Boolean or Boolean Logic: A system of math that uses computational operators, such as AND, OR,
NOT, and IF ... THEN to sort data. This system is
named after George Boole, an English mathematician who introduced the logic in
1847. Online it is primarily used to search and retrieve information. For
example, on the Web you will come across the chance to use Boolean logic when
using a search engine. These operators, when used in conjunction with keywords, enable the search
engine to retrieve highly specific results. For example, a search for
"recipe AND chocolate AND chip AND cookies NOT walnuts" will produce
recipes for chocolate chip cookies that do not contain walnuts.
Browser: A software
program with a graphical user interface that is used to access the World Wide
Web. Browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera, to name
a few.
Domain: The part of an internet address naming
convention that consists of a sequence of characters separated by dots. The
original five domain abbreviations (last three characters in URL or address)
are edu (Educational institutions), com (Commercial businesses), gov (U.S.
government), mil (The U.S. military), org (Other organizations), and net
(Network/Internet Service Providers).
Favorites or bookmarks: A direct link to an often visited
site, saved in your browser for easy access. Bookmarks help you
keep track of Web sites you frequently visit. They're considered by many to be
the best thing about surfing the Web. By bookmarking a Web site while you visit it, you can easily return to it later with a simple mouse click, rather than having
to remember or type a very long or sometimes
cryptic URL.
Homepage: The web page that opens up when
you start your Browser, or the “opening” web page of a web site.
Hypertext: Text on an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document
that has been organized to provide links between other elements of the same
document or other documents on the Web. Selecting a hypertext link (usually by
clicking the mouse pointer on the text itself) will display the linked
information.
Internet: 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 '70s—a worldwide network of computer networks.
Intranet: A private network, within a company or organization, that serves shared applications intended for internal use only (although some may be found on the
public Internet). As the Internet continues to become
more popular, many of the tools used on it are also used in private networks. For example, companies
now have Web servers that are available only to employees.
IP address: A computer’s unique Internet address, which usually looks like this: 128.223.142.14.
Most computers also have a “domain name” assigned to them, which represents
cryptic IP addresses with easier-to-remember words.
Links: Hypertext which, when clicked, connects you to
another web page. The web page can be on the same site or a different site.
PDF (portable document format): A
file type that is readable on multiple-platforms (Windows AND Mac, linux, unix,
etc.) with a free downloadable program called Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Portal: A Web site
that serves as a starting point to other destinations or activities on the Web.
Initially thought of as a home base with links to other sites in the same
subject area, portals now attempt to provide all of a user's Internet needs, in one location.
Protocol: A precise definition or procedural rule of
how computers interact with one another on a network. There are many different
information protocols:
HTTP (HyperText Transfer
Protocol), for transmitting text files in HTML; E-mail
(SMTP), for sending electronic mail messages; Usenet News (NNTP), for
having electronic group discussions; File Transfer Protocol (FTP), for
transferring files between computers; Telnet, for running programs on remote computers; WAIS, for
searching remote collections of indexed information; Gopher, for
browsing remote text information through a menu interface.
Search Directory: A Web site that provides links
to information organized into a categorical, alphabetical hierarchy. Yahoo! is the most popular
online search directory. Unlike a search engine, which uses bots to sort its
information and relies solely on Internet technology to operate, a search
directory is human-organized, meaning that real people actually edit the links
and classify them into the directory. The result of this distinction is easily
apparent when doing an online search: instead
of a search engine spit-out of hundreds of thousands of results (many of which
are irrelevant), a directory comes back with links that are more accurate and
better organized. If you don't know the actual URL of a Web site you want to see, try searching Yahoo! first; if you
still can't find any interesting, related information, then go to a search
engine (and take time to learn how to use the "advanced search"
feature).
Search Engine: A Web site (actually a
program) that acts as a card catalog for the Internet. Search engines attempt
to index and locate desired information by searching for the keywords a user specifies. The
ability to find information depends on computer indices of Web resources
(maintained in a database) that can be queried for keywords. Results can include pages, documents or
images.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The two main protocols of the Internet. In
order for a computer to connect to the Internet it requires TCP/IP communication
software.
URL (Uniform Resource
Locator): The address for a
specific file (page or site) on the web.
World Wide Web (WWW, or Web): The interactive
portion of the Internet, an information protocol that is used to send and
receive information. Information on the Web includes multimedia (movies,
pictures, sounds, etc.), hypertext (links to other internet resources) or text
(documents, files, etc.).
