Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ

A

Abuse: harassing, threatening, obscene, or otherwise objectionable content on a page that Yahoo! hosts, such as a profile.
Account settings: user-specified options that are stored with a user’s Yahoo! account information; these settings are enforced whenever the user logs in to the account from any computer.
Address field: displays the web address of the displayed page.
Alias: a unique name that identifies you to others when you don’t want to share your Yahoo! ID. You might, for example, prefer to use an alias in a chat room or on a message board.
Alert: a message signalling an error or a task that requires immediate attention, such as a virus alert.
All-day event: an event that doesn’t have a time frame, such as a birthday or anniversary.
Application: an application installed in Yahoo! Mail that enriches your Mail experience with photo sharing and editing, automatic message organisation, and much more.
Archive: a place to save a history of all of your instant messages, alerts, conferences, and text messages.
Ascending order: from smallest to largest; for alphabetical sorting, from A to Z; for date sorting, from oldest to most recent.
Attachment: a separate file included as part of an email message; for example, a multimedia or document file.
Audible: an animated character inserted in an instant message that says something out loud to your contact after you send your message, such as "Welcome" or "Dude!"
Avatar: a character that you can use when interacting with friends online. By changing hairstyles, clothes, accessories, and backgrounds, you can create your own unique persona.

B

Base name: the first part of your disposable address, which is common to all the disposable addresses you create.
Basic information: personal data in your profile on Yahoo!, including your first and last names, your display name, and your age, gender, and location.
Bcc: short for "blind carbon copy"; an email address in this field won’t be visible to any other recipients of the message.
Blocked address: an email address or domain from which you never want to receive messages.
Blocking: preventing others from sending you private messages or connection invitations through your profile on Yahoo!.
Blog: a personal or topical journal on the Internet that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption (short for weblog).
Bookmark: a link to a web page that is stored with a browser. Select a bookmark to go directly to the designated page.
Bulk folder: a permanent folder that SpamGuard Plus uses to hold messages it identifies as spam.

C

Calendar layer: a way to organise your events into manageable groups, including calendars you subscribe to. You could have a Work calendar layer and a Personal calendar layer and view them together or separately.
Case-sensitive: lower and uppercase letters are not treated the same; for example, "a" is not the same as "A".
Category: a group of closely related modules in the Yahoo! content directory; more specific than a topic.
Category: a group of contacts in your Yahoo! Address Book.
Cc: short for "carbon copy"; use this field to add secondary recipients to an email message.
CertifiedEmail™: a class of email that provides accredited commercial, non-profit, and government senders an easy and reliable way for you to identify authentic email messages from them.
Cleaning: removing a virus or other infection from your computer.
Client: an application that you install on your computer.
Clipboard: a temporary storage area in Windows that is used for storing various types of data (such as text, graphics, sound, and video). The clipboard can hold one piece of information at a time for use in an application or to cut/copy and paste information between applications.
Compose: to enter the text of an email message.
Compose page: the page in Yahoo! Mail where you address, write, and send email messages.
Condition: the part of a filter that defines what constitutes a matching message.
Connection: a person you spend significant time online with and with whom you want to share personal information. Connections have privileged access to each others’ profiles.
Connection invitation: a message sent to you through Profiles inviting you to become a connection of the person who sent the invitation. You can accept or ignore the invitation.
Connection suggestions: people that Yahoo! thinks you might like to connect with; usually people you communicate with most often through email or instant messaging.
Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
Content: information in My Yahoo! that changes on a regular basis, such as news items, sporting events, and the weather.
Content directory: the collection of available modules that Yahoo! maintains for users to browse.
Conversation: an exchange of instant messages between you and a contact.
Cookie: information that a web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time.

D

Deleted Contacts: a system category that temporarily holds contacts deleted from Yahoo! Contacts.
Descending order: from largest to smallest; for alphabetical sorting, from Z to A; for date sorting, from most recent to oldest.
Display image: a picture or Avatar that represents you in some way and that you share with your contacts during IM conversations.
Display name: a personal nickname of your choosing that appears on your profile on Yahoo!; protects the privacy of your real name from people you don’t know.
Disposable email address: a customised email address that you create to protect your regular Yahoo! Mail address.
Distribution list: a group of contacts to whom you want to send the same email message. Yahoo! Mail Classic uses categories as distribution lists.
Domain: a set of Internet addresses, such as for a web site or email. On the Web, a domain is the part after "www." such as "my-domain.com".
Download: to transfer a file from a remote computer to your computer.
Draft: an unfinished version of an email message that you save in the Draft folder to complete and send at a later time.
Drag and drop: the ability to move an object from one place to another by placing the cursor over an object, pressing the left mouse button, dragging the selected object to another location, and releasing the mouse button.

E

Email address: A contact’s address that identifies an electronic location where email can be sent. An email address includes the contact’s email name followed by the "@" followed by the contact’s email domain, such as "person@domain.com".
Email domain: a set of Internet addresses, such as for a web site or email. In email addresses, a domain is the part after the "@", such as "my-domain.com".
Emoticon: a small character that shows someone how you feel during an IM conversation, such as happy, sad, or laughing.
Event: an upcoming activity that you enter in your Yahoo! Calendar, such as a birthday or doctor’s appointment.
Extension: a file name suffix of the form .xxx, which indicates the file’s format so that users and applications can quickly recognize the type of file.
External email account: an email account that uses a mail server other than the Yahoo! Mail server.

F

Feed: an XML file used to deliver documents or other content using RSS.
File transfer: the ability to send and receive files between computers.
Filter: a rule that Yahoo! Mail uses to direct an incoming message to a particular folder.
Firewall: an application used to protect a computer from intruders.
Flickr: a service that allows you to share your digital photos over the Internet.
Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in Yahoo! Mail.
Forward: (two uses in Yahoo! Mail) to send an email message that you receive on to someone else or to configure Yahoo! Mail to send all email messages that come into your mail account to another email address.
Friends list: a list of friends, family, and others who also use Yahoo! Messenger; an older name for "Messenger List".

G

Genre: a category of artistic composition marked by a distinctive style, form, or content, such as rock, classical, or jazz.
Group: one or more contacts that you organise together under one unique name, similar to an email list. By default, Yahoo! Messenger adds contacts to the "Friends" group included in the application.
Guestbook: the area of your profile page where you and your visitors can leave comments for others to see.

H

Hacker: an individual who uses his knowledge of networks and computer systems to gain unauthorised access to computer systems.
Hijacking: hijacking software redirects or changes your search results, home and error pages, and other browser settings to some place other than your default settings or preferences without your permission.

I

iCal: an .ics format that allows the exchange of calendar events across applications.
Ignore List: a list of people from whom you don’t want to see or hear anything while you’re using Yahoo! Messenger.
IM: the acronym for instant message.
Image: a picture that someone has stored in an electronic form, such as files with .JPG, .BMP, or .GIF formats (among many others).
Import: to receive data into one application from another.
IMVironment (IMV): a themed environment that you can select when instant messaging your friends. Potentially, both you and your friends see the IMV during your conversation.
Inbox: a folder where you receive incoming email.
Inline reply: when you type your reply to a message between the lines of text in the original message.
Instant messaging: the ability to exchange messages in real time with other people over the Internet.

J

Java applet: a program written in the Java programming language that can be included in an HTML page. When you view a page that contains an applet, the applet’s code is transferred to your system and executed by the browser.
Junk mail: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called spam.

K

Keyword: the unique, second part of a disposable address.

L

Link: a connection that opens a favorite Web page in your browser.
LiveWords: this feature enables contextual searches from any topic, word, or phrase in Yahoo! Messenger.

M

Mail server: an application that receives incoming email and forwards outgoing email for delivery. A computer dedicated to running such applications is also called a mail server.
Mailing list: a group of contacts to whom you want to send the same email message. In Yahoo! Mail, a category includes mailing list capability.
Message header: the information used to deliver an email message, including the To, From, Date, and Subject fields.
Message input area: the text box at the bottom of the IM conversation window where you type in your message.
Messenger ID: the Yahoo! ID a person uses to sign in and use Yahoo! Messenger or Chat in Yahoo! Mail.
Messenger List: the main part of the Contact List in AT&T Yahoo! Messenger. The Messenger List includes the contacts with whom you communicate most often.
Mini calendar: the small calendar displayed in the calendar and search panel of Yahoo! Calendar.
Mini editor: the small editor that displays when you add an inline event.
Module: a self-contained block of information on a My Yahoo! tab, which you can add, edit, move, or remove.
My Yahoo! Reader: a feature that lets you view articles without leaving My Yahoo!. It works when publishers provide My Yahoo! with access to the full articles.

N

Network: the people with profiles on Yahoo! or Yahoo! that you keep in touch and share personal information with.
New message tab: a tab in Yahoo! Mail where you address, write, and send a new email or chat message.
Nickname: a shortcut to a person’s email address.

O

Offline: not connected to the Internet or any other network.
On hold: when the connection during a phone call is maintained, but the person on the other end cannot hear anything on your end.
Online: connected to the Internet.
Online contact: a contact with a Messenger ID who is signed in at the same time you are.
Online Status: a setting that lets others know when you are available to chat.

P

PC-to-PC calling: the ability to call another person’s computer from your computer; similar to placing a phone call. Both you and the person you are calling must have a Yahoo! ID and be logged into Yahoo! Messenger.
People Search: the feature that lets you find other people’s profiles in Yahoo! using their names or email addresses.
Permanent folder: a mail folder that is automatically created in a Yahoo! Mail account and can’t be deleted.
Personal folder: a mail folder that the user created.
PIM: a personal information management tool, such as your Yahoo! Address book, the Palm Pilot, and Microsoft Outlook.
Plain text: text that has no formatting defined; how this text appears (for example, its size) depends on the web browser or email program that you use.
Plug-in: a software application that adds a specific feature or to another application.
POP3: Post Office Protocol 3, a standard client/server protocol for receiving email in which a mail server receives and holds email messages for you.
Pop-up window: a window that tries to open automatically on top of or under a browser window.
Port: a connection between two computers. The connection protocols TCP/IP and UDP use ports to indicate the type of server program that should handle a connection. Each port is identified by a number.
Packaged content: a pre-defined package of related content created by the people at Yahoo! and made available to you as a quick way to add tabs of content to My Yahoo!.
Primary account: the person who has financial responsibility for a household’s Yahoo! account; same as "primary member".
Private message: an email message sent to someone through his or her profile on Yahoo!. You don’t need to know the person’s email address to send a private message.
Profile: a public web page associated with your Yahoo! ID where you can share personal information with others.
Profile card: the part of your profile that’s always visible; it includes your picture, your display name, and other basic information.
Prompt: a message that guides the user to take some action, such as "Please leave a message after the tone."
Public photo: a picture or avatar representing you in some way that you share with others on your profile on Yahoo!

Q

Quick Launch Toolbar: a row of icons at the bottom left of your computer screen that represent programs or applications.

R

Reply: to respond to an email message you received.
Rich text: a format that lets you change font style, add colour, and more to your outgoing message text.
Ringtone: a brief audio file played to indicate an incoming call. You can select your preferred ringtone in Yahoo! Messenger.
RSS: a standard distribution format that web sites and blogs can use to send updated headlines to users through a service like Yahoo!. (The acronym is commonly expanded to "Really Simple Syndication".)

S

Scan: the process of checking files to see if they contain known viruses.
Searchable: available for Search to use to find a person’s profile. The profile’s owner controls what information is searchable.
Shared calendar or list: a calendar or to do list that you share with one or more of your contacts. A shared calendar or list may be view only or editable so that you and your friends can edit the same item.
Sign in: enter your Yahoo! ID and password to identify yourself to the network and to gain access to your personal information.
Sign out: the opposite of sign in; to remove all of your personal information and preferences with regard to Yahoo!ducts and services, so no one else can use your account.
Signature: a short text file that you create and Yahoo! Mail attaches to the end of your outgoing email messages. The file might contain your name, position, a favourite quote, or whatever you want to convey with every email message you send.
Skin: a selection that controls the overall look of the Messenger windows.
Snippet: a couple of lines of text from the message body.
Spam: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called "junk mail".
Spam folder: a permanent folder that SpamGuard uses to hold messages it considers spam.
Spammer: someone who sends spam.
Spyware: software, typically installed on your computer without your permission, that can track personal information, serve as an unauthorised entry point for a remote user, or transmit data to an external source.
Stationery: a predefined format that you can apply to an outgoing message text, including a background image or colour and a specific font.
Status message: a personal message that appears on your profile card, your mail home page, and other places throughout the Yahoo! network; you can change it whenever you want.
Subscribe: to add a shared calendar or to do list to your Yahoo! Calendar.
Subscription: a calendar or to do list shared by someone else that you add to your Yahoo! Calendar.
Synchronise: to cause items in multiple locations to match exactly.
System category: a category packaged with Yahoo! Contacts that provides basic organisation for your contacts (All Contacts, Unfiled, Connections, and Deleted Contacts).
System tray: the row of icons in the lower-right corner of your screen that displays an icon for each application running in the background.

T

Tab: an organisational unit in My Yahoo! used to organise content into meaningful groups. My Yahoo! can have up to nine tabs.
Theme: a predefined set of colours and background images that you can apply to a Yahoo! home page.
Thumbnail: a small version of an image, often linked to a larger version.
Toolbar: a row of buttons across the top of the browser window that you can click to perform various tasks.
Topic: a group of related modules in the Yahoo! content directory; more general than a category.
Tracking cookie: a cookie that’s used to track your web browsing behaviour for the purpose of displaying targeted advertising. Tracking cookies don’t pose a security threat.
Trash folder: the folder into which Yahoo! Mail moves all deleted email messages.
Trojan: a software program that has hidden, unwanted intent.

U

Upload: to transfer a file from your computer to a remote computer.
URL: Universal Resource Locator; specifies the location of a file or web page, such as http://my.yahoo.com.
User-defined category: a category in Yahoo! Contacts that you create to manage your contacts.

V

View: the way you see your calendar; either by day, week, month, or year.
Virus: a computer application that attaches itself to other applications and causes harm to computer software, data, and/or hardware, often undetected until it is too late.
Voice message: a message left in the caller’s own voice for the intended recipient to listen to later.

W

Web-based mail client: an application (usually a web site) that any computer with an Internet connection and a web browser can use to access the mail server.
Webcam: a video camera typically attached to a computer.

XYZ

Yahoo! ID: the name by which a person is known to all Yahoo! networks.
Yahoo! Messenger: an application that lets you communicate using your voice, text, or other means with one or more people over the Internet in real time (instantly).
Yahoo! Toolbar: a customisable toolbar that allows you to use your favourite Yahoo! features from buttons on your browser.