An acronym for emotion icon, a small icon composed of punctuation characters that indicates how an e-mail message should be interpreted (that is,  the writer's mood). For example, a :-) emoticon indicates that the message is  meant as a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously.  An emoticon is also called a smiley.

Also known as Bulletin Boards or Discussion Groups, Discussion Boards are online forums where users can post messages.  Messages are usually grouped by topics and such topic groups are usually called threads.   

The term used for ads that appear usually on the top of the screen of a web page.  Usually will show up first when you load a page, and usually is flashy.  Sometimes additional window(s) will open up automatically leading you to full web pages for a particular product.  Clicking on this ad will usually open up at least one additional window to a we [..]

  A product name for courseware.  Courseware is a software program an instructor uses to deliver a course through the World Wide Web.  Other examples of courseware include WebCT, Course Compass, and Etudes.   

The name for software packages that allows us to explore the World Wide Web.  Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are two such browsers.

(Hypertext Transfer Protocol) The primary protocol for the World Wide Web.  With this protocol, you can access any web page on any public World Wide Web Server on the Internet.

Generally, any text that contains "links" to other documents - words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by the user and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.  The text is usually underlined or highlighted.

  The term used to describe those web sites that search engines CANNOT pick up, usually because to get to these sites you need to be at a particular site or domain, first.  For example, you can only retrieve certain census documents by first going to the United States census web site.    They are filed in a way that each individual page CANNOT be r [..]

A new trend where search engines charge money to companies or organizations or persons who want to make sure their web page is listed in the search results page.  Sometimes, there is an automatic guarantee the web site will be listed, but others may require a payment just for consideration.  Usually, these sites are placed in a special category and [..]

(Sometimes the term "metasite," "megasite," or "webliography" is used for such sites).  From having the scope of every subject to just to a particular subject, a Portal is a  web site where the creator(s) have taken time to find sites that are considered useful, may be rich in information, and are of fine quality.  Som [..]