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Glossary

Availability
Many hotels/airlines might from time to time set limits on their availability, particularly if they are offering special deals.

Bonded
Guaranteed or secure.

Confirmation email
An email sent to you by an online shop, airline or other website, which confirms the details of a transaction you have just completed. A confirmation email will typically review what you have just purchased, as well as giving additional information such as a flight reference, or delivery details. A confirmation email remains available in the longer term (once you receive an email, you can print it out, save it, etc.), and is typically used as a record of a web-based transaction, which is no longer visible after you leave a website.

Direct flight
Flight with none or some stops but no change of aircraft required.

Encrypt
Convert into a code.

Forwarded
Some web pages automatically load a different web page, either immediately or after a short delay. This then looks as if you have clicked on a link, without actually doing so.

Inbound
Return part of a journey.

Link
A link, or hyperlink, is a part of a web page that, if clicked with a mouse, opens a different web page. Links are usually shown in blue and underlined on a webpage.

Online
A word used as shorthand for ‘on the Internet’ or‘connected to the Internet’.

Outbound
Departure at the start of a journey/holiday.

Pop-up
Information that generally appears suddenly or unexpectedly. There may be an icon/picture to click on.

Search engine
A program running on a web server computer which creates and maintains a directory of web pages on the Internet. The engine has a web page with a form; you type in words describing what you are looking for; the engine looks up its directory and sends back a list of web pages that it thinks will fit your search criteria.

SSL
Secure Socket Layer -a procedure to convert information to code so that it is secure.

Status bar
The bottom line of a browser window. Usually, this is blank, except for ‘Internet’ on the lower right (when you are online) and a small logo at the bottom left. When connected to a secure server, a small padlock appears on the lower right. When you hover the mouse over a link, the address pointed to by the link usually appears here. (Tip: If you cannot see the status bar, click ‘View-Status Bar’ on the menu at the top of the browser.)

Ticketless flight
No ticket issued for your flight.

Vendor
The seller.

Web Browser
A computer program, running on the human user’s PC, which gets information from web servers and displays it on the screen. These instructions are usually in the computer language HTML.

Website:
A website is a collection of web pages which displays information on a particular topic. Common types of websites include company websites (all about a company), online shops (where you buy goods and services and pay by credit card) and personal websites (where individuals share their interests). A website may consist of just one page of information, but will usually contain several pages, all linked together. All the pages in a website usually share the same ‘domain’ name. For example, all the pages in the large online shop ‘Amazon’ have an address (URL) that starts with ‘www.amazon.com’
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