ESL Podcast 248 – Business Websites

I was hired to set up a website for a small bookstore and the owner knew very little about the Internet. I tried to find out what she wanted for her business website.

Octavio: Let me show you some websites I’ve designed. I have them all bookmarked. Okay, this is a website for a restaurant. As you can see, the homepage is fairly simple. The menu bar on the left-hand side allows visitors to navigate¹ around the site.

Margaret: I like this layout a lot. Why are these words in a different color?

Octavio: Those are hyperlinks³ to other pages on the website. If you click on the text or the image, you’ll be taken to a different page.

Margaret: Oh, I see, so for my site, I can list the books I have for sale, and we can hyperlink² each book title to a description of that book.

Octavio: Yes, that’s right. You’ll probably also want a search function so that people can type in the name of a book or the author to find out if you carry a specific book.

Margaret: Yes, definitely. Does it matter which browser⁴ customers use to look at my website?

Octavio: No, I’ll make sure that it’s compatible with all of the major browsers⁵ out there.

Margaret: Will people need to type in “www” before the web address?

Octavio: No, they should be able to just type in the name of the store and the domain⁶, which in your case would be “.com.”

Margaret: Since I know so little about the Internet, do I have to learn HTML or some other type of computer language to maintain the site?

Octavio: No, not at all. Your website will have content management software installed that allows you to make basic changes. Once it’s done, I’ll show you how to use it. Should we look at a few more websites to get some other ideas for your site?

Margaret: That’s a great idea. Let’s do that.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

1 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

2 hyperlink   

n.超链接

参考例句：

• The database is fully hyperlinked both within the database and to thousands of external links.该数据库在其内部以及和数千个外部链接之间充分实现了超链接。
• When you click on a graphic and a video clip plays,you have clicked on a hyperlink.当您按下一个图形和视频剪辑的发挥，你点击了一个超链接。

3 hyperlinks   

n.超链接( hyperlink的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Specifies if hyperlinks are displayed and function within the control. 指定是否显示超级链接以及它是否在控件中起作用。 来自互联网
• View, add, and change pages, documents, themes, and borders; recalculate hyperlinks. 查看、添加和更改网页、文档、主题和边框；重新计算超链接。 来自互联网

4 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

5 browsers   

浏览器

参考例句：

• Three-layer architecture is a model made up of browser, web server and background database server. 这种体系结构是由Browser、Web Server、Database Server组成的浏览器／Web服务器／后台数据库服务器三层模型。 来自互联网
• Another excellent approach is to abandon the browser entirely and, instead, create a non-browser-based, Internet-enabled application. 另一个非常好的方法是干脆放弃浏览器，取而代之，创建一个不基于浏览器，但却是基于互联网的应用。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。