Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Domain? Your domain is the name you use to address your site. Also known as a URL or address.

 What is HTML? The language that is used to define and describe the page layout of documents displayed in the WWW browser. It stands for hypertext mark up language.

 What is a link? A word, picture or other area of a web page that users can click to move to another spot in the document or to another document.

What is a URL? (Uniform Resource Locator) This is the address to a site. i.e., http://www.smarterbydesign.com

 What is a host? The host owns the server where your files are uploaded to the World Wide Web.

 What do you mean by site relocation? Someone may have a site on a free server and then wish to move it to a server that allows www.yoursite.com, or may wish to move from one server to another for other reasons. When this occurs, your DNS (domain name server) information must be updated through your domain name registrar.

 What does a search engine do? If you are registered with search engines, they will direct users to your site when they search for a particular name or topic. Sites should frequently be re-registered with search engines. 

What are meta tags? Meta tags are invisible elements within the title that are "picked out" by search engines. Although meta tags are not seen by users as they browse your site, they are encoded in each pages's source code and should include keywords that direct users to your site. Without relevant and meaningful meta tags, search engines will not find your site easily.

What is a jpg (jpeg)?  An image file type that works with most Web browsers, especially suitable for photographs.

What is a gif?  Also an image file type that's particularly suitable for drawings and text.

What is dynamic information?  Information or data on a Web page that changes frequently, such as weather forecasts and dates. 

What is an RGB number?  The number, often hexadecimal, that indicates the relative amounts of red, blue, and green that are used to make a specific color.

What are navigation tools?  Buttons, links, imagemaps, or anything else that allows users to go from one page to another on your site more easily.

What is an imagemap?  Images or parts of images that you click to link to other information.  Also called a clickable image map.

What is a thumbnail?  Small image used to represent a large image, particularly if the smaller image links to a larger image.

What is streaming video?  Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive. Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. The user needs a player, which is a special program that uncompresses and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site.

What is JavaScript? A scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive sites. Although it shares many of the features and structures of the full Java language, it was developed independently. Javascript can interact with HTML source code, enabling Web authors to spice up their sites with dynamic content.

What is Flash® ? A bandwidth friendly and browser independent vector-graphic animation technology. As long as different browsers are equipped with the necessary plug-ins, Flash animations will look the same.

What is a plug-in?  A hardware or software module that adds a specific feature or service to a larger system. For example, there are number of plug-ins for the Netscape Navigator browser that enable it to display different types of audio or video messages.

What is a PDF?  Short for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by Adobe Systems. PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To view a file in PDF format, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free application distributed by Adobe Systems.

What is a pop-up window? A window that suddenly appears (pops up) when you select an option with a mouse or press a special function key. Usually, the pop-up window contains a menu of commands and stays on the screen only until you select one of the commands. It then disappears.