes it quite good where smaller images are required.

Google is a search engine (and is the most widely used around the world. In fact it is such a popular term that the word “Google” has even been used as a verb. Have you ever heard someone say, “Just Google it!”. Google helps you find what you are searching for on the Internet. You type something into the search field in Google and the search engine will get to work to help you find it!

A Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums.

The term hacker refers to a person who figures out how to get access to another’s computer. This is unauthorized access. Most people won’t get hacked but big companies or banks are often targeting by hackers which is why much so effort is put in to constantly updating computer security

It’s where you begin after you turn on your computer and go onto the Internet. It also refers to the home page of any website. Websites will have many pages that you want to visit, but when you click on ‘Home’ it will take you to the very first page of the website.

A host computer is one that acts as a ‘Server’ for other computers that are on a network.

Have you ever moved your cursor (mouse) over a link on a website? You might see a small hand in a white glove appear. Well, when you move your mouse over a link, which is called ‘hovering’. You are moving your mouse to a certain word or sentence and just leaving it there for a few seconds.

A ‘Hub’ functions like the hub on a wheel. It is a piece of hardware that plugs into your computer via a USB port and the hub itself has a number of USB ports that you can plug other external hardware to. For example, maybe you have a printer, a headset, a camera, and an external hard drive you want connected to your computer most of the time but you don’t have enough USB ports. So, you buy a hub, plug it into your computer and plug everything else into the hub. Think of it like a surge plug that has many different spots to plug in all your computer components.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a type of computer language that is primarily used for files that are posted on the internet and viewed by web browsers. HTML files can also be sent via email. Although it may seem complex to the uninitiated, HTML is relatively simple. All text, graphics, and design elements of a web page are “tagged” with codes that instruct the web browser how to display the files. Such files are easy to recognize because they contain the file extension such as ‘html’ or ‘htm.’

This refers to ‘HyperText Transfer Protocol’. Quite simply, this is seen as http://theURL you want to go to.com. It is an address and the http// is a request by your computer to the server of the website you are looking for. When the server receives it, it lets you view the site or page you were looking for.

This is much the same as HTTP except for one very important feature. HTTPS means ‘HyperText Transport Protcol Secure’. This means that the data transferred on the site that has https:// is secure. This is important for when you make purchases on the Internet or do your banking. Always look for the HTTPS and not HTTP. Now, every page on the site doesn’t need to be secure, just the pages where information is entered or displayed that needs to be secure.

A hyperlink is a word, a photo or graphic, or a sentence that when clicked on takes you to another page or a specific place on the current site will open. The shortened version of this term is “link.”

Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts. An example would be how we link one of our terms in our glossary to another term in the same glossary. This is considered a hypertext link.

M is the acronym for ‘Instant Message’. This is a message that you can send instantly rather than sending an email and waiting for an email response. If you subscribe to a messaging service like MSN or Skype, you can see if a friend is online and you can send them a message and they can write back immediately if they too are online. Another commonly known term is instant chat.

An inbox is the main folder that your incoming mail gets stored in. Whether you check your mail through a webmail interface or use a program like Outlook or Mac OS X Mail, each downloaded message gets stored in your inbox.
Outlook is the most popular email client and is part of the Microsoft Office suite

An installer program is what actually installs your software programs. In many cases the information in the files of your software program needs to be unloaded from files and the installer program is what does that for you.

Intellectual Property refers to the ownership of creative ideas, designs, artwork, and writing to name just a few. Unlike physical property, intellectual property can be intangible. Intellectual property is protected by law just as physical property is.

This is a communication system that transmits data all over the planet via networks and computers.

Intranet refers to an internal network within an organization, like a company or school. The Intranet allows the computers within the organization t communicate with each other. The sites established within the Intranet can’t be accessed from outside the organization or company.

IP means ‘Internet Protocol’. This ‘protocol’ consists of rules for the transmission of data by way of the Internet.

IT refers to ‘Information Technology’. IT refers to just about anything related to computers including software, hardware, and the Internet.

iTunes is a program that was developed by Apple Computer company that allows users to not just play music on your computer but to also import music from CD’s. iTunes allows you to store and watch videos and photos. You can buy music and download it onto your computer and you can then transfer that music to an iPod or other portable audio playback device like a mobile phone. iTunes can also play the radio from your computer and a number of other media sources.

IP is a code that identifies a computer on the Internet. Every computer needs one, otherwise how could your computer be found out of the millions in the world? A computer’s IP address consists of a series of numbers in groups and each group is separated from the other by a dot.

JavaScript is simply a programming language used by some programs and websites. Its main use is for the creation of dynamic (changing), interactive websites.

JPEG is a media format most commonly used with photos. Jpeg is an acronym for ‘Joint Photographic Experts Group’. It is a compressed image format.

Some keys on the keyboard when used together are a ‘shortcut’ to performing a certain function. For example if you click ‘Ctrl + P’ this is the short cut to ‘Print’.

LAN is ‘Local Area Network’ which is a computer network that is confined to a small area such as a private home, school or small office. It is usually established with the use of an ‘ethernet’ but there are wireless LAN’s now as well.

A Link is a word or phrase that is connected to another page or website so that when you click on it, you will be taken to that other page or website. You can identify a link because it is usually underlined and is also a different color than the rest of the text. Another way to tell if a word is a link is by moving your cursor to the word and holding it there. If it changes to a little hand, it is a link. It can also be called a hyperlink or hypertext.

A login is a method of identifying you as someone who is authorized to access a given website or program. Most times Logins ask for a username and password.

Malware is the word to represent ‘Malicious software’. Malware are computer programs designed to cause you grief! They are designed to perform functions that you don’t want or that can damage your computer. This is a really good reason to be sure you have good antivirus programs installed on your computer.

A Megabyte refers to a number of bytes. It literally means one million bytes.

Megapixel refers to one million pixels which in turn refers to the resolution of digital cameras.

A Meta Tag is information about a website or page of content that you can’t see. The creators of the site or page of content use meta tags to help the search engines identify what the content of the page or website is about.

A Menu Bar is the horizontal strip that runs across the top of your page when you have a program open. The menu bar contains topic buttons, like ‘edit’ or ‘view’ or ‘file’. When you click on them drop down menus appear with a selection of functions you want to perform.

A Menu Bar is the horizontal strip that runs across the top of your page when you have a program open. The menu bar contains topic buttons, like ‘edit’ or ‘view’ or ‘file’. When you click on them drop down menus appear with a selection of functions you want to perform.

A website where you can sign up as a member, and then post questions, comments, or other text.  After you type what you have to say, and post it, it gets written to the page so that everyone can see it.  Very often it is a good place to exchange your knowledge, or get answers to questions about that particular subject.  Example. If there is a mobile board, and John types in "What is the latest greatest mobile in the market" ... then another reader who knows the answer, can type in their response.  Mary can come back the next day, or next week, and look up her post, and see what people had to say. Also called Forum.

MP3 is a format for audio files that has allowed people to be able to download digital music to computers and other devices like an iPod or iPhone. If you want to know what the full name is. MP3 refers to ‘MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3’.

MPEG refers to a file format for videos or multimedia because it might contain video as well as audio.

MySpace is another online social networking community. It is free and you can post photos, videos and create your own profile that others can visit. A good philosophy to have when using any social networking site is to never post anything that you would be embarrassed for others to see! It will hopefully keep you from posting something you will later regret but is too late to stop. Always think twice.

The most prominent types of name servers in operation today are the name servers of the Domain Name System (DNS), one of the two principal name spaces of the Internet. The most important function of these DNS servers is the translation (resolution) of humanly memorable domain names and hostnames into the corresponding numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the second principal Internet name space, used to identify and locate computer systems and resources on the Internet.

A network consists of at least two computers connected to each other. This can be a physical connection or a wireless connection.

Offline can mean a couple of things. The most common refers to not being connected to the Internet. You might be working on something that does not require connection to the Internet so you can work ‘offline’. Offline might also refer to eternal hardware attached to your computer not being online, like your printer for example. You might want to print something but you forgot to turn it on, so it is ‘offline’. If it is ‘offline’ then your computer can’t talk to it.

Being ‘Online’ most commonly means your computer is connected to the Internet. It can also mean that any external equipment you have connected to your computer is turned on and can communicate with your computer.

If you have a software program that says it is ‘Open source’ it means that it is free to use by the public. If it is free to use, then it is unlikely to come with any support for technical or usage help.

When you want to send an email, when you click the ‘Send’ button, your email goes to your ‘outbox’ where it remains until it is fully sent to the recipient, such as the one use in Outlook part of the Microsoft Office suite

When you visit a website it is tracked by the website as a ‘page view’. In other words, you have ‘looked at the page.’ This is a way the website owner can tell how many visitors it has had to the website.

A password refers to a word, numbers or a combination of both that are used to identify a visitor to a site as one who should be given access to it. A password is usually the second piece of information required to login to a website. The first part is a username.

In computer lingo, ‘paste’ means ‘put it there’. If you copy something and want to put is on a document, you would ‘Paste’ it where you want it to go.

A ‘Permalink’ is an address or URL for a specific page of content or webpage. It is ultimately a ‘permanent link’. A good example of this is with blogs. When you make a post to your blog, each one will have its own URL so when you want people to visit that particular post, you can give them the link to it specifically, rather than just to the main page of your blog.

Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

Is a computer network administration utility used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an Internet Protocol (IP) network and to measure the round-trip time for packets sent from the local host to a destination computer, including the local host’s own interfaces.

Pixel refers to ‘Picture Element’. Pixels are actually very small dots that make up images like photos that are displayed on your computer screen. Many times in photo software, they measure your photos not by inches but by pixels.

Plain text means just what it says…plain. Nothing fancy here. When something is written in plain text, it means you can’t use things like bold, itlalics, underline.

The reason you might want to use plain text is that it takes up less space on your computer. It also means that you can’t use hyperlinks either.

Plug-in in the computer world, refers to an ‘add on’ to a software program that lets it do additional things…it adds an additional function to the software. An example is with the Firefox browser. It has multiple add-ons or plug-ins that add functions like easy access to Twitter and social networking sites to stop-watch functionality. The list is huge.

PNG refers to ‘Portable Network Graphic’. This is another format for graphics that is used when you want very high quality of your graphics. This format doesn’t lose detail when it is compressed.

Private Message. Various chat programs, and forums allow you to type in a message to another person online, pretty much the same thing as IM in concept. I've also heard it refered to as Personal Messaging.

A podcast is a video or audio broadcast that can be downloaded and played on your computer.

The most common reference to a Pop-Up is a Pop-Up window or screen that appears as an advertisement when you are on a website. They usually appear when you are about to leave a website because they want you to stay and buy! Another type of Pop-Up window occurs when you ‘right click’ a link or on your computer. When you ‘right click’ a menu appears for you to select a function you want performed.

In this instance, ‘Protocol’ refers to the way computers communicate to each other. Some of these include HTTP, FTP, and HTTPS.

Simply put a ‘Queue’(Q), means line up. So if you are in a queue, you are standing in line to wait your turn. Same thing here. Your printer will have a queue of documents to print. You can check and see what documents are in the ‘queue’ if you have a few things to print.

Quicktime is a program developed by Apple Computers for media. Some videos on the Internet may be recorded using Quicktime and you may need the program on your computer to watch it. You can download this free software at http://www.apple.com/quicktime

Have a look at your computer keyboard and take note of the top row of letters. You will notice that starting from the left, the letters begin with QWERTY. This is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English-language computer and typewriter keyboards.

Your ‘Refresh’ command is a good and useful one to know. Think of ‘Refresh’ as meaning ‘update’. Lets’ say you are on a website that is always changing, like a news website for example. You are reading what is on the page but you know that as the day goes on there will be more news but you won’t see it unless you ‘Refresh’ your page or close out of it completely and come back later. When you ‘refresh’ a page you are essentially ‘reloading’ the page so that you are viewing the most current version.

Being able to access and control your computer from another location.

Remote Desktop is a type of technology that allows you to view another person’s computer desktop. This is particularly good in teaching and training situations.

RSS in simple terms means ‘Really Simple Syndication’. This is a way to have dynamic content added to your website or blog. You might want to have a news program update headlines or if there is a blog you like and want to keep up with the content that is added all the time you can have an RSS feed put on your website or blog that adds this content to it automatically.

A Scroll bar appears when the contents of a page or window are too big to see within that window. You have to be able to scroll down to see everything on the page. What’s interesting is that if all the information fits in the window, then the scroll bars don’t appear. If there is more information than can be seen in the window, the scroll bars will appear both on the right side of the window if page is too long and on the bottom if the page is too wide. Check your mouse and see if it has a scroll wheel in the middle. If it does you can use this to scroll through the pages instead of using the scroll bars on the right. It won’t help you if the page is too wide but certainly if it is too long, then you can use the wheel. This is referred to as scrolling the page.

A Search Engine helps you find things on the Internet. Search Engines include Google, Lycos, Alta Vista, Excite and Yahoo to name a few. They create an index (database) of websites that they can then use to help you find what you are searching for.

SEO means ‘Search Engine Optimization’. In short, this term refers to making your website or content easy to find by containing information relevant to the topic of your website, content or blog. The more you make your site relevant and use the SEO strategies properly, your site will rank higher with the search engines and when this happens, you get more traffic or visitors to your site.

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs (and their users) in the same or other computers.

Shareware, as the name suggests is software that you can use for a given amount of time to give you some time to see if you want to buy or not. It’s ‘try before you buy’.

When the trial period is over you need to pay for it if you want to continue to use it. If you don’t pay for it, then there is usually a built in program that stops certain functionality of it so you can’t use it to the full extent it was designed.

In order to regain all the functions you would need to purchase their item and then the owner of that software would send you a license or activation key that you would then enter to register your product. 

A Site Map is just that…a map of a website. It is an overview of the site that gives visitors to the site a way to easily locate the particular section they want to access.

Skype is an IP telephone service provider that offers free calling between subscribers and low-cost calling to people who don’t use the service. In addition to standard telephone calls, Skype enables file transfers, texting, video chat and video conferencing.

Is a way for people around the world to connect with one another, to share things about themselves or to share photos and videos. This is a community although virtual, since it in on the Web.

Software is the opposite of hardware. Another name for software is a computer program. They are programs or applications that you install on your computer to perform certain functions.

Source code is the language that a program is written in. It tells the program what to do and it is the developers of the program that write the Source Code

Spam is junk mail. You probably don’t like getting junk mail in your mailbox at home and this is just as bad. No one enjoys receiving junk mail so don’t send it. Spamming is not a good thing and you don’t want to get a reputation of sending it.

A spider is in fact a computer software program that searches the Web (can you see why it’s called a spider) that locates and indexes websites for search engines. Spiders are also sometimes referred to as robots or even crawlers.

Spyware is software that ‘spies’ on your computer. It can collect private information like credit card details, usernames, passwords and more. It gets on your computer like computer viruses and the best way to prevent it is to have a good security program installed which will protect you from viruses as well as these other nasty programs.

SSL means ‘Secure Sockets Layer’. This is a protocol for websites that take information like credit card details over the Internet. You would want to know that your information is safe and that is what SSL means. This program actually encrypts the data you enter so no third party can see it. When you are on a website’s page that is asking you for your credit card or banking details, look in the address bar and you should see the URL begin with https:// instead of http://. The addition of the‘s’ means it is secure.

A status bar is most frequently found at the bottom of your computer window if you are downloading something, you may be able to watch its downloading progress in the status bar.

Streaming refers to data streaming. This means you can watch a video or listen to an audio presentation before it is completely loaded onto your computer. Sometimes you may start to watch or listen to something and it stops and then starts again. This is usually due to ‘streaming’. Allowing a file to completely download entirely can prevent the annoying stopping and starting of a video or audio.

In the world of computers, a tag refers to a formatting tool in HTML, the language of websites which gives instructions as to how that page is to be displayed. For example, there are certain tags in HTML that tell it to show a word in Bold, or underline, or to make it link to another page or website.

The task bar is located at the bottom of your screen between your ‘Start button’ and your ‘Systray’. If you are using a program in widows for example and have a few pages or tabs open, shortcuts for these pages will be found on the task bar. Click on them to access that particular page quickly.

A template is a document that has been pre-formatted for you. Examples where templates are nice to have would be a resume, business letter, calendar or a newsletter.

Conversation threading is a feature used by many email clients, popularized especially by Gmail, Google's web email service to keep conversations together.[1] It is also used by bulletin boards, newsgroups, or Internet forums in which the software aids the user by visually grouping messages. Messages are usually grouped visually in a hierarchy by topic. A set of messages grouped in this way is called a topic thread or simply "thread". A discussion forum, e-mail client, or a social networking site such as Facebook or news client is said to have "threaded topics" if messages of the same topic are are grouped together for easy reading. Moreover, threaded discussions typically allow users to reply to particular posting within a topic's thread. As a result, there can be a hierarchy of discussions within the thread topic. Various types of software may allow this hierarchy to be displayed in what's called Threaded Mode. (The alternative being Linear Mode, which typically shows all of the posts in date order, regardless of who may have specifically replied to whom.)

Tiff is short for ‘Tagged Image File Format’ and it is another of many formats for graphic images that can be used for a variety of computer platforms

The title bar appears at the top of your computer window that describes the window. If you are writing a document in Word, then at the top will be the title of your document followed by –Microsoft Word. If you are on a website, then the name of that website will be found at the very top on the left of the page, giving you the title of the page.

The toolbar appears across the top of your window that contains buttons or icons that you can select for certain functions. There might be icons to print, save, copy, select font and much more. The tools change depending on what program you are in.

A tweet is a brief posting by a Twitter member to let their followers know what they are up to or their thoughts at a given moment in time. They are brief because there is a 140 character limit of each post.

It allows its members to follow others and see what they are doing or how they respond to issues or feel about things. It acts almost as a mini blog. When you make a comment on Twitter, it is called a Tweet. Many people love Twitter for the fact that your answers can’t be longer than 140 characters to those that tend to get wordy aren’t given that option on Twitter!!

At social networking sites like Facebook for example, people need to ask to be your friend and you have to accept them as a friend or not. Later you may decide you don’t want this person to access your profile or be able to make comments on your site so you then can ‘unfriend’ them usually with one little mouse click!

When you ‘upload’ something, you are uploading to a website or server. It is the opposite of downloading which is downloading something from another computer or the Internet to your computer.

A URL is basically a web address. It refers to ‘Uniform Resource Locator’. It is the address of a website. Let’s say you want to go to Microsoft’s website. You would type in http://www.microsoft.com. http://www.microsoft.com is the URL.

A Username is a name you either assign yourself or which gets assigned that is unique to you and identifies you as someone authorized to access a particular website or service.

When you get a username you may also get a password and it is the correct combination of uername and password that allows you to ‘login’ to a private access website or service.

A computer virus is something you really want to avoid. A computer virus ’infects’ your computer and can cause all sorts of problems, including ‘crashing’. A computer virus can create enormous havoc so you must have an anti-virus (Link to Antivirus Term) program installed to protect to minimize the chance of infection.

VOIP means ‘Voice Over Internet Protocol’. What VoIP does is allows you to talk over the Internet instead of a regular phone line. You can talk to anyone without those long distance phone charges. There are also VoIP phones that connect to a device that in turn connects to your Internet connection and you can talk without even having your computer turned on. It’s a great tool to have.

Web 2.0 is a term coined to refer to the second wave of the World Wide Web. In particular it refers to the social media side of things. The addition of software to create blogs, to social networking and social media sites and the ability for the end user to use these programs has made this the generation of the Web 2.0.

A web host isn’t a person but rather a computer or many computers that actually store websites and then make them available to the Internet. If you want your website to be on the Internet then it needs to be hosted by a web host for this to happen. This is called a web hosting service.

The World Wide Web is nothing but web pages. They are pages or documents that are written in a hypertext language called HTML and then the web browser translates them into the displayed pages you see when you open them.

A webcam is a video camera which feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet or Wi-Fi. Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera for the World Wide Web gave the webcam its name. Other popular uses include security surveillance and computer vision. Webcams are known for their low manufacturing cost and flexibility,[1] making them the lowest cost form of videotelephony. They have also become a source of security and privacy issues, as some built-in webcams can be remotely activated via spyware.

Webmail is another way to access your email. If you use a program like Outlook for example, you set it up so that your email service provider sends the emails directly to your computer via Outlook. But let’s say you are away on vacation and you want to check your email and you didn’t bring our computer with you. Well, you can use one at the library or Internet café and you can login to a Webmail service. It will check your mail and you can read it on the web rather than in your inbox on your computer. This is Webmail. You can even send email from the Webmail service. Your emails are stored on a server with Webmail so you can download them to your inbox at another time.

A webmaster is the guru in charge of maintaining websites. They can also write and create your website or maintain it. Also if there are any technical glitches, they are usually the go-to person to fix it.

A website is a group of webpages that make up a website. You might have a home page, a resource page, a sales page etc. There is no limit as to how many pages you have within your website.

Wi-Fi refers to wireless networks and network components.

A widget is a small software program that allows you to add areas of functionality to your website or blog. You might have a widget that allows you to add social networking links, or resources link. You might have one that displays the local weather or even the news. There are thousands of widgets available to make your site fun and interactive.

A Wiki is in fact a website that people can update or add information to. You may have heard of Wikipedia which is a free encyclopaedia whose content is created and updated by people just like you. In other words it is created by the user. Some of the information in this Glossary came from Wikipedia, a great source!

A window refers to the area on your display screen that you see when using a particular program. When you click on the program and it opens up, the information appears in what is called a window.

A wizard guides you through a process, like installing software or even creating a document. Think of it as a step-by-step tutorial.

WordArt is a feature of Microsoft Word and it lets you do fun things with letters like shadows, outlines, and 3-D effects.

www is the acronym for world wide web. The Web is not the Internet. The Internet is a network from which you access pages on the world wide web.

Yahoo is another Internet Search Engine. And like Google, Yahoo offers other services and functionality as well.

YouTube is a website created by Google for people to upload and share videos.

A zip file is a compressed file. This is a way to make it easier to send a file that is really big. It can be sent ‘zipped’ and when received it is ‘unzipped’ to see all of the files within it.