A
website (also spelled
web site)
is a collection of related
web pages,
images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a
common domain name or
IP address in an
Internet Protocol-based network. A
web site is hosted on at least one
web
server, accessible via a network such as the
Internet or a private
local area network.
A web page is a
document, typically written
in
plain text interspersed with
formatting instructions of
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML,
XHTML). A web page may incorporate elements
from other websites with suitable
markup
anchors.
Web pages are accessed and transported with the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (
HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and
privacy for the user of the web page content. The user's
application, often a
web browser,
renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions
onto a display terminal.
All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the
World Wide Web.
The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a simple
Uniform Resource Locator
(URL) called the
homepage. The URLs of the
pages organize them into a hierarchy, although
hyperlinking between them conveys the reader's
perceived
site structure and guides the
reader's navigation of the site.
Some websites require a
subscription to
access some or all of their content. Examples of subscription sites
include many business sites, parts of many
news
sites,
academic journal sites,
gaming sites,
message boards,
web-based
e-mail, services,
social networking websites, and sites
providing real-time
stock market
data.
History
The World Wide Web was created in 1990 by CERN engineer
Tim Berners-Lee.
On 30 April 1993,
CERN
announced that the World Wide Web would be free to
use for anyone.
Before the introduction of HTML and HTTP, other protocols such as
file transfer protocol and
the
gopher protocol were used to
retrieve individual files from a server. These protocols offer a
simple directory structure which the user navigates and chooses
files to download. Documents were most often presented as plain
text files without formatting or were encoded in
word processor formats.
Overview
Organized by function, a website may be
It could be the work of an individual, a business or other
organization, and is typically dedicated to some particular topic
or purpose. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other
website, so the distinction between individual sites, as perceived
by the user, may sometimes be blurred.
Websites are written in, or dynamically converted to, HTML (Hyper
Text Markup Language) and are accessed using a
software interface classified as a
user agent. Web pages can be viewed or otherwise
accessed from a range of computer-based and Internet-enabled
devices of various sizes, including desktop computers, laptops,
PDAs and cell phones.
A website is
hosted on a
computer system known as a
web server, also called an HTTP server, and these
terms can also refer to the
software that
runs on these systems and that retrieves and delivers the web pages
in response to requests from the website users.
Apache is the most commonly used web
server software (according to
Netcraft
statistics) and
Microsoft's
Internet Information Server
(IIS) is also commonly used.
Static website
A
static website is one that has web pages stored
on the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser.
It is primarily coded in
Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML).
Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as
classic
website, a
five-page website or a
brochure
website are often static websites, because they present
pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include
information about a company and its products and services via text,
photos, animations, audio/video and interactive menus and
navigation.
This type of website usually displays the same information to all
visitors. Similar to handing out a printed brochure to customers or
clients, a static website will generally provide consistent,
standard information for an extended period of time. Although the
website owner may make updates periodically, it is a manual process
to edit the text, photos and other content and may require basic
website design skills and software.
In summary, visitors are not able to control what information they
receive via a static website, and must instead settle for whatever
content the website owner has decided to offer at that time.
They are edited using four broad categories of software:
- Text editors, such as Notepad or TextEdit, where content and HTML markup are
manipulated directly within the editor program
- WYSIWYG offline editors, such as
Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver (previously Macromedia
Dreamweaver), with which the site is edited using a GUI interface and the final HTML markup is generated
automatically by the editor software
- WYSIWYG online editors which create media rich online
presentation like web pages, widgets, intro, blogs, and other
documents.
- Template-based editors, such as Rapidweaver and iWeb, which
allow users to quickly create and upload web pages to a web server
without detailed HTML knowledge, as they pick a suitable template
from a palette and add pictures and text to it in a desktop publishing fashion without direct
manipulation of HTML
code.
Dynamic website
A
dynamic website is one that changes or
customizes itself frequently and automatically, based on certain
criteria.
Dynamic websites can have two types of dynamic activity: Code and
Content. Dynamic code is invisible or behind the scenes and dynamic
content is visible or fully displayed.
Dynamic code
The first type is a website with
dynamic code
hidden inside. The lines of code are constructed dynamically on the
fly using active programming language instead of plain, static
HTML.
A website with
dynamic code refers to its
construction or how it is built, and more specifically refers to
the code used to create a single web page. A dynamic web page is
generated on the fly by piecing together certain blocks of code,
procedures or routines. A dynamically-generated web page would call
various bits of information from a database and put them together
in a pre-defined format to present the reader with a coherent page.
It interacts with users in a variety of ways including by reading
cookies recognizing users' previous history, session variables,
server side variables etc., or by using direct interaction (form
elements, mouseovers, etc.). A site can display the current state
of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing situation, or
provide information in some way personalized to the requirements of
the individual user.
Dynamic content
The second type is a website with
dynamic content
displayed in plain view. Variable content is displayed dynamically
on the fly based on certain criteria, usually by retrieving content
stored in a database.
A website with
dynamic content refers to how its
messages, text, images and other information are displayed on the
web page, and more specifically how its content changes at any
given moment. The web page content varies based on certain
criteria, either pre-defined rules or variable user input. For
example, a website with a database of news articles can use a
pre-defined rule which tells it to display all news articles for
today's date. This type of dynamic website will automatically show
the most current news articles on any given date. Another example
of dynamic content is when a retail website with a database of
media products allows a user to input a search request for the
keyword Beatles. In response, the content of the web page will
spontaneously change the way it looked before, and will then
display a list of Beatles products like CD's, DVD's and
books.
Purpose of dynamic websites
The main purpose of a dynamic website is automation. A dynamic
website can operate more effectively, be built more efficiently and
is easier to maintain, update and expand. It is much simpler to
build a template and a database than to build hundreds or thousands
of individual, static HTML web pages.
Software systems
There are a wide range of software systems, such as
Java Server Pages (JSP), the
PHP and
Perl programming languages,
Active Server Pages (ASP), YUMA and
Cold Fusion (CFM) that are available to
generate dynamic web systems and dynamic sites. Sites may also
include content that is retrieved from one or more
databases or by using
XML-based
technologies such as
RSS.
Static content may also be dynamically generated either
periodically, or if certain conditions for regeneration occur
(cached) in order to avoid the performance loss of initiating the
dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis.
Plug in are available to expand
the features and abilities of web browsers, which use them to show
active content, such as
Microsoft Silverlight,
Adobe Flash,
Adobe
Shockwave or
applets written in
Java.
Dynamic HTML also provides for user
interactivity and realtime element updating within web pages (i.e.,
pages don't have to be loaded or reloaded to effect any changes),
mainly using the
Document Object
Model (DOM) and
JavaScript, support
which is built-in to most modern web browsers.
Turning a website into an income source is a common practice for
web developers and website owners. There are several methods for
creating a website business which fall into two broad categories,
as defined below.
Content-based sites
Some websites derive revenue by selling advertising space on the
site (see
Contextual
advertising).
Product- or service-based sites
Some websites derive revenue by offering products or services for
sale. In the case of
e-commerce websites,
the products or services may be purchased at the website itself, by
entering credit card or other payment information into a payment
form on the site. While most business websites serve as a shop
window for existing
brick and
mortar businesses, it is increasingly the case that some
websites are businesses in their own right; that is, the products
they offer are only available for purchase on the web.
Websites occasionally derive income from a combination of these two
practices. For example, a website such as an online auctions
website may charge the users of its auction service to list an
auction, but also display third-party advertisements on the site,
from which it derives further income.
Spelling
The forms
website and
web site are the most
commonly used forms, the former especially in British English. The
Associated Press Style book,
Reuters,
Microsoft, academia,
book publishing,
The Chicago Manual of
Style, and dictionaries such as
Merriam-Webster use the two-word, initially
capitalized spelling
Web site. This is because "Web" is
not a general term but a short form of
World Wide Web. As
with many newly created terms, it may take some time before a
common spelling is finalized. This controversy also applies to
derivative terms such as web page, web master, and web cam.
The
Canadian Oxford
Dictionary and the Canadian Press Style book list "website" and
"web page" as the preferred spellings. The
Oxford English Dictionary began
using "website" as its standardized form in 2004.
Bill Walsh, the copy chief of
The Washington Post's national desk, and one of American
English's foremost grammarians, argues for the two-word spelling
with capital W in his books
Lapsing into a Comma and
The Elephants of Style, and on his site, the Slot.
Types of websites
There are many varieties of websites, each specializing in a
particular type of content or use, and they may be arbitrarily
classified in any number of ways. A few such classifications might
include:
- Affiliate: enabled portal that renders not only its custom CMS but also syndicated content
from other content providers for an agreed fee. There are usually
three relationship tiers. Affiliate
Agencies (e.g., Commission
Junction), Advertisers (e.g.,
eBay) and consumer (e.g., Yahoo!).
- Archive site: used to preserve
valuable electronic content threatened with extinction.
Two
examples are: Internet
Archive
, which since 1996 has preserved billions of old
(and new) web pages; and Google
Groups, which in early 2005 was archiving over 845,000,000
messages posted to Usenet news/discussion
groups.
- Blog (web log): sites generally used to
post online diaries which may include discussion forums (e.g.,
blogger, Xanga).
- Brand building site: a site
with the purpose of creating an experience of a brand online. These
sites usually do not sell anything, but focus on building the
brand. Brand building sites are most common for low-value,
high-volume fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG).
- City Site: A site that shows information
about a certain city or town and events that takes place in that
town. Usually created by the city council or other "movers and
shakers".
- the same as those of geographic entities, such as cities and
countries. For example, Richmond.com is the geodomain for Richmond, Virginia
.
- Community site: a site where
persons with similar interests communicate with each other, usually
by chat or message boards, such as
MySpace or Facebook.
- Content site:
sites whose business is the creation and distribution of original
content (e.g., Slate, About.com).
- Corporate website: used to
provide background information about a business, organization, or
service.
- Electronic commerce
(e-commerce) site: a site offering goods and services for online sale and enabling online transactions
for such sales.
- Forum: a site where people
discuss various topics.
- Gripe site: a site devoted to the
critique of a person, place, corporation, government, or
institution.
- Humor site: satirizes, parodies or
otherwise exists solely to amuse.
- Information site: contains content that is intended to inform
visitors, but not necessarily for commercial purposes, such as:
RateMyProfessors.com, Free
Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia. Most government, educational and
non-profit institutions have an informational site.
- Java applet site: contains software
to run over the Web as a Web
application.
- Mirror site: A complete
reproduction of a website.
- News site: similar to an information
site, but dedicated to dispensing news and commentary.
- Personal homepage: run by an
individual or a small group (such as a family) that contains
information or any content that the individual wishes to include.
These are usually uploaded using a web hosting service such as
Geocities.
- Phish site: a website created to
fraudulently acquire sensitive
information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a
trustworthy person or business (such as Social Security
Administration, PayPal) in an electronic communication (see Phishing).
- Political site: A site on which people may voice political
views.
- Porn site: A site that
shows sexually explicit content for enjoyment and relaxation, most
likely in the form of an Internet gallery, dating site, blog,
social networking, or video sharing.
- Rating site: A site on which people
can praise or disparage what is featured.
- Review site: A site on which people
can post reviews for products or services.
- School site: a site on which
teachers, students, or administrators can post information about
current events at or involving their school. U.S. elementary-high
school websites generally use k12 in the URL, such as
kearney.k12.mo.us.
- Search engine site: a site
that provides general information and is intended as a gateway or
lookup for other sites. A pure example is Google, and the most widely known extended type is
Yahoo!.
- Shock site: includes images or other material that is intended to be
offensive to most viewers (e.g. rotten.com).
- Social bookmarking site: a
site where users share other content from the Internet and rate and
comment on the content. StumbleUpon and
Digg are examples.
- Social networking
site: a site where users could communicate with one another and
share media, such as pictures, videos, music, blogs, etc. with
other users. These may include games and web applications.
- Video sharing: A site that enables
user to upload videos, such as YouTube and
Google Video.
- Warez: a site designed to host and let
users download copyrighted materials illegally.
- Web portal: a site that provides a
starting point or a gateway to other resources on the Internet or
an intranet.
- Wiki site: a site which users
collaboratively edit (such as Wikipedia
and Wikihow).
Some websites may be included in one or more of these categories.
For example, a business website may promote the business's
products, but may also host informative documents, such as
white papers. There are also numerous
sub-categories to the ones listed above. For example, a
porn site is a specific type of e-commerce site or
business site (that is, it is trying to sell memberships for access
to its site). A
fan site may be a
dedication from the owner to a particular
celebrity.
Websites are constrained by architectural limits (e.g., the
computing power dedicated to the website). Very large websites,
such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google employ many servers and
load balancing equipment
such as
Cisco Content Services
Switches to distribute visitor loads
over multiple computers at multiple locations.
In February 2009,
Netcraft, an
Internet monitoring company that has
tracked Web growth since 1995, reported that there were 215,675,903
websites with domain names and content on them in 2009, compared to
just 18,000 websites in August 1995.
Awards
The
Webby Awards are a set of awards
presented to the world's best websites, a concept pioneered by
Best of the Web in
1994.
See also
References
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