Have you ever gone on a web site, especially the interactive ones, and encountered terms that you couldn’t quite figure out exactly what they mean? Or, you might already be a seasoned Internet user yet still find yourself confused with Internet terminology once in a while. Do you also get lost in the myriad of file extensions that exist?

Let me share some terms that you’ll commonly encounter on the web, especially on interactive sites, and define them to guide you in understanding them better.

Mobile Web vs. World Wide Web

The emergence of the Mobile Web may have left people confused as to what it really is and the purpose it serves. Many of you may be asking how it is different from the web as we know it. Simply put, mobile web is the World Wide Web as accessed from mobile phones and other mobile devices that are connected to a public network. No need for a computer and a regular Internet connection. However, due to its device and format limitations, Mobile Web does not really replace the World Wide Web, but rather serves to enhance or complement it.

Mobile Network Technologies

And the tug-of war continues…which is better, GSM or CDMA? But first, do lay people really understand what they are and the difference between the two? For now, let’s just define them and leave the debate on which is better for later.

GSM, or Global System for Mobile communications, is currently the most popular cellular network in the world, capturing around 80% of the market, with a very strong presence in Europe and Asia. GSM operates in four different frequency ranges. Most GSM networks use the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, though some countries use the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. GSM’s signaling and speech channels are digital call quality, differentiating it from other networks.

CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access, uses a wide frequency range and a special coding scheme that allows multiple users on the same physical channel. Data and voice are separated from signals, and then transmitted through a wide frequency range. This leaves more space for data transfer, making CDMA the preferred technology for 3G, which consists of big multimedia files. Around 14% of mobile phones in the world are on CDMA.

3G

3G (third generation) is the popular term for the third wave of mobile phone standards and technology. 3G enables high-speed Internet access and video telephony, and allows network operators to provide a wider range of services and achieve greater network capacity. The greatest feature of 3G is support for greater number of voice and data customers and higher data rates at a lower cost than 2G.

File Formats

Mobile web and the World Wide Web both support many different file formats for viewing, uploading and downloading. Here are some of the most popular ones:

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) - This is one of the most popular uploaded and downloaded files in the Internet, and is the most commonly used method of compression for photographs or image files. It is the format used for storing and transmitting photographs in the Internet.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - This format is best for sharp-edged images, such as logos, with a limited number of colors. This is due to GIF’s compression technique, which preserves very sharp edges. GIF can also be used for small animations and low resolution film clips.

MP4 or MPEG4 - It is a multimedia format commonly used for digital audio and digital video streams. It is the new international standard format for music and videos that people create, view, upload or download over the Internet.

MP3 – It is a digital audio encoding format that uses lossy data compression, in which the data retrieved is quite different from the original, but is still close enough to serve its purpose. MP3 files are generally small so it’s easily organized and transferred among different devices.

WAV – Short for Waveform audio format, which is Microsoft and IBM’s standard audio file format for storing audio on PCs.

WMV – Stands for Windows Media Video, which is a compressed video file format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft.

Mobile-specific file formats

3GP - It is a simplified version of MP4, with lower storage and bandwidth requirements, making it more suited for files viewed and transmitted through mobile phones and other mobile devices. 3GP files can also be viewed through a computer on Mac, Windows and Linux platforms, using applications such as VLC, QuickTime, RealPlayer, and MediaPlayer Classic.

SIS – It is an acronym that stands for “Symbian Installation Source”. It is an installation file for Symbian OS and not an application file. It contains all the program files that need to be installed and is the standard means to distribute the Symbian application.

JAR – It stands for Java Archive. This type of file is used to combine many files into one and is generally used to distribute Java classes and associated metadata.

The Mobile Internet is a great repository of different kinds of materials and is an impetus for different technologies. Know your way around and don’t let the jumble of acronyms confuse you. A simple knowledge of what they are and what their purpose is will be all you’ll need to know to start using them.