A Guide to Common Acronyms for the Web

Have you ever wondered what all those acronyms stand for that you see on the web all the time? Acronyms like FTP, URL, XML, and HTTP.. Some of them are understandable but some just don’t make sense. New acronyms are created everyday, so it’s hard to keep up with every acronym used on the computer. But these are the most common used acronyms. Well let me explain to you what some of these acronyms stand for. So let’s get started.

URL – Uniform Resource Locator
HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (This is what you will see at the begining of a web address in your internet browser.)
HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML is what many web designers use to create web sites)
FTP – File Transfer Protocol
DHTML – Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets (CSS is new in the web design world and you can do many cool things with CSS)
ASP – Active Server Page
BPS – Bits Per Second
BMP – Bitmap
CD ROM – Compact Disk Read Only Memory
CGI – Common Gateway Interface
CPU – Central Processing Unit
DLL – Dynamic Link Library
DOS – Disk Operating System
DVD – Digital Video Disk
DSL – Digital Subscriber Line
GIF – Graphic Interchange Format
ISP – Internet Service Provider
JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group
LAN – Local Area Network
MPEG – Moving Picture Experts Group
PERL – Practical Extraction Real Language
MIDI – Musical Instrument Digital Interface
PIXEL – Picture Element
RAM – Random Access Memory
ROM – Read Only Memory
SMTP – Simple Mail Transport Protocol
SWF – Shockwave File Extension
WWW – World Wide Web
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get (Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get Program)
SQL – Standard Query Language
SSL – Secure Sockets Layer
WAV – Windows Audio Volume

Those are the most common used acronyms on the web. There are many, many more acronyms but these are the ones you see the most. If you are new to Web Design you may want to keep these handy.