W

WAV
A standard protocol for voicemail messaging. (WAV stands for Waveform Audio.)
Web Browser
A software application used to make navigating the Internet easy for the user by providing a graphical user interface (or GUI) so the user can click menus, icons, or buttons rather than learning difficult computer commands. Also called a web client because the browser application resides on the client, or the computer of the individual using it, rather than residing on a web server.
Web Host
A company that allows individuals or other companies to use their server space to host web sites.
Webmaster
The person in charge of implementing and modifying a web site.
Web Page
A single document on the World Wide Web that is specified by a unique address or URL and that contains text, hyperlinks, and graphics.
Web Server
Computer hardware where web pages are stored and accessed by others using web client software, or the computer software that allows the user to access the web pages. See also server.
Web Site
A group of similar web pages linked by hyperlinks and managed by a single company, organization, or individual. A web site may include text, graphics, audio and video files, and hyperlinks to other web pages.
WWW or W3: World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is sometimes considered the graphical interface for the Internet, which is the network itself. Sometimes the web sites and their pages are called the World Wide Web. Often the two terms WWW and Internet are used interchangeably.

Also know as the web. A portion of the Internet that is composed of web servers that provide access to web sites and web documents.

The most important feature of the WWW is its inherent ability to link to any other part of the web. These links are sometimes called hyperlinks.
WYSIWYG
What you see is what you get. To display a document being edited exactly the same way it will be displayed on the web or in print.

WAIS
The abbreviation for Wide Area Information Service, WAIS is a Net-wide system for looking up specific information in Internet databases.
WAIS gateway
This term refers to a computer that is used to translate WAIS data so it can be made available to an otherwise incompatible network or application. Mosaic must use a WAIS gateway.
Web Browser
This is the software that allows a user to access and view HTML documents. Examples of Web browsers include Netscape, Mosaic, Cello and Lynx.
Web Document
An HTML document that is browsable on the Web.
Web Log
See blog
Webmaster
This term refers to the person in charge of administrating a World Wide Web site.
Web Node
This term is synonymous with Web site or Web server.
Web Page
An HTML document that is accessible on the Web.
Webspace
This term refers to the space created by the World Wide Web.
World Wide Web
Also known as WWW or W3, the World Wide Web is a hypertext-based Internet service used for browsing Internet resources.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
The organization responsible for managing standards for the WWW.
Learn more about W3C in our W3C tutorial

WAN (Wide Area Network)
Computers connected together in a wide network, larger than a LAN, usually connected via phone lines. See also LAN.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
A leading standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones.
Learn more about WAP in our WAP tutorial

Web Address
The same as an URL or URI. See URL.

Web Applet
A program that can be downloaded over the web and run on the user's computer. Most often written in Java.

Web Client
A software program used to access web pages. Sometimes the same as a Web Browser, but often used as a broader term.

Web Browser
A software program used to display web pages.
Learn more about browsers in our Browser section

Web Document
A document formatted for distribution over the web. Most often a web document is formatted in a markup language like HTML or XML.

Web Error
See Web Server Error.

Web Form
See HTML Form.

Web Host
A web server that "hosts" web services like providing web site space to companies or individuals.

Web Hosting
The action of providing web host services.

Web Page
A document (normally an HTML file) designed to be distributed over the Web.

Web Robot
See Web Spider.

Web Server
A server is a computer that delivers services or information to other computers. In web terms: A server that delivers web content to web browsers.

Web Server Error
A message from a web server indicating an error. The most common web server error is "404 File Not Found".
Learn more about web server error messages in our HTML tutorial

Web Services
Software components and applications running on web servers. The server provides these services to other computers, browsers or individuals, using standard communication protocols.

Web Site
A collection of related web pages belonging to a company or an individual.

Web Spider
A computer program that searches the Internet for web pages. Common web spiders are the one used by search engines like Google and AltaVista to index the web. Web spiders are also called web robots or wanderers.

Web Wanderer
See Web Spider.

Wildcard
A character used to substitute any character(s). Most often used as an asterix (*) in search tools.

Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98, Windows XP
Computer operating systems from Microsoft.

Windows Media
Audio and video formats for the Internet, developed by Microsoft. (See ASF, ASX, WMA and WMF).
Learn more about Windows Media in our Media tutorial

WINZIP
A computer program for compressing and decompressing files. See ZIP.

WMA
Audio file format for the Internet, developed by Microsoft. (See also WMV).
Learn more about media formats in our Media tutorial.

WMV
Video file format for the Internet, developed by Microsoft. (See also WMA).
Learn more about media formats in our Media tutorial

WML (Wireless Markup Language)
A standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones, inherited from HTML, but based on XML, and much stricter than HTML.
Learn more about WML in our WAP tutorial

WML Script
Scripting language (programming language) for WML.
Learn more about WMLScript in our WMLScript tutorial

Worm
A computer virus that can make copies of itself and spread to other computers over the Internet.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
An XML-based language for describing Web services and how to access them.
Learn more about WSDL in our WSDL tutorial

WWW (World Wide Web)
A global network of computers using the internet to exchange web documents. (See also Internet)

WWW Server
The same as a Web Server.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
In Web terms: To display a web page being edited exactly the same way it will be displayed on the web.





W3C

World Wide Web Consortium. An international industry consortium that develops standards for the world wide web.

WAV

An audio file format. Very accurate, but offers no compression, thus resulting in very large files.

Webmaster

A person responsible for the maintenance of a particular website.

whois

An Internet service allowing to obtain the information about the domain name owner.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A set of computers that are to far apart to constitute a LAN. In fact, WANs are very often composed of a number of Local Area Networks interconnected together.

WWW

World Wide Web (or Web) is the most popular Internet service. It allows access to the information and services from the web servers. A web browser is needed to use the Web.