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Web terminology, like the web itself, is hard to pin down and constantly mutating. Thus, terminology can be fuzzy at times, leading to confusion or miscommunication. These are some of the terms that I habitually use when I discuss web design. I coined one of these---the undead link. Who knows, maybe it will catch on.
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Cobweb (page, site)
- A page or site that contains outdated information. There is no set interval at which a web page or site should be updated; the point is that the information should be current. If a page lists phone numbers that are three years old, that is not a cobweb page so long as the phone numbers are still correct.
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Dead Link
- A link that goes to an invalid uniform resource locator (URL). Clicking on a dead link will give you a
"404 Not Found" or similar error.
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Front Door
- The home page of a site; the way that most webmasters want (and normally expect) you to enter their site.
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Lame Link
- A link to a page that has moved elsewhere. Clicking on a lame link will usually give you some kind of "This page has moved to a new location" message and you will be presented with a new link which will take you to the desired page. Some sophisticated servers will automatically transfer you from the "This page has moved" message to the new location without any further interaction from you.
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Undead (link, page)
- A link (or page) that ought to be dead but isn't quite. You're surfing along, clicking here, clicking there, clicking everywhere, and you suddenly see a link that purports to go to the exact perfect collection of information that you've been seeking for days. Triumphant in your quest at last, you click on the link, and what to your hopeful eyes should appear but a stick figure man with a shovel (obviously a skeleton who has just finshed digging himself out of the cemetary) and an orange sign proclaiming "Under Construction." My friend, you have been bested by the dreaded undead! So you back out, mutter a few Exon words, and cilck on something else---until you find the next undead link and the next and the next, probably all at the same site---for the undead, as we all know, come in legions. At that point you send a flame to the webmaster (IF you can find a mailto link) and start again from somewhere more lively. You see? You've wasted time and money and raised your frustration to a new high. If only you could drive a stake through the black heart of the webmaster who raised all those undead!
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