To current and future generations living in an era with computers, one thing that will always continue with us (and probably enhance in some way down the line) is the web—you know, that WWW you always type into the address bar when on the internet. WWW, of course, stands for World Wide Web, and though many make the synonymous tie of a vast amount of information readily available, the Web pretty much contains virtually everything humans have ever known. With that said, all of the Web’s offerings can be generally categorized into distinct Major Contents that’s on the Web.
The first content is Electronic Publishing, which as might be guessed upon from the name, is in essence any type of publication that would appear online. This is where the notion of ‘vast information’ is typically fashioned from—publications not only include what is specifically published online, but also traditional publications which are now featured online usually via the publication’s website. Examples include newspapers (New York Times), magazines (Time), books, and any other type of publication.
Next is Entertainment, which includes television, movies, and music. The development and rise of sites such as YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, and the like have been huge drivers in a growing trend of users relying more and more on their computers than any other technological equipment they possess.
Online Games is another form of content on the Web, and though it may seem like it should fall under the Entertainment tag at first, what sets it aside from other entertainment forms is the intense interactivity found in gaming. This means that the gaming it refers to is massively multiplayer online games (or MMOG for the gamers out there), in which the player is constantly interacting with another user in some fashion. There’s hundreds of MMOGs, and the biggest is perhaps World of Warcraft, which boasts over 12 million subscribers as reported on October 2010.
Another form of content is a Portal, which are automatically launched web pages when users log into the Web. So basically homepages such as MSN, AOL, Yahoo!, etc which are automatically loaded upon going online are portals!
Content that all users of the Web are familiar with is the Search Engine. They’re those boxes people type words into, and then click the ‘search’ button to find relevant information based upon matching the key words entered into the search. Engines include MSN’s Bing and Yahoo!, though the undisputed king is still Google.
Communities are yet another type of content, which is a social site/media in which users can share opinions with others—albeit typically in a very informal and casual way. These include Facebook, Myspace, chat rooms, instant messengers, and other sites (such as GameFAQS, which specializes in the gaming community).
Blogs are an interesting case, in which they can be used in different purposes. In essence, blogs are the writings of users posted online, but the applications are numerous—to report news or top stories, to express opinions and views, as assignments in classes, etc…!
Lastly is Electronic Commerce, which as one might be able to infer, is shopping online, typically in a business to consumer basis though consumer to consumer is also widespread. This includes sites such as Amazon and even eBay.
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