ARPANET (Advanced Projects Research Agency Network)
the predecessor to the Internet developed by ARPA and the first worldwide network with packet switching
"The current public Internet owes a big debt to ARPANET, which was the original global network."
backbone
a central high speed network that connects smaller, independent networks
"Homeland Security is worried that an attack on the Internet backbone could cripple the country for weeks or
months."
BBS (Bulletin Board System)
a predecessor to modern websites, these were early online communities that users could dial into using a modem
"The network administrator ran his own BBS as a boy back in the 1980s."
cookie
a text file created by web sites which contains personal information about an end user
"The web's use of cookies is quite controversial because most users have no idea that their information is being
collected and stored on their computer."
domain name
the unique name which identifies a web site.
"The domain name of Microsoft Corporation is microsoft.com"
download
The transfer a file or files from a remote computer to the user's computer
"The professor asked us to download the example database from the school's server."
e-commerce (electronic commerce)
The term for buying and selling goods and services over the world wide web
"Although e-commerce started out small, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. "
emoticon
A symbol that uses the characters on a computer keyboard to convey emotion an email or instant message, such
as the smiley face :)
"One of the most popular emoticons is perhaps the wink and smile ;) which is used to convey irony or satire."
hyperlink
A document cross-reference technique enabling the retrieval of a related document or resource simply by
clicking on an underlined word or image.
"The man made a hyperlink from his personal homepage to his friend's business."
hypertext
any electronic cross-referencing document first prophesized by Vannevar Bush in 1945
"The woman asked her professor if the textbook was available as hypertext."
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
the coding or tagging syntax used to write documents for web browsers
"A good web developer will know most HTML tags without looking in a book."
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
the address which specifies the location of a file on the Internet
"One uses a URL to go directly to a particular web site."
upload
to transfer a file from a local computer to a remote computer
"The boy decided to upload a picture of his new girlfriend to his Facebook page."
WWW (World Wide Web)
a global hypertext system operating on the Internet that enables electronic communication of text and
multimedia.
"The World Wide Web is the best thing to happen to computing since birth of the PC."
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
an organization which develops specifications and guidelines for the World Wide Web.
"The W3C recommends that Web developers no longer use font tags in their HTML documents."