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To help those who get frustrated with the jargon of the Web and the IT industry, we have listed some of the common technical terms.

• Internet

  A Network connecting millions of computers to provide worldwide communication for businesses and homes.

• World Wide Web (WWW)

  A subset of the Internet in which graphics, text, sound and animation combine to form a rich communications medium.

• Broadband

  A high-capacity, two-way link between an end user and access network suppliers which can support full-motion, interactive video applications.

• ISP

  Internet Service Provider, providing fibre-optic, broadband or dial-up access, hosting and email to the Internet.

• Hosting

  The process whereby your Website files are stored on a ‘server’ computer that is permanently connected to the Internet.

• Domain Name

  The name by which your Website is found; it is also the central part of the URL (see below) specific to you. e.g.. edgedata.co.uk.

• URL

  Uniform Resource Locator; the unique address with which your web pages can be found on the Internet. e.g.. www.edgedata.co.uk or for some browsers the whole code is http://www.edgedata.co.uk

• Navigation

  Usually buttons, graphics or text links on a page which, when clicked on, move you to another page, place on a page or another website.

• HTML

  Hyper Text Mark-up Language; the programming language with which the web page is written. First proposed by an Englishman, Tim Berners Lee in 1990.

• Javascript

  A programming language which, when embedded into web pages, helps to create special effects, interactive games, security passwords etc.

• Search Engine

  A software program that trawls through the web and indexes pages much like the Yellow Pages. Users can find the pages they want by accessing the search engine. The most well known and most used search engine is Google.

• Keyword

  A word (or phrase) that is important to your Website subject matter. Search engines use keywords to identify, and therefore index, the topic of your Website and its pages.

• Bandwidth

  The amount of information and data travelling down a communications channel within a given time period (also known as Data Transfer). Sometimes hosting companies charge for the amount of bandwidth your website uses. Therefore, choosing the right host for your website is important.

• Hard Disk Space

  Space on the device within a computer that stores data, files etc. Measured in Mb (megabytes) (approx one million characters) or Gb (gigabytes) (approx one billion characters).

• Browser

  Software that allows you to view pages on the Internet. e.g. Internet Explorer (IE), Opera, Safari and Firefox. The number of browsers has increased dramatically since the adoption of mobile devices that now have Internet access.

• FTP

  File Transfer Protocol, the standard of transferring data over the Internet. You often use FTP software when uploading information to a website.

• Pay per Click

  PPC, the best known example of which is Adwords in Google, is the sponsored links advertising which appears on the right of the screen on many searches and in the coloured section at the top of the list on some.

• Maintenance

  Monitoring of Search Engine rankings and updating of Website on a regular basis. An area in which Edgedata strives.