Wildmoz Internet Glossary A-Z

Your Handy Glossary S:

Scrape or Scraping:
Scrape or Scraping are methods of copying data from a website. The main purpose of Scraping is to use the content copied to paste into the copier’s website. This can be done by a person or machine using bots designed for this purpose. U.S. law considers scraping illegal if permission is not given by the content owner.

SEO:
SEO, search engine optimization is best accomplished having good solid original content, then to telling the search engines about the good content you have. This is done firstly, using META tags with relevant keywords; secondly, META tags with relevant content of the page you are submitting. Submit your XML sitemap to the search engines so they know what you are about. Those are the simple, daily and weekly operations that make up SEO for the average website. Beyond these simple steps for SEO costs money.

Serial bus:
Serial bus is a communications method where data is sent along a path, one bit at a time, as in a series, a serial bus.

Serial port:
Serial port a connection point for peripheral devices to be attached to a computer, through which data transmission occurs one bit at a time.

SERP:
SERP, search engine results page, is the page of results you receive, when you search for a word on the Internet and are the results given to you by the search engine.

Server:
Server, a computer which is designed to generate information for connected users i.e. clients. In the context of the Web, this refers to a Website that delivers Web pages to users. This is usually the service of a website host or domain host. See Host in this glossary.

Screen reader:
Screen reader; computer software that speaks text on the screen using audio speakers. Mostly used by individuals who are visually impaired.

Script:
Script; a program on the computer carried out by a scripting program through a set of instructions. The scripting language is run when the scripting program is activated by the operator at run time. Also some programs are activated by a browser at run time as well. Scripting is a run time application as opposed to an executable format.

Scroll:
Scroll is to move text and images on a computer screen in a constant direction–down, up, right, or left as well as to scroll with a mouse wheel.

Shareware:
Shareware is free-ware and can be downloaded from anywhere on the net. These are programs that producers allow to be distributed free to all. The usual requirement is a small donation to the producer or if you are poor, you can write or review that program in lieu payment. In such a way, the producer is rewarded by having their software viewed by others, who will then also use the program and they will contribute to the producer.

Sitemap:
There are two basic kinds of sitemap:

1. A web page sitemap, designed as an aid to the visitor of a website, if that sitemap is created for navigation of that website. A sitemap page on a website has links to all the pages and content in that website using hyperlinks.

2. An XML sitemap is generally created for the search engines, notifying them of the content of your website and hopefully aiding your traffic. This XML generated sitemap is not seen by the visitor, although very necessary if you use webmaster tools. The sitemaps needed for optimum coverage and best results are as follows;

/sitemap.xml,        /sitemap-index.xml,        /sitemap-image.xml,        /sitemap-misc.xml     also a sitemap of an author site if you have one /sitemap-authors.xml

Don’t tend towards plugging the webmaster tools with too many  sitemaps, because that is not necessary and rather unwelcoming to the SERP’s. It is like an author plugging his latest book during a TV interview, irritating the host and the TV station.

Slug:
Slug is the suffix of a URL that directs the main address to a specific website page or blog post. The slug indicates and delivers the address pertaining to a slug. For example http ‘colon’ //www ‘dot’ example ‘dot’ com/home “home” is the slug for this home page example.

Software:
Software is the program/s needed by any computer to function as a computer. Software is a program that is written in code to instruct hardware to function in a certain way, that the designer or programmer intended for it to function. See Hardware in this glossary.

Source code:
Source code is the program written for the computer by a programmer. This program code is the source code, that must be translated into machine language for the computer, by using a compiler. The source code is translated to object code, also used in certain cases is an assembler. This process is needed for the program to work on the computer.

Spam:
Spam is targeted junk mail to your email inbox. Most commonly, this spam takes the shape of unsolicited bulk advertising or publicity. Spam is also found in the comments section of websites.

Sprint:
Sprint, see Hackathon in this glossary.

SQL:
SQL, Structured Query Language, is a relational database programming language chiefly used to query, update and manage data as well as modify the server’s configuration, if required.

Squeeze page:
Squeeze page is any page that is set up on a website, mostly by a marketeer for the purpose of leading the visitor to sign up for an offer. The visitor will need to supply their email address for that offer or another service offered. Simply put, this is an email harvesting ploy for rewards offered, such as membership.

Streaming Media:
Streaming Media is for example, to request a video from a website to play in a computer media player and can be viewed during the streaming i.e. while the video is still being downloaded. Before streaming was available, one had to wait for the video to finish loading, before viewing was possible. Streaming avoids the need to completely download before viewing is possible.

Style sheets:
Style sheets; see CSS in this Glossary.

Sync:
Sync in Internet, mobile devices and computer terms; using sync is best understood as similar to file backup and storage. To do a two-way sync for files, from the source, to the target directories or files is far better than copy paste. The reason for this is that in copy paste all the data is replicated, while in a sync data update, only the source data that has been updated is transferred to update the target data. This is done without interfering with the files that were not updated before the sync. Syncing is a much faster and a more secure method, mainly because there is no risk involved in changing your already saved files in the destination target. Other types of syncing on the net are cloud storage, password storage, such as to the host, as well as for mobile apps and much more.

System requirements:
System requirements should always be questioned before large software is downloaded to a computer. Check first what is indicated as the recommended system requirements for that given software program. This also applies to hardware plugged into the computer. Often hardware such as a monitor are bought and plugged into a computer only to find a partial display, because the graphic controller is too small to handle the new hardware.