Ribbons are a form of overlay messaging. They give the user more information about an element or elements on the page. Ribbons can also provide more actions that the user can perform on the page.
Example
This is an alert ribbon
Ribbons are a form of overlay messaging. They give the user more information about an element or elements on the page. Ribbons can also provide more actions that the user can perform on the page.
This is an alert ribbon