Internet Glossary

Active Server Pages
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).

Banners
Banners are the basic unit of advertising on the Web. They were pioneered by GNN and HotWired back in the frontier days of 1994 and are now nearly ubiquitous, appearing in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and locations.

Browser
Browsers are software programs that view Web pages and help you move through the Web. The browser that triggered the WWW explosion was Mosaic, a public domain graphical user interface (GUI) from the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). Released in 1993, Mosaic made it possible to design documents containing images for display over the Internet. Up to that point, an Internet document was basically just a bunch of text on a server. In 1994, Mosaic ship-jumper Marc Andreessen released Netscape 1.1, following Mosaic's successful lead, by distributing the browser free of charge on the Internet in order to establish a wide user base.

Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading style sheets allow you to define how Web page elements are displayed. Specific margins or colors can be associated with headers and links, for example. When style sheets are applied to a new page, the elements are changed according to the specifications of the style.

Eyeballs
The term "eyeballs" is a quaint reference to the number of people who see, or "lay their eyes on," a certain advertisement. When buying radio time, marketers refer to "ears" instead of "eyeballs."

HTTP
The conversation between browsers and servers takes place according to the hypertext transfer protocol, or HTTP. Written by Tim Berners-Lee, it was first implemented on the Web in 1991 as HTTP 0.9. Currently, Web browsers and servers support version 1.1 of HTTP. It supports persistent connections, meaning that once a browser connects to a Web server, it can receive multiple files through the same connection. The next version, known as HTTP-NG, or hypertext transfer protocol will improve upon the basic HTTP architecture by using modularity and layering.

Impressions
"Impression" is industry parlance for an actual ad viewed. For example, if there were three ads on this page, you would of just accounted for three impressions.

ISP
Short for Internet service provider, an ISP owns and operates all of the equipment (telephony, digital cable, servers, etc.) that allow you to connect to the Internet from your home or office. Most ISPs sell access to their services for a small monthly fee, which you can access by "calling in" or "connecting to" your ISP's computer network. Examples of large ISPs in the United States are Earthlink, America Online and NetZero.

Pageview
A pageview - a single screen of content - refers to the sum total of what a user sees in a browser window.

Rollover
Rollover is a widely used dHTML effect, its name originally coming from Macromedia Director's scripting language, Lingo. Internet Explorer 4.0 first supported rollover effects through Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) without requiring extra code. The dHTML mouseover works by switching the visibility of a CSS layer from hidden to visible and back again. This kind of rollover allows you to swap in text or plug-ins, as well as alternate back and forth between images to create the effect.

Template
The word template comes from a woodworking term meaning a thin sheet of metal with shapes cut out of it as a guide. Similarly, HTML templates are skeletal HTML pages with the main content left out. That way, you can quickly create a series of pages with an identical look or navigational structure but different content. When creating templates, it's always a good idea to use of a lot of comments (explanatory text within <!-- these tags -->) so others will be able to use them without much trouble.

Traffic
Traffic refers to the number of visitors a site receives. Since that's a number that can be tracked in many different ways, site marketers usually choose to put their best statistic forward, be it pageviews, visitors, impressions, or hits.

Typeface
Typeface refers to the overall design of a font 's characters. Courier is a typeface; Courier 24-point bold is a font. There are two general categories of typefaces: serif and sans serif. Serif typefaces use small decorative marks to embellish characters and make them easier to read. Typefaces without these little marks are called sans serif ("sans" is French for "without"). Helvetica is a sans serif typeface and Times is a serif typeface.

User Interface
A computer science term, interface is the point of communication between the computer and any other entity. User Interface, or UI, narrows that definition down to the communication between the computer and a human being. Web designers have taken the sense of this communication of inputs and outputs as a useful way to describe how a user is informed by the design elements on a page. A "good" user interface can mean that the design fulfills a user's expectations. A "bad" user interface gives you few clues about where you are or what you're supposed to do, leaving you with the sensation that you're drowning and don't know which way is up. This condition is known as Web vertigo.

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