Techie Terms Part One

I had a great conversation with someone last week and she made me realize that not everyone knows these common “IT” terms.  So here is the first part of a two-part blog post on IT Terms, enjoy!

Affiliates – Website affiliates are what drive Internet Marketing. Companies run affiliate programs to generate leads and sales from other Websites.

API – An application programming interface (API) is a protocol intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other.

Archive – is a single file that contains multiple files and/or folders. Archives may be created by several different file archiving utilities and can be saved in one of several different formats.

Autoresponder – an email message that is sent based on a trigger; i.e. a purchase is completed, a user signs up for an offer, etc.

Backup – a backup, or the process of backing up, refers to the copying and archiving of computer data so it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.

Bandwidth – the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second (bps).

Blog – short for “Web Log,” this term refers to a list of journal entries posted on a Web page.

Broadband – refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most common types of Internet broadband connections are cable modems (which use the same connection as cable TV) and DSL modems (which use your existing phone line).

Buffer – contains data that is stored for a short amount of time, typically in the computer’s memory (RAM). The purpose of a buffer is to hold data right before it is used.

Cache – stores recently-used information in a place where it can be accessed extremely fast. For example, a Web browser like Chrome uses a cache to store the pages, images, and URLs of recently visited websites on your hard drive.

Captcha – is a program used to verify that a human, rather than a computer, is entering data.

Cloud Computing – refers to applications and services offered over the Internet. These services are offered from data centers all over the world, which collectively are referred to as the “cloud.”

CSS – stands for “Cascading Style Sheet.” Cascading style sheets are used to format the layout of Web pages.

Data Transfer Rate – commonly used to measure how fast data is transferred from one location to another.

Database – a data structure that stores organized information. Most databases contain multiple tables, which may include several different fields. For example, a company database may include tables for products, employees, and financial records.

Disk Space (Storage Space) is the total amount of bytes that a disk drive or disc is capable of holding.

Domain Name a specific name that you apply to your website. Once you apply it, users can reach your website by typing this domain name into the browser’s address bar.

Domain Name Registrar is an organization that manages the reservation of Internet domain names.

E-Commerce – (electronic-commerce) refers to business over the Internet.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a common method of transferring files via the Internet from one computer to another.

Firewall limits the data that can pass through it and protects a networked server or client machine from damage by unauthorized users.

Flash Drive is a small data storage device that uses flash memory and has a built-in USB connection.

GUI stands for “Graphical User Interface,” and is pronounced “gooey.” It refers to the graphical interface of a computer that allows users to click and drag objects with a mouse instead of entering text at a command line.

Hashtag is a number symbol (#) used to label keywords in a tweet.

Host a computer that acts as a server for other computers on a network.

HTML stands for “Hyper-Text Markup Language.” This is the language that Web pages are written in.

Interface can refer to either a hardware connection or a user interface.

IMAP stands for “Internet Message Access Protocol” and is pronounced “eye-map.” It is a method of accessing e-mail messages on a server without having to download them to your local hard drive.

IP Address also known as an “IP number” or simply an “IP,” this is a code made up of numbers separated by three dots that identifies a particular computer on the Internet.

ISP stands for “Internet Service Provider.” In order to connect to the Internet, you need an ISP.

Be sure to check out Techie Terms Part 2.

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Thanks for reading!

Enjoy your day – Susan