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On this page you will find an alphabetic list of internet terms and their definitions.

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Alt Tags

The small text box visible when a mouse is hovered over an image in a web browser, describing what the image contains. Useful in search engine optimisation.

Alpha Package

The basic search engine package offered by Andalucia Web Solutions. For more information on what is contained in the package please see Alpha Packages or for a quote please contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

ASP

Active Server Pages, Microsoft's technology that enables HTML pages to be dynamic and interactive and to draw information from a database. ASP is usually associated with Microsoft Windows Web servers and Microsoft Access Databases. ASP pages can be recognised as they have the suffix .asp

Beta Package

A package of search engine optimisation work offered by Andalucia Web Solutions. For more information on what is contained in the package please see Beta Packages or for a quote please contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

Bronze design package

The basic web design package offered by Andalucia Web Solutions including a single page website, hosting, search engine registration, and advertising links from Andalucia.com. For more information please see Bronze Packages, contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

Dynamic or database driven website

A website whose content originates from a database as opposed to a static website whose content originates from page files on the web server. Dynamic websites are easier to update particularly when large but have the disadvantage that they may not be search engine friendly.

DNS

The Domain Name System is the method by which the Internet resolves a domain name (e.g. andaluciaws.com) to the IP address (e.g. 212.67.207.152) of the server where the website is hosted. Changing the DNS record is the method of changing the hosting of a domain from one server to another.

E-mail

System to send and receive electronic messages. This is achieved using an email client program such as Outlook or Outlook Express or a web based interface such as Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. Email are usually sent through SMTP mail servers and received by POP mail servers.

Flash

Programme used (predominantly) to make animated or "movie" images within websites. Flash is developed by a company called Macromedia. Flash provides a slick professional corporate image but some users dislike having to wait to view information.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. The common method of uploading web pages to the internet. FTP details are the host, user name, password needed to alter or add a web page on the internet.

Gamma Package

The most comprehensive search engine package offered by Andalucia Web Solutions. For more information please see Gamma Packages contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

Gateway Pages

A web page that is created to be highly ranked in the search engines with the attention of leading web users to the main website.

Google

The market leading internet search engine. At one point boasted a market share in excess of 78% of all internet searches. Google’s market share has dropped, but it is still the ‘big one’ that search engine marketers focus on. Google went public with it’s controversial IPO during spring/summer 2004.

Hit

A request for a file by a web browser to a web server. Since files include images and graphics it is a meaningless statistic from a marketing or point of view although hits are often quoted in website’s promotional material to enhance the number of visitors or page impressions.

Hosting

Space provided on a web server where information contained in a website is made available to those searching the world wide web. Andalucia Web Solutions offers a number of hosting plans. For more information please see Hosting Plans contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

Html

Hypertext Markup Language. A programming language used in the construction of websites. It is really a mark up language rather than a full programming language. Static web pages are written in HTML.

Hotbot

HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place.

Internet (the)

The vast worldwide collection of computer networks that all use a common language called TCP & IP (Transport Control Protocol & Internet Protocol) to communicate. It that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's.

Java Script

A scripting language that can be including in web pages to perform calculations or to change images on a certain user mouse action. Java Script action are quick as they do not require a communication with the web server.

Key Phrases

When someone types a search term into a search engine, we refer to this term as a key phrase. For example, someone trying to find a real estate company may type “real estate Marbella” in the Google search box – “real estate Marbella” would be the key phrase here. More information on search engines.

Linux

A free version of the Unix operating system. Linux is “Open Source” software and is freely available over the Internet. It is primarily composed of tools developed over a 15-year period by Richard Stallman and Project GNU. However, the final spectacular push was provided by Linus Torvalds who wrote a kernel (completed in 1994), organized a bunch of programmers Internet-wide, and managed releases. It is known for its reliability and is popular choice for web servers. It is growing in popularity in office environment usage in spite of higher level of required technical support. IBM has adopted Linux as a standard.

Lycos

Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the web, launched in 1994. It ceased crawling the web for its own listings in April 1999 and instead provides access to human-powered results from LookSmart for popular queries and crawler-based results from Yahoo for others.

Microsoft

The world's largest vendor of personal computer software. Microsoft was founded in 1978 by Bill Gates and several others writing software for the emerging PC market. Success came with the contract to write the MS-DOS operating system for IBM who did not see them as a threat. Their present operating system Windows is now the worlds most popular operating system. The office suite of programmes (Word, Excel, Access, Power Point) form the backbone of its software product range.

Marbella.com

Local directory and internet provider offering information on the town of Marbella and it’s surrounding areas.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are a way for you to define your web page and web site to the outside world. You can declare the title, keywords and description, which help your placement in search engines. In addition, you can specify who owns the copyright, how often the page is to be visited by search engines and many other useful pieces of information.

MSN

Short for Microsoft Network, Microsoft's online service. Like competing services such as America Online, MSN offers e-mail, topic-related forums, and full access to the World Wide Web.

Open Directory

The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly known as NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able to use information from the directory through an open license arrangement.

Overture

Overture is the oldest major paid placement search engine. It distributes its listings to a wide-range of search engines, including that of its owner, Yahoo.

Open Source

Any software whose code is available for users to look at and modify freely. Linux is the best-known example; others include Apache, the dominant software for servers that dish out corporate web pages.

PHP

PHP (a recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source, server-side HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. It is typically used on Solaris and Linux platforms.

Platinum Package

The premier web design solution offered by Andalucia Web Solutions. For more information please see Platinum Packages, contact sales by phone on 952 897 865 or fill in our contact form.

Page impression

Each time a page is viewed within a website. The number of page impressions a website receives in a week (for example) is the number of times pages have successfully been viewed.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - A protocol used to send e-mail on the Internet. SMTP is a set of rules regarding the interaction between a program sending e-mail and a program receiving e-mail.

Search engine friendly

Compatibility with the way the various major search engines work. Without being search engine friendly a website will be hard to find. A search engine is a business like any other if it does not produce the results it’s customers need then market forces dictate it’s customers will go elsewhere.

Search engine friendliness is attempting to ensure a website "does what it says on the tin" in the eyes of the major search engines.

Text (search engine friendly)

When a key phrase for example "Marbella Property" is written into a search engine's search box, the engine will search for that phrase across the internet. It is important to include text relevant to the business or service offered by a website, written in a programming language that search engines find easy to read.

Unique Visitor

A visitor to a web site. Web servers record the IP addresses of each visitor, and this is used to determine the number of real people who have visited a web site in a given time period.

Ultra Costa

Minor search engine and directory serving the local market on the Costa del Sol, southern Spain.

World wide web

The large global collection of Internet servers which support hypertext documents coded in HTML, and transferred via HTTP.

Web Site

A collection of "pages" or files linked together and available on the World Wide Web. Web sites are provided by companies, organizations and individuals.

Yahoo

Acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"; a www directory which categorizes web pages, it is one of the Internet's leading search tools. The business created by David Filo and Jerry Yang of the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University is now a major web portal, content provider and web based email account provider.