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.

Case Sensitivity: Capital letters (upper case) or lower case (no capitals)

Chatroom: Allows multiple people to log on at the same time, can type messages which everyone else immediately sees. Conversations are held in the chat room as if the participants were all standing in a room together.

Cookies: A device which some sites use to record information about your trip to the site, the type of browser you are using and the way you move around within the site. Cookies are not necessarily an intrusion on your privacy – a useful and timesaving cookie could record the fields of a database you have shown interest in and then on subsequent visits give you information relating to these fields without you having to specify them all over again.

Favorites/Bookmark: A website you use often, or one you have just found and want to return to, can be made a favorite (also known as a bookmark). Almost all browsers allow you to add the webpage you are currently looking at to a list of pages which is kept for you between Internet sessions.

Homepage: The main or introductory page of a website.

Internet: A large collection of computers, connected together to allow them to share information with one another.

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 web page.

Navigation Bar: The navigation bar in a website provides a list of links to the various sections of that particular website.

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

Register: To register means to create an identity online. For many services, it is important that the website knows your name, address, phone number, etc. For example, if buying a book in an online bookshop, you need to provide this information. The online bookshop then records your details in a database of customers, which it later uses to post out the book to you. Registration is usually completed by filling in an online form, with fields for name, address and other information.

Search Engine: A program running on a web server computer that 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.

Spam: Unsolicited email duplicated to many people at once, usually involving advertising or offering services.

Text Alerts: A message sent to your mobile phone.

Website: A website is a collection of web pages that displays information on a particular topic. Common types of websites include company websites (information about the 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’.