| What is a website? Definition & types of websites with examples based on purpose. |
Let us see how Wikipedia, Freeservers, and Dictionary.com defines a website.
Website Definition by Wikipedia
A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. Source
Website Definition by Freeservers
A website is a collection of web pages (documents that are accessed through the Internet), such as the one you're looking at now. A web page is what you see on the screen when you type in a web address, click on a link, or put a query in a search engine. A web page can contain any type of information and sound. Source
Website Definition by Dictionary.com
A connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person or organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics. Source
From the above definitions, it is very much clear that a web-site is a collection of the web document(s) or a web page(s) created by a person or an organization and therefore accessible for suitable viewing in a web browser across World Wide Web ( WWW ).
The information on the web pages contains on all kinds of topics including text, pictures, animations, sounds, videos, graphics, color, etc. Every web site has a unique web address known as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) pointing towards an individual web page. A URL specifics exactly where a web document is stored.
The pages on a web-site are interlinked by a link called a hyperlink, you can click on the link to reach other sections of a site or jump from one page to another. A website may consist of a single page or thousands of pages depending on what information webmaster has to add on a web page.
Why do people visit websites?
The rightful answer to this question would be, ‘ask yourself’. Ask yourself why are you reading this piece of information. If I am not wrong you might have visited this web page to find information on the website or something similar.
Generally, people visit websites to search an information on a particular topic, download online files, make contact with other web users, watch online videos, have fun, buy and sell goods or share knowledge by adding a piece of information on the World Wide Web (www).
Reasons why people create a website?
Every second people add information to the web or the world wide web by setting up their own websites, blogs, and forums. They tend to do so in order to share useful pieces of information with millions of other web surfers, be popular worldwide, have fun, to make contact with friends and families, advertise products, sell things, etc.
If you are interested in learning about how to create own personal or business website then you may refer to this article “Building a Website” which explains exactly how to create a website using two different, easy methods.
Different types of website?
There are numerous types of websites, each focusing on a particular type of content or use, plus they may be arbitrarily grouped in any amount of ways.
Some such classifications of websites based on purpose include:
- Wiki: Site to collaboratively edit contents by online users. Wikipedia, Wikihow
- Blog: An online diary with regular updates by an individual or a company. A blog is also called as a weblog. Wordpress, Blogger
- News: A website designed specifically to publish news across the world. CNN, BBC, Fox News
- Dating: Website created to look for a partner or go out for a date. Match, Eharmony.
- Archive: A website used to preserve useful web content. Internet Archive.
- Forum: Niche site where people makes conversation by posting messages. WarriorForum, DigitalPoint.
- Gallary: Website to show images of arts, nature, portfolios, etc. Imgsrc, Pixabay.
- Review: A web-site to review products or services by the users. Rotten Tomatoes, Yelp.
- Political: A site where politicians voice political views & campaign for elections.
- Phishing: A website intended to fraudulently acquire sensitive data. Unable to locate such websites.
- Gaming: Site created for the users to play online games. IGN, GameSpot.
- Personal: Web site created by an individual or a small group. Kista Gray, Devon Stank.
- Religious: Websit created to show religious, ideologies, preachings, etc. Biblegateway, Astrology.
- Showcase: Web site to showcase things of interest or value. OnePageMania, SiteInspire.
- Classifieds: A website where users can create and post advertisements. Craiglist, Avito.
- Discussion: Web site where users can create a discussion on a particular topic. Mylot, WebhostingTalk.
- Networking: A site where users could establish a network with like-minded. Linkedin, ClassMates.
- Community: Website to build a community and interact. Facebook, MySpace.
- Government: A web-site of a provincial government or a central government of any country. Nasa, Uidai.
- Bookmarking: A site to bookmark important content on the web. Digg, Dribble.
- Crowdfunding: A site to ask donations from the people for funding projects. KickStarter, RocketHub.
- Question & Answer: A website to ask a question and get an answer from the members of the community. Question2Answer, Quora
Difference between a blog and a website.
Whenever it comes to choosing between blog and website every noob gets confused. It becomes impossible for a newbie to choose the right platform. So, for newbies, I have written a post describing every little detail about the differences between blog and website. I hope it helps.
