E-commerce Glossary - V

Virtual

A directory on a network or in a Web site that acts like a Server (virtual server). 2.) A portion of disk space used by operating programs like Windows to serve as a memory space. 3.) An Operating System's mimicking of a real or physical piece of hardware.

Visual Basic

A high level programming language used to create applications or simple programs that can be embedded into web pages.

Visual C (++)

A high level programming language used to create applications or programs.

Visual J

A high level programming language used to develop web based applications.

Vortals (Virtual Private Networks)

Online resources that are gateways to specific industry related information.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A private network of computers that's at least partially connected by public phone lines. A good example would be a private office LAN that allows users to log in remotely over the Internet (an open, public system). VPNs use encryption and secure protocols like PPTP to ensure that data transmissions are not intercepted by unauthorized parties.

VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)

A specification for displaying three-dimensional objects on the World Wide Web. You can think of it as the 3-D equivalent of HTML. It is used to create the illusion of three-dimensional objects for onscreen virtual reality environments. The computer shows an apparently three-dimensional object from a certain position, and then creates the illusion of movement by gradually changing the viewpoint. The objects can be programmed to respond to mouse clicks.