AJAX:
It’s not just for cleaning sinks anymore. In the web world, Ajax is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (try saying that three times fast!) and it refers to a nifty web development technique for creating simple and elegant web applications or programs. The idea is to allow web pages to process small amounts of data “behind the scenes” so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This, in turn, increases the web page’s speed and usability.

BLOG:
A blog (short for "web log") is a type of web page that serves as sort of a public diary or journal for the writer. Typically updated weekly or better, blogs have become a vibrant, fast-growing medium for communication in professional, political, news, trendy, and other specialized web communities. Many blogs offer the viewer a way to subscribe and receive alerts to new postings.

CACHE:
(Also known as "temporary Internet files".) A folder on your computer where your browser stores the web pages you view as you surf the Internet. Storing web pages on your computer greatly speeds up your experience as you surf so you don’t have to download the same web page over and over again every time you visit it.

COOKIE:
A message from a website which is stored on your computer. The next time you visit that site, the cookie is sent back to the website allowing it to know who you are and respond accordingly. This is how sites like Amazon.com remember what products you were looking at the last time you were there.

DOMAIN:
A domain is a system used by the Internet to indicate the logical and geographical origin of a website. In the US, common domains are .edu (education), .gov (government agency), .net (network related), .com (commercial), .org (nonprofit and research organizations). Outside the US, domains indicate country: ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), au (Australia), jp (Japan), fr (France), etc.

DOMAIN NAME:
If you think of a website as a house, the domain name would be the street address. You tell your friends how to find your house by saying "123 Main Street". You tell a web browser how to find your website by saying “www.mywebsite.com”.

E-COMMERCE:
The ability (or process) for selling merchandise online. This typically includes the online equivalent of a trip to Target: the visitor browses through the product inventory, picks out the merchandise they want to buy, and pays for it all with a credit card. Except, of course, the seller then needs to package up the order and ship it to the buyer.

FLASH:
Flash is a popular programming language that allows the web designer to combine text, images, animation, sound and video into a single presentation. Flash began as a tool for creating websites (you’re at a Flash site right now!) but it has now become popular as a powerful tool for creating interactive presentations for uses such as sales tools and training programs. (Think of it as PowerPoint on steroids.)

FTP:
It stands for "File Transfer Protocol". This is a way to access a website that allows the user to upload or download many files at once.

HOSTING:
If you think of a website as a house, hosting is the land that the house is built on. A hosting company provides space on their computers (called servers) where you can store all of the files that make up your website.

HTML:
The standard programming language of web pages. This is the computer code behind all Web documents telling them what to display and how to display it. (Text, images, links, colors, photos, etc.)

JAVA:
A programming language 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 your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets") Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.

JAVASCRIPT:
A simple programming language developed to enable greater interactivity in Web pages. While it does shares some characteristics with JAVA, it’s is independent.

PDF:
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.

RSS:
(Also called “RSS feeds) RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and it refers to a syndication formats primarily used by news sites and weblogs (blogs). Any website can issue an RSS feed. By subscribing to an RSS feed, you are alerted to new additions to the feed since you last read it. In order to read RSS feeds, you must use a "feed reader," which formats the code into an easily readable format.

SERVER:
(Sometimes called a WEB SERVER) A server is simply a computer that is always running and always connected to the Internet. This is where you store the files that make up your website. Hosting companies own many servers.

SPIDERS:
A “spider” is an automated computer program (think: robot) that is used by search engines to roam the Internet visiting sites and databases. It keeps the search engine information up to date. These spiders find new pages, update known pages, and delete obsolete ones. Even though most large search engines operate several robots all the time, the Internet is so enormous that it can take six months for spiders to cover it, resulting in a certain degree of "out-of-datedness" in all the search engines.

URL:
The unique address for (or link to) any Web document.