Letter: A
account
An area partitioned for a user of a particular host computer. To assure validity, account holders cannot gain access without using assigned login and password information.
Acquisition
Directly related to trial, acquisition is what marketers call it when you try something and like it. When you click on a banner offering a discount on CDs at CDNow, that's a trial. If you buy something after clicking, you've been acquired. If you're lucky, you'll start receiving great deals on the music you love (also known as "conversion").
Acronyms
Special acronyms are used for chat rooms, and to a lesser extent, email. If you want the full experience of a chat room, you should study up on your web acronyms or at least keep this cheat sheet handy.
Action
"One reason dynamic HTML (dHTML) is called dynamic is its ability to heighten the interactive experience. Because dHTML can utilize each action of the user (a mouseclick, a rollover, a keystroke), it provides a rich and transparent way to process this data. Before dHTML, form attributes would specify \"actions\" for a common gateway interface (CGI) program to process. One of the powerful abilities of dHTML is to pass JavaScript through a browser as a part of a form. For example, when a user checks a box within an HTML form, that click of the mouse can be the action that launches a new window to give or receive further data.
ActiveX
ActiveX is a model for writing programs. ActiveX technology is used to make interactive web pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static pages. With ActiveX, users can ask or answer questions, use push buttons, and interact in other ways with the web page.
Ad Clicks
A web page that presents an ad. Once the visitor has viewed an ad, he/she can click on it (see Ad Click). There may be more than one ad on an ad view.
Ad Views
A click on an advertisement on a web site which takes a visitor to another site, it is referred to as an ad click.
address
An individualized name (or number) identifying a computer user or computer. Used in network communications for the transmission of messages for a particular person or machine.
ADN
(Advanced Digital Network) -- Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased-line.
ADO
(ActiveX Data Objects).
anonymous FTP
Internet File Transfer Protocol tool allowing you to connect to a site, search through available files, and download any file, document, or program without having to establish a user-id and password on the system where the material resides. By using the special user-id "anonymous", the network user will circumvent local security checks and have access to publicly accessible files on the remote system. Most systems that permit anonymous login require the user's e-mail address as the password.
Apache
Apache is Unix-based, open-source Web server that is used to host about half the sites on the Internet. Originally, Apache was a Unix product, but now versions for Windows, OS/2 and other platforms exist. As with most open-source projects, there are numerous add-ons and tailored versions of the server available, which are created using the Apache module API. The name comes from its origins as a series of "patch files." Read Webmonkey’s Tuning Apache article for more details about Apache.
API
The application program interface (API) is a set of building blocks for programmers. It is made up of routines, protocols, and tools. Most operating environments provide an API so that programmers can write applications consistent with that environment. For example, developing software using the Windows API ensures that your user interface will be consistent with other Windows applications, making it easier for users to learn your new programs.
Applet
An applet is a small program designed to run within another application. Applets are useful on the Web because, once they are downloaded, they can be executed quickly within the user's browser. More than one applet can exist in a single document, and they can communicate with one another while they work. Java is one of the major languages used for creating Web-based applets.
Applet
A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The current rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.
application
Software that executes a particular task, such as word processing or spreadsheet analysis.
Archie
A program used to search files at FTP sites; there are currently about 30 Archie servers in the world.
Archie
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it.
Architecture
In Web design, architecture means the arrangement of a Web site's components. Taking the analogy of a physical building, if a Web site's individual pages are rooms, its architecture is the hypertextual relationship between the rooms within the structure.
archive site
A mechanism that renders access to a collection of files across the Internet; also, a computer on which such a collection is stored.
ARPANet
(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) -- The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60’s and early 70’s by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.
Array
An array is an indexed collection of data values. If an array is named monkey and i is an integer, then monkey[i] is one element of the array; monkey[2] is the third element in the array, since arrays always begin counting on zero. An array's value in JavaScript can refer to other arrays, objects, or functions. Arrays that are indexed by strings instead of integers (for example, monkey[matt] as opposed to monkey[2]) are called associative arrays.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange) -- This is the de facto world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.
ASP
Active server pages is a Microsoft technology similar to CGI that is used to create dynamic Web pages. Pages using ASP are created with VBScript, Perlscript or JavaScript, and integrated with the HTML of a page. The ASP code is then compiled on-the-fly by the server and outputs standard HTML. ASP is typically used to perform database access or other interactive functions that are interpreted by Microsoft’s Internet information server (IIS). Read Webmonkey's Introduction to ASP for a more opinionated look at this Microsoft tech.
Aurora
Aurora is the code name for the component of Netscape's post-4.0 browser. It helps manage different types of information. Using eXtensible markup language (XML) and the resource description framework (RDF) standard, Aurora allows you to use different types of files (Web pages, local files, shared documents) in the same environment. With this new feature, you can drag Navigation Center icons around like file icons on your computer, making it easy to mix and match data.
authentication
The process of identifying users before they are allowed access to computer systems or networks, typically by user-ids and passwords.
Authentication
Technique by which access to Internet or Intranet resources requires the visitor to identify himself or herself by entering a username and password.
Awareness
Awareness is how well-known a company, brand, or product is. Companies will typically set a goal for awareness (say, 80 percent of their target audience will recognize the brand name), and then spend as smartly as they can towards that goal.
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