CGI 
common gateway interface 
This standard lays down the rules for creating CGI scripts. In the early days of the Web, CGI scripts provided the most popular way to make HTML pages interactive, allowing users to search databases, post messages, and so on. Designed to execute a program stored on the host's server, CGI scripts can be written in any programming language. Few large Web sites still use CGI scripts; each script starts a new process, dragging down performance and stability as traffic increases. To create interactive pages, Web developers now generally employ either Java JSP or Microsoft ASP technologies.