A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
This is a journalism class. If you look in the AP Stylebook, you’ll notice that there is specific style for online-related words. Learn them.
When referring to websites in copy:
Generally, follow the trademark rule for sites that are clearly a brand and a trademark: Google, Yahoo, etc. For sites that are not a brand, such as the course website, refer to it as alex.j.newman.com. Do not use www. or http://. If a brand refers to a product and a website, use .com, as in the New York Times or nytimes.com. But remember, as always to write for clarity.
Adapted from The Associated Press Stylebook:
A file reader that decodes documents to the portable document format.
applet
Small programs that can be downloaded quickly and used by computers with a World Wide Web browser.
ASCII
An acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A numeric code used to represent the letters of the Roman alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks. Use of the acronym on first reference is acceptable if it is identified as a code.
Commonly, a unit for measuring the speed of data transmission by computer; actually the switching speed of a line or number of transitions made per second.
bit
Acceptable in all references as an acronym for binary digit. Actual data take the form of electrical impulses. These can be thought of either on or off or 1 or 0. The pulses are bits.
browser
Software that enables personal computer users to navigate the World Wide Web and to perform various operations once they are linked with a site.
byte
A computer “word” made up of bits. The most common size byte contains eight bits, or binary digits.
A World Wide website that enables computer users to message each other in an online conversation.
cookie
Term for special information about an individual computer user, stored in a file on a hard drive, ad usually accessed by a server when the user connects to a website.
CD-ROM
Acronym for compact disc acting as read-only memory
cyber-, cyberspace
Cyberspace is a term popularized by William Gibson in the novel “Neuromancer” to refer to tht edigtial world of computer networks. It has spawned numerous words with cyber- prefixes, but try to avoid most of these cutesy coinages. When the combining form is used, follow the general rule for prefixes and do not use a hyphen before a word starting with a consonant: cybercafe.
One word, in keeping with widespread usage. The collection all data used and produced by a computer program.
disc, disk
Use the disc spelling for phonograph records and related terms (disc jockey), optical and laser-based devices (laserdisc, videodisc) and for disc brake. Use disk for computer-related referenced: (floppy disk, hard disk) and medical references such as slipped disk.
DNS
Acronym for the domain name system, an international network of Internet domain servers, names and addresses.
domain names
The address used to locate a particular website or reach an e-mail system. In e-mail addresses, it is the portion to the right of the @ sign. It includes a suffix defining the type of entity, such as .com (from commerce, the most common suffix); .net (primarily for the network service providers); .org (organizations); .edu (reserved for educational institutions); .int (reserved for organizations established by international gtreaty); .arpa (reserved for Internet infrastucture functions). There are also country-code suffixes (such as .fr for France, .us for the United States). Seven more domain suffixes were approved in 2000: .info, .biz, .name, .pro, .museum, .aero, .coop.
DOS
An acronym for disk operating system. Spell out.
dot-com
As an informal adjective describing companies that do business mainly on the Internet.
double-click
download
To copy a file from one computer to another.
dpi
Dots per inch, a measure of print and screen resolution.
DSL
Acronym for digital subscriber line, for high-sped access to the Internet over a telephone network.
DVD
Acronym for digital video disc (or digitial versatile disc), sipliar to CD-ROMs, but able to hold more music, video or data. The acronym is acceptable in all references in most stories, but spell out somewhere in a story in which the context may not be familiar to readers.
Short form of electronic mail. Also e-book, e-commerce, e-business.
emoticon
A typographical cartoon or symbol generally used to indicate mood or appearance.
Acronym for frequently asked questions, a format often used to summarize information on the Internet. Spell it out in copy.
firewall
Software that monitors incoming and outgoing Internet traffic to your computer and checks for suspicious patterns.
FTP
File transfer protocol, a common procedure for transferring files on the Internet. The acronym is acceptable in second reference.
Acronym for graphics interchange format, a compression format for images. The acronym is acceptable in copy, but it should be explained somewhere in the story. Use lowercase in a file name.
giga-
A prefix denoting 1 billion unites of a measure. Move a decimal point nine places to the right, adding zeros if necessary, to convert to the basic unit: 5.5 gigatons = 5,500,000,000 tons.
gigabyte
A unit of storage capacity ina computer system, loosely equal to 1 billion bytes. Abbrev: GB.
A trademark for a web search engine.
A highly skilled computer enthusiast. In common usage, the term has evolved to mean one who uses those computer skills to unlawfully penetrate proprietary computer systems.
home page
The “front” page of a particular website.
hot spot
Two words, for descriptions of the area where computers can connect wirelessly, or for global trouble spots, or areas of intense heat in general.
HTML
For hypertext markup language. Lowercase in Web addresses.
HTTP
For hypertext transfer protocol. Lowercase in Web addresses.
hyperlink
A system of linking electronic documents.
hypertext
A system of linking electronic documents.
input
Do not use as verb in describing the introduction of data into a computer.
Internet
- A decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other. In later references, the Net is acceptable.
- Be acutely aware of the potential dangers of using information from Internet and e-mail sources.
- Be sure of the authenticity and correctness before using the information. All such electronic information – from computer disk data to e-mail to material posed on the Internet – probably falls into the “tangible form” category that is subject to copyright protection as well as libel guidelines.
- Use care, too, in copying online jargon and abbreviated forms, unless they are generally understood.Internet addresses include e-mail addresses and website designations. Follow the spelling and capitalization of the website and capitalization of the website owner.
- If an Internet address falls at the end of a sentence, use a period. (If an address breaks between lines, split it directly after a slash or a dot that is part of the address, without an inserted hyphen.) Use the http:// protocol at the start of a web address, as well as other starts, such as ftp://.
- When a story mentions a specific website or Web service, include the Internet address, the URL, within the text. This is essential information for the reader.
- Avoid URLs that are particularly lengthy and complicated, unless essential to guide the reader to a particular document.
intranet
A private network inside a company or organization, only for internal use.
IP address Internet protocol address, a numerical address given to a computer connected to the Internet.
A scripting language, developed by Netscape, designed to run inside Web pages.
JPEG, JPG
Acronyms for joint photographic experts group, one of two common types of image compression mechanisms used on the World Wide Web (along with GIF).
A unit of measurement for phyical data storage. In the metric system, a kilobyte is 1,000 bytes; in computer binary terms, it is 1,024 bytes. Abbrev: KB.
A software program for setting up and maintaining discussion groups through e-mail.
login, logon, logoff
A unit of storage capacity in computer systems, loosely 1 million bytes. Abbrev: MB.
megahertz
A measure of the speed of a computer processor. Abbrev: MHz
One wold in all cases for the computer connection term.
A smaller add-on computer program that works in conjuction with a larger application, such as a browser.
Portable document format, a file format for the Adobe Acrobat reader.
portal
A starting point for searching the Web, often offering services of its own.
protocol
A specification, such as http, that defines how computers will talk to each other.
Acronym for random access memory, the “working memory” of a computer into which programs can be introduced and then executed.
ROM
Acronym for read-only memory , a storage chip that cannot be reprogrammed by the computer user. Spell out.
A service that allows a user to find a website by typing in the topic.
server
The computer that is host to a website.
screen saver
Two words.
shareware
Software programs that may be tried without cost, but require a registration fee if used.
- Uniform Resource Locator, an Internet address. An example: http://politics.ap.org/states/mi.html
- http: is the protocol, or method of transfer.
- // indicates a computers name follows.
- politics is the server.
- ap.org is the domain.
- /states is the folder.
- /mi.html indicates a file (.html is the file type).
Usenet
A worldwide system of discussion areas called newsgroups.
A global system of linking documents, images, sounds and other files across the Internet. It is generally credited as the concept of the researcher Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the first practical system in 1989 at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The shorter the Web is acceptable. Also, website (an exception to Webster’s preference), Web page. But webcast, webmaster.