Internet terminology

thumb|right|This screenshot shows the "Inbox" page of an email client; users can see new emails and take actions, such as reading, deleting, saving, or responding to these messages. thumb|When a "robot" on Wikipedia makes changes to image files, the uploader receives an email about the changes made. Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving digital messages using electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail (hence e- + mail).

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. PHP was originally an abbreviation of Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive backronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim navigates the site, and traverses any additional security boundaries with the victim. As of 2020, it is the most common type of cybercrime, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more incident

thumb|An email inbox containing a large amount of spam messages

thumb|upright|The first IRC server, tolsun.oulu.fi, a Sun-3 server on display near the [[University of Oulu computer centre]]

practice and strategies of increasing online visibility in search engine results pages

software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web

thumb|upright=1.2|A revision of a Wikipedia article shows a troll Vandalism on Wikipedia|vandalizing by replacing content with an insult.|alt= In slang, trolling is when a person posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a forum, a chat room, an online video game) or performs similar behaviors in real life. The methods and motivations of trolls can range from benign to sadistic. These messages can be inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic, and may have the intent of provoking others into displaying emotional responses, or manip

thumb|A residential gateway|gateway is commonly used to make an ADSL connection Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ADSL differs from the less common symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL). In ADSL, bandwidth and bit rate are said to be asymmetric, meaning greater toward the customer premises (downstream) than the reverse (upstream). Providers usually market ADSL as an Internet access s

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial intermediaries". In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.

HTTP error response code

thumb|right|upright=1.35|Fictional examples of "chumbox" style adverts, employing common clickbait tactics of using an information gap to encourage reader curiosity, and promising easy-to-read numbered lists

In Internet culture, the term brain rot describes digital media deemed to be of low quality or value, to such a degree that it is ironically spoken of as causing harm to the viewer. The term more broadly refers to the harmful cognitive effects associated with excessive or disordered use of digital and social media, particularly short-form entertainment AI-generated content, and doomscrolling. Popularized by Generation Z and Generation Alpha social media users, the term has since entered mainstream usage. In 2024 it was termed Oxford Dictionary's "Word of the Year".

Godwin's Law is known to be the oldest meme on the Internet, made by Mike Godwin. The memes meaning is to say: The longer an online conversation continues, The more of a chance there is to mention Hitler.

A webmaster is a person responsible for maintaining one or many websites. The title may refer to web architects, web developers, site authors, website administrators, website owners, website coordinators, or website publishers. The term is sometimes heard in tongue-in-cheek feminine form webmistress.

thumb|A fictional example of a doxing post on social media. In this case, the victim's personal name and address are shown.

thumb|Surface web in relation to deep web and dark web

online identity used for purposes of deception

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can publish their opinions and views.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which advertisers pay a publisher—typically a search engine or website—each time a user clicks on an advertisement.

thumb|upright=1.3|Mock-up of a "hard" paywall on a fictional news website

thumb | right | alt=alt=Refer to caption | Area Cartogram: Internet Users in East Asia, 2008 The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words internet and citizen, as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen." It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.

thumbnail|upright=1.2|Anarchist hacker village at a Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, 2018 Hacktivism (or hactivism; a portmanteau of hack and activism) is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. A form of Internet activism with roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.

terms for being connected to, or disconnected from, the Internet

Internet slang term denoting content suitability

digital link saved for easy future access, typically in a web browser

adage of Internet culture that, without a clear indicator of intent, one can’t parody extreme views such that some can’t mistake it for a sincere expression of the parodied views

Enshittification, also known as platform decay, is a process in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to both users and business customers to maximize short-term profits for shareholders.

WebSocket is a computer communications protocol, providing a bidirectional communication channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. The protocol was standardized by the IETF as in 2011. The current specification allowing web applications to use this protocol is known as WebSockets. It is a living standard maintained by the WHATWG and a successor to The WebSocket API from the W3C.

Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, threats, vandalism, solicitation for sex, doxing, or blackmail. These unwanted behaviors are perpetrated online and cause intrusion into an individual's digital life as well as negatively impact a victim's mental and emotional well-being, as well as their sense of safety and security online.

A form of internet marketing that involves promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages, primarily through paid advertising.

structured data and method for its publication

commenting walkthrough of a video game

thumb|alt=A photo of a person's hand while scrolling through news on smartphone|A person scrolling through news on a smartphone Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of time watching short-form content or watching large quantities of user-generated content or news, particularly negative news, on the web and social media. The concept was coined around 2018, and became more widespread in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) observed that the pandemic was accompanied by widespread misleading information, conspiracy theories, a

person who has grown up in the digital age

From the point of view of a given web resource (referent), a backlink is a regular hyperlink on another web resource (the referrer) that points to the referent. A web resource may be (for example) a website, web page, or web directory.

difficulty of refuting false or misleading information

thumb|300px|Screenshot of a typical photo blog

web technique

objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them

websites and pages easily accessible to user agents

In internet slang, rage-baiting (also ragebaiting, rage-farming, or rage-seeding) is the manipulative tactic of eliciting outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, and revenue, as well as attracting new subscribers, followers, or supporters. This manipulation occurs through offensive or inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments that provoke users to respond in kind.

period of time when a person voluntarily refrains from using digital devices

a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email, or an online advertisement

phrase separating reality from fiction or social media

Pages displayed by search engines in response to a query. The main component of the SERP is the listing of results in response to a keyword query. Pages may also contain other sponsored results (search engine advertising).

term used in the 1990s to refer to the Internet

visible and clickable text in an HTML hyperlink

effect that occurs when a popular website links to a smaller website, causing a massive increase in traffic

form of optimization

creating an email spam or phishing messages with a forged sender identity or address

thumb|Image showing Egosurfing Egosurfing (also vanity searching, egosearching, egogoogling, autogoogling, self-googling) is the practice of searching for one's own name, or pseudonym on a popular search engine in order to review the results. Similarly, an egosurfer is one who surfs the Internet for their own name to see what information appears. It has become increasingly popular with the rise of Internet search engines, as well as free blogging and web-hosting services. Though Google is the search engine most commonly mentioned when referring to egosurfing, other widely known search engines

technique for making a Web page available under more than one URL address

use of a linked object on one site by a web page belonging to a second site

style of Internet-based communication

the price an advertiser has to pay for 1000 ad impressions on a single web page

method to block host for e-mail spam

process of verifying that a new or existing account is owned and operated by a specified real individual or organization

hierarchical sequence of on-line discussion contributions (postings)