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- Internet Glossary
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- BACK / FORWARD
- Buttons in the Netscape Tool Button Bar, upper left. BACK returns you to
the document previously viewed. FORWARD goes to the next document, after you
go BACK.
- If it seems like the BACK button does not work, check if you are in a new
Netscape window; some Web pages are programmed to open a new window when you
click on some links. Each window has its own short-term search HISTORY.
If this does not work, use GO to select the page you want
(some Web pages are programmed to disenable BACK).
- BOOKMARK
- Way in Netscape to store in your computer direct links to sites you wish
to return to. The equivalent in Internet Explorer (IE) is called a
"Favorite." To create a bookmark in Netscape, click on BOOKMARKS,
then ADD BOOKMARK. Or left-click on and drag the little bookmark icon (in
Netscape 4.6 and higher, to the right of the word BOOKMARK) to the place you
want a new bookmark filed. To visit a bookmarked site, click on BOOKMARKS
and select the site from the list.
- The equivalent in Internet Explorer to Netscape's Bookmarks is called
"Favorites." Most people find the Bookmarks program in Netscape
easier and more versatile to use than IE's Favorites.
- You can download a bookmark file to diskette and install it on another
computer. Select BOOKMARKS, then EDIT BOOKMARKS, then, in the FILE menu,
select SAVE AS. Follow procedures to name file and select diskette under
"To Save a Document to Disk" in the "Netscape
Essentials" handout. To do this in IE, select from the main browser
tool bar FILE, then Import and Export... and follow directions for exporting
to a file. Import (part of the same IE program) allows you to bring a
Netscape Bookmark file into IE as Favorites.
- For more guidance on Netscape's Bookmarks, please see Netscape Essentials.
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- BOOLEAN LOGIC
- Way to combine terms using "operators" such as "AND,"
"OR," "AND NOT" and sometimes "NEAR." AND
requires all terms appear in a record. OR retrieves records with either
term. AND NOT excludes terms. Parentheses may be used to sequence operations
and group words. Always enclose terms joined by OR with parentheses.
- See +REQUIRE or -REJECT TERM and FUZZY AND.
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- BROWSE
- To follow links in a page, to shop around in a page, exploring what's
there, a bit like window shopping. The opposite of browsing a page is searching
it. When you search a page, you find a search box, enter terms, and find all
occurrences of the terms throughout the site. When you browse, you have to
guess which words on the page pertain to your interests. Searching is
usually more efficient, but sometimes you find things by browsing that you
might not find because you might not think of the "right" term to
search by.
- BROWSERS
- Browsers are software programs that enable you to view WWW documents. They
"translate" HTML-encoded files into the text, images, sounds, and
other features you see. Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mosaic,
Macweb, and Netcruiser are examples of browsers that enable you to view text
and images and many other WWW features. They are software that must be
installed on your computer.
- CACHE
- A cache temporarily stores web pages you have visited in your computer. A
copy of documents you retrieve is stored in cache. When you use GO, BACK, or
any other means to revisit a document, Netscape first check to see if it is
in cache and will retrieve it from there because it is much faster than
retrieving it from the server. If memory allocated to cache in your computer
becomes full, Netscape discards older documents.
- You can change the size of cache, although larger cache may affect other
operations and is limited by the amount of memory on your computer. To
change cache size, select Options, then Network Preferences, then
Cache.
- CASE SENSITIVE
- Capital letters (upper case) retrieve only upper case. Most search tools
are not case sensitive or only respond to initial capitals, as in proper
names. It is always safe to key all lower case (no capitals), because lower
case will always retrieve upper case.
- CGI
- "Common Gateway Interface," the most common way Web programs
interact dynamically with users. Many search boxes and other applications
that result in a page with content tailored to the user's search terms rely
on CGI to process the data once it's submitted, to pass it to a background
program in JAVA, JAVASCRIPT,
or another programming language, and then to integrate the response into a
display using HTML.
- COOKIE
- A message from a WEB SERVER computer, sent to and
stored by your browser on your computer. When your
computer consults the originating server computer, the cookie is sent back
to the server, allowing it to respond to you according to the cookie's
contents. The main use for cookies is to provide customized Web pages
according to a profile of your interests. When you log onto a
"customize" type of invitation on a Web page and fill in your name
and other information, this may result in a cookie on your computer which
that Web page will access to appear to "know" you and provide what
you want. If you fill out these forms, you may also receive e-mail and other
solicitation independent of cookies.
- DNS ENTRY
- "Domain Name Server entry" frequently
appears a browser error message when you try to enter a URL.
It refers to the initial part of a URL, down to the first
/, where the domain and name of the host or SERVER
computer are listed (most often in reversed order, name first, then domain).
This is translated in huge tables standardized across the Internet into a
numeric IP address unique the host computer sought.
These tables are maintained on computers called "Domain Name
Servers." Whenever you ask the browser to find a URL, the browser must
consult the table on the domain name server that particular computer is
networked to consult. If this look-up fails for any reason, the "lacks
DNS entry" error occurs. The most common remedy is simply to try the
URL again, when the domain name server is less busy, and it will find the
entry (the corresponding numeric IP address).
- DOMAIN
- Hierarchical scheme for indicating logical and sometimes geographical
venue of a web-page from the network. In the US, common domains are .edu
(education), .gov (government agency), .net (network related), .com
(commercial), .org (non-profit and research organizations). Outside the US,
domains indicate country: ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), au (Australia),
jp (Japan), fr (France), etc. Neither of these lists is exhaustive. See also
DNS entry.
- DOWNLOAD
- Save to diskette.
- EXTENSION or FILE EXTENSION
- In Windows, DOS and some other operating systems, one or several letters
at the end of a filename. Filename extensions usually follow a period (dot)
and indicate the type of file. For example, this.txt denotes a plain
text file, that.htm or that.html denotes an HTML
file. Some common image extensions are picture.jpg or picture.jpeg
or picture.bmp or picture.gif
- FIELD SEARCHING
- Ability to limit a search by requiring word or phrase to appear in a
specific field of documents (e.g, title, url, link).
- FIND
- Button in Netscape Tool Button Bar at top. Searches for word(s) keyed in
document in screen only. Useful to locate a term in a long document. Can be
invoked by the keyboard command, Ctrl+F.
- FRAMES
- A format for web documents that divides the screen into segments, each
with a scroll bar as if it were as "window" within the window.
Usually, selecting a category of documents in one frame shows the contents
of the category in another frame. To go BACK in a frame, position the cursor
in the frame an press the right mouse button, and select "Back in
frame" (or Forward).
- You can adjust frame dimensions by positioning the cursor over the border
between frames and dragging the border up/down or right/left holding the
mouse button down over the border.
- FTP
- File Transfer Protocol. Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one
computer to another, intact for viewing or other purposes.
- FUZZY AND
- In ranking of results, documents with with
all terms (Boolean AND) are ranked first, followed by documents containing
any terms (Boolean OR) are retrieved. The farther down, the fewer the terms,
although at least one should always be present.
- GO
- Button in Netscape Menu Bar at top. Provides list of recent sites you
visited, retained for the current session only. Click on any site in the
list to return to the site. For a more permanent marker, make a BOOKMARK.
- HISTORY, Search History
- Available by using the combined keystrokes CTRL + H, a more permanent
record of sites you have visited/retrived than GO. You can
set how many days your Netscape retains history in Edit | Preferences |
Navigator.
- HOST
- Computer that provides web-documents to clients or users. See also server.
- HTML
- Hypertext Markup Language. A standardized language of computer code,
imbedded in "source" documents behind all Web documents,
containing the textual content, images, links to other documents (and
possibly other applications such as sound or motion), and formatting
instructions for display on the screen. When you view a Web page, you are
looking at the product of this code working behind the scenes in conjunction
with your browser. Browsers are programmed to interpret HTML for display.
- HTML often imbeds within it other programming languages and applications
such as SGML, XML, Javascript, CGI-script and more. It is possible to
deliver or access and execute virtually any program via the WWW.
- You can see HTML in Netscape by selecting the View pop-down menu tab, then
"Document Source." If you download a document as
"Source," the file will contain HTML mark-up codes and can be
viewed in Netscape and other browsers.
- HYPERTEXT
- On the World Wide Web, the feature, built into HTML,
that allows a text area, image, or other object to become a "link"
(as if in a chain) that retrieves another computer file (another Web page,
image, sound file, or other document) on the Internet.
The range of possibilities is limited by the ability of the computer
retrieving the outside file to view, play, or otherwise open the incoming
file. It needs to have software that can interact with the imported file.
Many software capabilities of this type are built into browsers
or can be added as "plug-ins."
- INTERNET (Upper case I)
- The vast collection of inter-connected networks that all use the TCP/IP
protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60’s and early
70’s. An "internet" (lower case i) is any computers connected to
each other (a network), and are not part of the Internet unless the use
TCP/IP protocols. An "intranet" is a private network inside a
company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would
find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use. An intranet
may be on the Internet or may simply be a network.
- IP Address or IP Number
- (Internet Protocol number or address). A unique number consisting of 4
parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2
- Every machine that is on the Internethas a unique
IP address. If a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the
Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain
Names that are easier for people to remember.
- ISP or Internet Service Provider
- A company that sells Internet connections via modem (examples: aol,
Mindspring - thousands
of ISPs to choose from; not easy to evaluate). Faster, more expensive
Internet connectivity is available via cable,
DSL, ISDN,
or web-TV.
Often these companies also provide Web page hosting
service (free or relatively inexpensive web pages -- the origin of many personal
pages).
- JAVA
- A network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that
is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded
to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of
viruses or other harm to our computer or files. Using small Java programs
(called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as
animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks. We can expect to see a huge
variety of features added to the Web using Java, since you can write a Java
program to do almost anything a regular computer program can do, and then
include that Java program in a Web page. For more information see
"Applets" in the matisse
glossary or search any of these jargon terms in the PC
Webopedia.
- JAVASCRIPT
- A simple programming language developed by Netscape to enable greater
interactivity in Web pages. It shares some characteristics with JAVA
but is independent. It interacts with HTML, enabling
dynamic content and motion.
- KEYWORD(S)
- A word searched for in a search command. Keywords are searched in any
order. Use spaces to separate keywords in simple keyword searching. To
search keywords exactly as keyed (in the same order), see PHRASE.
- LIMITING TO A FIELD
- Requiring that a keyword or phrase appear in a specific field of documents
retrieved. Most often used to limit to the "Title" field in order
to find documents primarily about one or more keywords. (Can be used for
other fields.
- LINK
- The URL imbedded in another document, so that if you click on the
highlighted text or button referring to the link, you retrieve the outside
URL. If you search the field "link:", you retrieve on text in
these imbedded URL's which you do not see in the documents.
- LINK "ROT"
- Term used to describe the frustrating and frequent problem caused by the
constant changing in URLs. A Web page or search tool offers a link and when
you click on it, you get an error message (e.g., "not available")
or a page saying the site has moved to a new URL. Search engine spiders
cannot keep up with the changes. URLs change frequently because the
documents are moved to new computers, the file structure on the computer is
reorganized, or sites are discontinued. If there is no referring link to the
new URL, there is little you can do but try to search for the same or an
equivalent site from scratch.
- LISTSERVERS
- A discussion group mechanism that permits you to subscribe and receive and
participate in discussions via e-mail.
- LYNX browser
- Lynx is a "browser" program like Netscape or Internet Explorer
that can access information on World Wide Web, but without access to images,
film, or sound. It is used often from slow modems to eliminate the need to
wait to download images and other features. Lynx allows you to read the text
of any WWW document, and to select hypertext links in these documents. You
can use Lynx to go to any WWW document, to fill out forms available on WWW,
to print and save files and perform many other tasks.
- META-SEARCH ENGINE
- Search engines that automatically submit your keyword search to several
other search tools, and retrieve results from all their databases.
Convenient time-savers for relatively simple keyword searches (one or two
keywords or phrases in " ").
- NEWSGROUP
- A discussion group operated through the Internet. Not to be confused with
LISTSERVERS which operate through e-mail.
- OPEN
- Button in Netscape Tool Button Bar at top. Window with blank box appears.
Key any URL and press the Enter key to retrieve a document. (You may also
"open" or retrieve a document by clearing the Netscape LOCATION
FIELD box above the document, entering a URL, and pressing the Enter
key.)
- PERSONAL PAGE
- A web page created by an individual (as opposed to someone creating a page
for an institution, business, organization, or other entity). Often personal
pages contain valid and useful opinions, links to important resources, and
significant facts. One of the greatest benefits of the Web is the freedom it
as given almost anyone to put his or her ideas "out there." But
frequently personal pages offer highly biased personal perspectives or
ironical/satirical spoofs, which must be evaluated
carefully. The presence in the page's URL of a personal name (such as "jbarker")
and a ~ or the word "users" or "people" indicate a site
offering personal pages with little or no oversight of the quality of the
content.
- PACKET, PACKET JAM
- When you retrieve a document via the WWW, the document is sent in
"packets" which fit in between other messages on the
telecommunications lines, and then are reassembled when they arrive at your
end. This occurs using TCP/IP protocol. The packets
may be sent via different paths on the networks which carry the Internet. If
any of these packets gets delayed, your document cannot be reassembled and
displayed. This is called a "packet jam." You can often resolve
packet jams by pressing STOP then RELOAD. RELOAD requests a fresh copy of
the document, and it is likely to be sent without jamming.
- PDF or .pdf or pdf file
- Abbreviation for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by
Adobe Systems, that is used to capture almost any kind of document with the
formatting in the original. Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader,
which is built into most browsers and can be downloaded
free from Adobe.
- PHRASE
- More than one KEYWORD, searched exactly as keyed
(all terms required to be in documents, in the order keyed). Enclosing
keywords in quotations " " forms a phrase in AltaVista, , and some
other search tools. Some times a phrase is called a "character
string."
- PLUG-IN
- An
application built into a browser or added to a browser to enable it to
interact with a special file type (such as a movie, sound file, Word
document, etc.)
- POPULARITY RANKING
of search results
- Some search engines rank the order in which search results appear
primarily by how many other sites link to each page (a kind of popularity
vote based on the assumption that other pages would create a link to the
"best" pages). Google and Raging
Search are examples of this.
- +REQUIRE or -REJECT A TERM OR PHRASE
- Insert + immediately before a term (no space) to limit search to documents
containing a term. Insert - immediately before a term (no space) to exclude
documents containing a term. Can be used immediately (no space) before the
" " delimiting a phrase.
- Functions partially like basic BOOLEAN LOGIC.
If + precedes more than one term, they are required as with Boolean AND. If
- is used, terms are excluded as with Boolean AND NOT. If neither + no - is
used, the default if Boolean OR. However, full Boolean logic allows
parentheses to group and sequence logical operations, and +/- do not.
- RESULTS RANKING
- The order in which search results appear. Each search tool uses its own
unique algorithm. Most use "fuzzy and" combined with factors such
as how often your terms occur in documents and whether in title or how near
the top of the text. Ranking is automatic in almost all systems. Alta Vista
Advanced Search and Disinformation permit you specify terms for documents to
rank first. allows you to SUB-SEARCH with the
same powerful effect as Results Ranking.
- SCROLL (DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT)
- Moving up or down within a document in your screen. Use scroll bar at
right. Click on arrow down or arrow up. Drag the scroll button down or up.
Or click on the page up or page down icons at the bottom of the bar. If you
need to scroll left or right, use the scroll bar at the bottom.
- SERVER, WEB SERVER
- A computer running that software, assigned an IP
address, and connected to the Internet so that
it can provide documents via the World Wide Web. Also called HOST computer.
Web servers are the closest equivalent to what in the print world is called
the "publisher" of a print document. An important difference is
that most print publishers carefully edit the content and quality of their
publications in an effort to market them and future publications. This
convention is not required in the Web world, where anyone can be a
publisher; careful evaluation
of Web pages is therefore mandatory. Also called a "Host."
- SERVER-SIDE
- Something that operates on the "server"
computer (providing the Web page), as opposed to the "client"
computer (which is you or someone else viewing the Web page). Usually it is
a program or command or procedure or other application causes dynamic pages
or animation or other interaction.
- SHTML, usually seen as .shtml
- An file name extension that identifies web pages containing SSI
commands.
- SITE or WEB-SITE
- This term is often used to mean "web page," but there is
supposed to be a difference. A web page is a single entity, one URL,
one file that you might find on the Web. A "site," properly
speaking, is an location or gathering or center for a bunch of related pages
linked to from that site. For example, the site for the present tutorial is
the top-level page "Internet
Resources." All of the pages associated with it branch out from
there -- the web
searching tutorial and all its pages, some pages on writing
HTML, and more. Together they make up a "site." When we
estimate there are 3 billion web pages on the Web, we do not mean
"sites." There would be far fewer sites.
- SPIDERS
- Computer programs, referred to sometimes a "knowledge-bots" or
"knowbots" that are used by search engines to roam the World Wide
Web via the Internet, visit sites and databases, and keep the search engine
database of web pages up to date. They obtain new pages, update known pages,
and delete obsolete ones. Their findings are then integrated into the
"home" database.
- Most large search engines operate several robots all the time. Even so,
the Web is so enormous that it can take six months for spiders to cover it,
resulting in a certain degree of "out-of-datedness" (link
rot) in all the search engines.
- SPONSOR (of a Web page or site)
- Many Web pages have organizations, businesses, institutions like
universities or non-profit foundations, or other interests which
"sponsor" the page. Frequently you can find a link titled
"Sponsors" or an "About us" link explaining who or what
(if anyone) is sponsoring the page. Sometimes the advertisers on the page
(banner ads, links, buttons to sites that sell or promote something) are
"sponsors." WHY is this important? Sponsors and the funding
they provide may, or may not, influence what can be said on the page or site
-- can bias what you find, by excluding some opposing viewpoint or causing
some other imbalanced information. The site is not bad because of sponsors,
but you they should alert you to the need to evaluate
a page or site very carefully.
- SSI commands
- SSI stands for "server-side include," a type of HTML instruction
telling a computer that serves Web pages to dynamically generate data,
usually by inserting certain variable contents into a fixed template or
boilerplate Web page. Used especially in database searches.
- STEMMING
- In keyword searching, word endings are automatically removed (lines
becomes line); searches are performed on the stem + common endings (line
or lines retrieves line, lines, line's, lines', lining, lined). Not
very common as a practice, and not always disclosed. Can usually be avoided
by placing a term in " ".
- STOP
- Button at end of Netscape's Tool Button Bar. Use to stop downloading of a
document.
- STOP WORDS
- In database searching, "stop words" are small and frequently
occurring words like and, or, in, of that are often ignored when
keyed as search terms. Sometimes putting them in quotes " " will
allow you to search them. Sometimes + immediately before them makes them
searchable.
- SUBJECT DIRECTORY
- An approach to Web documents by a lexicon of subject terms hierarchically
grouped. May be browsed or searched by keywords. Subject directories are
smaller than other searchable databases, because of the human involvement
required to classify documents by subject.
- SUB-SEARCHING
- Ability to search only within the results of a previous search. Enables
you to refine search results, in effect making the computer "read"
the search results for you selecting documents with terms you sub-search on.
Can function much like RESULTS RANKING.
- TCP/IP
- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) -- This is the suite of
protocols that defines the Internet. Originally
designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for
every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet,
your computer must have TCP/IP software. See also IP
Address.
- TELNET
- Internet service allowing one computer to log onto another, connecting as
if not remote.
- THESAURUS
- In some search tools, the terms you choose to search on can lead you to
other terms you may not have thought of. Different search tools have
different ways of presenting this information, sometimes with suggested
words you may choose among and sometimes automatically. The terms are based
on the terms in the results of your search, not on some dictionary-like
thesaurus.
- TITLE (of a document)
- Normally the highlighted header or title, usually underlined in search
tools. The title displayed in search engines is generally from the
"meta" field called title, which is not mandatory in HTML coding.
Sometimes you retrieve a document with "No Title" as its supposed
title; this is caused when the meta-title field is left blank.
- In Alta Vista and some other search tools, title: search also
matches on the "meta" field, which contains document descriptors
not displayed on the Web.
- TRUNCATION
- In a search, the ability to enter the first part of a keyword, insert a
symbol (usually *), and accept any variant spellings or word endings, from
the occurrence of the symbol forward. (E.g., femini* retrieves feminine,
feminism, feminism, etc.)
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator. The unique address of any Web document. May be
keyed in Netscape's OPEN or Netscape's LOCATION / GO TO box to retrieve a
document. There is a logic the layout of a URL:
- Anatomy of a URL:
| Type
of file (could say ftp:// or telnet://) |
Domain
name (computer file is on and its location on the Internet) |
Path
or directory on the computer to this file |
Name
of file, usually ending in .html or .htm |
| http:// |
www.lib.berkeley.edu/ |
TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ |
FindInfo.html |
- USENET
- Bulletinboard-like network featuring thousands of
"newsgroups."
- WORD VARIANTS
- Different word endings (such as -ing, -s, es, -ism, -ist,etc.) will
be retrieved only if you allow for them in your search terms. One way to do
this TRUNCATION, but few systems accept
truncation. Another way is to enter the variants either separated by BOOLEAN
OR (and grouped in parentheses). In +REQUIRE/-REJECT
non-Boolean systems, enter the variant terms preceded with neither + nor -,
because this will allow documents containing any of them to retrieved.
- XHTML
- A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext
Markup Language is a hybrid between HTML and XML that is
more universally acceptable in Web pages and search engines than XML.
- XML
- Extensible Markup Language, a dilution for Web page use of SGML (Standard
General Markup Language), which is not readily viewable in ordinary browsers
and is difficult to apply to Web pages. XML is very useful (among other
things) for pages emerging from databases and other applications where parts
of the page are standardized and must reappear many times. See XHTML.
All information above form www.lib.berkeley.edu/
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