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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.
Adware: software that opens pop-up or pop-under ads when the main product is not running, or shows windows that do not appear to be connected with the application or web page that you are viewing.
All-day event: an event that doesn’t have a time frame, such as a birthday or anniversary.
Allowed list: a user-defined list of sources or domains from which Pop-Up Blocker does not block pop-up windows.
App: a button on your Toolbar that lets you link to and, in many cases, preview a Web page.
Application: a program installed in Yahoo! Mail that enriches your Mail experience with photo sharing and editing, automatic message organisation, and much more.
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.
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 name, surname, and 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.
Buzz: A Yahoo! service that presents timely content from across the Web. Readers determine a story’s importance through votes and comments.

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 contacts in your Yahoo! Contacts. Categories let you send the same email to everyone in a category and let you organise information by groups.
Cc: short for "carbon copy"; use this field to add secondary recipients to an email message.
Cleaning: removing a virus or other infection from your computer.
Client: an application that you install on your computer.
Compose: to enter the text of an email message.
Compose page: the page in Yahoo! Mail Classic 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 or instant message.

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 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.
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 Drafts 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.
External email account: an email account that uses a mail server other than the Yahoo! Mail server.

F

Filter: a set of rules that Yahoo! Mail uses to direct an incoming message to a particular folder.
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 Yahoo! Mail account to another email address.

G

Guestbook: the area of your profile page where you and your visitors can leave comments for others to see.

I

iCal: an .ics format that allows the exchange of calendar events across applications.
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

Junk mail: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called spam.

K

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

L

List: a group of contacts to whom you want to send the same email message.

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.
Message header: the information used to deliver an email message, including the To, From, Date, and Subject fields.
Messenger ID: the Yahoo! ID a person uses to sign in and use Yahoo! Messenger.
Messenger List: a list of coworkers, friends, family, and associates who also use Messenger.
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.
Mobile device: a wireless communication device for exchanging voice, text, and/or graphic information; includes pagers, mobile phones, web phones, pagers, two-way pagers, PDAs, and Internet appliances.
Mobile text messaging: sending and receiving written messages on a variety of devices via "short message service" (SMS).

N

Network: the people with profiles on 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 message.
Nickname: a shortcut to a person’s email address.

O

Offline: not connected to the Internet or any other network.
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 your availability to chat.

P

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 you create and use to organise your email messages.
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.
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.
Primary email address: the email address that you identify as primary in your Yahoo! account email information.
Profile: a public web page associated with your Yahoo! ID where you can share personal information with others. You and each of your connections have a profile that others can view.
Public photo: a picture or avatar representing you in some way that you share with others on your profile on Yahoo!

Q

Quarantined item: a file or other item on your computer that online protection software identifies as infected. After cleaning the infection, the online protection software modifies the item so that the file system can no longer access it. The quarantined item remains on your computer, so that you can restore it to its original location if you choose.

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.

S

Scan: the process of checking files to see if they contain known viruses.
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.
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).

T

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.
Tracking cookie: a cookie that tracks your web browsing behaviour for the purpose of displaying targeted advertising. Tracking cookies do not 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

Yahoo! Updates: mini-stories about online activities that you can share with your friends and family.
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.

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.
Windows Live™ Messenger: Microsoft® Windows’ free instant messaging application.

XYZ

Yahoo! Contacts: your Yahoo! online address book with a listing of people and their personal information.
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.
Zip file: a package of files compressed to reserve space on a computer.