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

S

Secure server
A web server offering e-commerce facilities via a secure web site by use of technologies such as encryption and digital certificates.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines.

There is “good” SEO and “bad” SEO. Good SEO involves making the web page clearly describe its subject, making sure it contains truly useful information, including accurate information in Meta tags, and arranging for other web sites to make links to the page. Bad SEO involves attempting to deceive people into believing the page is more relevant than it truly is by doing things like adding inaccurate Meta tags to the page.

Server
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g. “Our mail server is down today, that’s why e-mail isn’t getting out.”

A single server machine can (and often does) have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.

Sometimes server software is designed so that additional capabilities can be added to the main program by adding small programs known as serverlets.

Shareware
Shareware software is distributed free, usually via the Internet. You can use it for evaluation purposes, but are trusted to send money to the authors if you want to use it regularly. Sometimes sending a payment brings a more powerful version of the software, together with access to technical support and future upgrades. For small software firms, shareware can provide access to markets without the need to invest heavily in marketing and distribution.

Shopping Basket
A software system used by websites that allows visitors to place their goods and products in an electronic shopping cart. Items can be added and removed very easily before proceeding to the ‘checkout’ at the website to pay for the goods purchased.

Signatures
When a file is passed through a message digest, the resulting output number is encrypted with your private key to create a digital signature. This can then be attached to the original file so recipients can decrypt your signature and check the message digest number to ensure the file has not been tampered with in transit.

SMTP
Simple Mail Transport Protocol, the agreed standard for sending email.

Software
Software is the program, or set of instructions, that tells a computer what to do. There are two basic types of software. The ‘operating system’ - such as Windows XP - controls the basic workings of a computer, while ‘application software’ - such as Microsoft Word, Sun’s Star Office and Adobe Photoshop - allows you to do particular jobs. There are also other types of software - for example, network software, which enables a group of computers to communicate with one another, and language software, which helps programmers to write other software.

Sound card
A device that allows a computer to play sophisticated audio files.

Spam
Unsolicited email advertising which targets many recipients simultaneously.

Spider
Search engine software that automatically scans the Internet, collecting information as they go, which is then indexed and stored on the search engine’s query database.

Spreadsheet
Software that allows you to store, compare and analyse large amounts of numerical data. Spreadsheets are commonly used for budgets, forecasting and accounts. One distinctive feature of a spreadsheet is its ability to project possibilities and answer ‘what-if?’ questions.

SSL
Abbreviation for Secure Sockets Layer. The most common standard for securely transmitting sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, over the internet.

Surfing
Slang term for the process of moving around the web. Now out of favour, because of its implications of directionless wandering.