Here is my attempt at trying to explain some web terminology in plain English!
Browser cache
A temporary storage area for data and images downloaded from the Internet when viewing a web page. By saving information to the cache, the load time will be greatly reduced when that page is revisited in the near future. For web designers making frequent changes to their web pages, it is often necessary to refresh the browser or clear the cache in order to view changes.
Client
The term ‘client’ in Internet terms is synonymous with the Web browser. The role of the client is to initiate requests to a server and to process and display the information received through a graphical interface.
Domain name
Domain names are often referred to as the web site’s address and they correspond to an IP address, which is a series of numbers. Domain names are unique and have to be registered before they can be used. A domain name has to be associated with a web-hosting package before it can be used to display a web site.
HTML
Hypertext Mark-up Language – the code or language that is used to write web pages. HTML has been superseded by XHTML or Extensible Mark-up Language, which has stricter syntax.
Web browser
A web browser is a software program designed to interpret and display the content of a web page, usually located on the World Wide Web. Common web browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Netscape. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AOL also distribute their own proprietary browser to their customers.
Web design
Web design is the design or designing of a Web page, Website or Web application. The term generally refers to the graphical side of Web development using images, CSS and XHTML. (definition from Wikipedia)
Web development
Whilst the term web development encompasses all aspects of web design, it is often used to differentiate the back end design and programming aspects from the front end design. Traditionally web development involves several team members with different areas of expertise, such as graphic design and programmers.
Web hosting
A service supplied by an Internet company to provide space on their web server for the web site files to be stored and accessed via the Internet.
Web Server
A server is a computer designed to accept multiple client connections and deliver stored data in response to requests from the client software or browser. The main purpose of a Web server is to ‘serve up’ web pages through an Internet connection.
