The Multi-Headed Beast: Understanding Web Terminology

by | Mar 14, 2013 | Development, News & Culture

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How often do you attend meetings which take you further into the universe of web terminology than you care to go, specifically regarding the vocabulary that others are employing? ; Do you find yourself wishing to do more than nod vaguely during these meetings? Sure, much of what you are hearing sounds familiar, but are you concerned that you don ‘t comprehend what those acronyms actually mean?

Well, don ‘t fret. Nobody can be an expert in everything, and we all must concentrate on our priorities. Besides, web terminology is like a multi-headed beast. Much of it is an amalgamation of many similar labels.Web terminology is like a multi-headed beast.

We have all heard web terms that are so common to our everyday language that we assume that we grasp their definitions. Let ‘s consider something simple. I bet that if I asked you if you know the difference between an IP address and a domain name, your response would be, “Of course I know what an IP address is! “

Oh, really? Let ‘s look at it closely.

  • Every computer on a network has an IP address. Think of it as your computer ‘s mailing address, and no two computers share the exact same address.
  • Don ‘t confuse the IP address with a domain name, which translates the IP address from numbers into a place name.
  • Technically, the IP address is the authentic verifier of a web server, whereas the domain name is simply a friendly way to help people find where they are going on the web. For example, CNN ‘s IP address is 157.166.255.19. However, in order to find it, you would simply type in its domain name CNN.com.
  • Domain and IP address are separate entities, but they coexist together in the minds of the average web user. This is also true of the URL (or Uniform Resource Locater), which features considerably more information than a domain name, and takes you to a specific page on that domain. These are but three heads on the same beast. There are many more examples like these lurking out there, with far more appendages.
  • Maintaining a web based businessinvariably means facing manyweb based terms and phrases which seem interchangeable, and the more you delve into the exact definition of one, the likelier it becomes that you will have to confront yet another. Relax. Knowing that you will probably never grasp the entire minutia which makes up web terminology is the surest way to tame the beast.

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