TGM Designs

TGM Designs created this glossary of web design and related terminology to help our clients to know and understand what services we provide. The terms cited are used regularly throughout Web development and design documentation. If you are starting a new website project then you will find these terms very helpful. This glossary's intention is to be relevant and beneficial to your understanding rather than be comprehensive.

W3C

An international consortium of companies and organizations involved with the Internet and the World Wide Web, responsible for maintaining web technology standards, such as HTML and CSS. It was "created in October 1994, to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability." Visit the W3C website for more information.

Wan

Acronym for Wide Area Network which is any Internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building. Two or more LANs are connected.

WAP

Acronym for Wireless Application Protocol which is a leading standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones.

.WAV

A file format developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM as the standard format for sound on PCs. WAV sound files end with a .wav extension and can be played by nearly all Windows applications that support sound.

Web 2.0

Describes a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the capability for people to collaborate and share information online. Web 2.0 refers to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving Web applications to users. Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information. Over time Web 2.0 has been used more as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis, and Web services are all seen as components of Web 2.0.

Web Accessibility Initiative

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) was started by W3C and its members in 1997, this initiative addresses web accessibility issues. Visit the WAI website for more information.

Web Analytics

The study of user activity on a web site or web application to understand how well it fulfils its objectives.

Web Browser

Software that enables the user to navigate the Web, retrieve documents, and follow links to other sites and documents. Examples are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape Navigator and Safari.

Web Client

A software program used to access web pages. Sometimes the same as a web browser, but often used as a broader term.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the guidelines built by the W3C WAI to address issues in building accessible web pages. Visit the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 website and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 website for more information.

Web Design

Web design is the creation or designing of a web page, website or web application. The term generically refers to the graphical side of web development using images, CSS and HTML.

Web Designer

A web designer is the one who creates the layout and prepares content for the website, including text, images, site architecture and multimedia.

Web Developer

A web developer may also be a web designer. The main difference is a web developer typically has more database, CGI, and programming experience. The developer creates the interface between the front and back end of a website. Web developers deal with the functionality of a website such as creating databases for the website or building shopping carts for an e-commerce website.

Web Host

A web host provides the service that allows you to store the information that makes up your website. A web host stores your website's information on a web server. Each time you type a web address into your browser , the browser asks for your website's information from the web hosts server and then the browser displays it on your screen.

Webmercials

Full screen animated ads accompanied by professional voice over and sound effects. Usually appear between web pages for 5-30 seconds and used for branding purposes.

Web Server

A server is a computer that delivers services or information to other computers. In web terms: A server that delivers web content to web browsers.

Website

A website is a collection of electronic pages generally formatted in HTML that can contain text, graphic images, and multimedia effects such as sound files, video and/or animation files, and other programming elements such as PHP, PERL and JavaScript.

Websphere

An internet infrastructure software known as middleware that enables companies to develop, deploy and integrate next-generation e-business applications, such as those for business-to-business e-commerce. WebSphere supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing.

White Hat SEO

The regulations that dictate what are legitimate and ethical Search Engine Optimization techniques and methods change frequently. SEO companies that operate within these guidelines are considered White Hat SEO Companies, distinguished from Black Hat SEO. They avoid deceptive methods, and operate ethically within this great business model.

White Space

White space, also known as negative space, is the open space between visual elements on a web page. The term describes the unused areas. White space gives the eye rest. Cluttered designs hinder clarity and tire the eye. Judicial placement of white space can emphasis page elements and help to direct the eye. HTML should not be used to create whitespace. Instead, cascading style sheets should be used for this purpose.

Whois

Whois records store the identity of the owner of each domain online, except for those that hide such information. Some domain registrars allow the ownership information to remain hidden or private, a feature often taken advantage of by large scale spammers.

Wiki

A type of Web site that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring.

Wildcard

A character used to substitute any character(s). Most often used as an asterix (*) in search tools.

Windows

The name for any of the graphical, mouse-oriented operating systems from Microsoft, available in different forms and versions for desktop computers (Windows 95, 98, XP and Vista), workstations (Windows NT Workstation), and network servers (Windows NT/2000 Server, 2003 Server and Server 2008). Due in part to it's popularity it has become the target of nearly all malware. While viruses exist for Apple OS, and Linux operating systems, very little spyware and adware has been written to infect them.

Winzip

A computer program for compressing and decompressing files. See ZIP.

Wireframe

A wireframe is a skeleton version of a website that depicts navigational concepts and page content. It is a set of cross-linked pages that acts like a functional prototype of the final website without the graphics. A wirefraame often has only sketchy text content. It is often accompanied by a tree diagram or flowchart of the website. It doesn't take into account visual design or page layout.

.WMA

Acronym for Windows Media Audio. It is an audio codec designed by Microsoft for use with streaming content at CD quality. It is designed to resist data loss that could cause signal degradation and can improve download times for audio.

.WMV

Acronym for Windows Media Video. It is a MS Windows Media file with audio and/or video and is used to download and play files or to stream content. The WMV format is similar to the ASF format.

WML

Acronym for Wireless Markup Language. This is a standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones, inherited from HTML, but based on XML, and much stricter than HTML.

Wrapper

A wrapper is a program that is installed on a computer system to limit access to certain programs and to log every request that is made to run those programs.

WWW

Acronym for the World Wide Web. This is the graphical, point and click part of the Internet. Software called browsers allows you to hyperlink from one site to the next with a click of a mouse. The Web is the fastest growing portion of the Internet and the most familiar part to most people.

WYSIWYG

Acronym for What You See Is What You Get.