View source for Website

{{Short description|Any web page served from a single domain}}
{{about||the Internet domain|List of Internet top-level domains{{!}}.website|the on-demand archiving service|WebCite}}
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[[File:United States Antarctic Program website from 2018 02 22.png|thumb|right|240px|The [[United States Antarctic Program|usap.gov]] website]]
A '''website''' (also written as a '''web site''') is any [[web page]] whose content is identified by a common [[domain name]] and is published on at least one [[web server]]. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce, entertainment, or [[social media]]. [[Hyperlink]]ing between web pages guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a [[home page]]. The [[List of most-visited websites|most-visited]] sites are [[Google Search|Google]], [[YouTube]], and [[Facebook]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top Websites Ranking |url=https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/ |website=[[Similarweb]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Top websites |url=https://www.semrush.com/trending-websites/global/all |website=[[Semrush]]}}</ref> <!-- top 3 is enough here, and the only ones in the top 10 that both rankings sources agree on (March 2024) -->

All publicly-accessible websites collectively constitute the [[World Wide Web]]. There are also private websites that can only be accessed on a [[intranet|private network]], such as a company's internal website for its employees. [[User (computing)|Users]] can access websites on a range of devices, including [[desktop computer|desktops]], [[laptop]]s, [[tablet computer|tablets]], and [[smartphone]]s. The [[application software|app]] used on these devices is called a [[web browser]].

==Background==
{{further|History of the World Wide Web}}
[[File:NASA Website Homepage - April 25, 2015.png|thumb|295x295px|The [[NASA|nasa.gov]] [[home page]] in 2015]]
The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1989 by the British CERN computer scientist [[Tim Berners-Lee]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tim Berners-Lee|url=https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Overview.html|access-date=2021-11-17|website=W3C |archive-date=27 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927100010/https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Overview.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="First page">{{cite web |title=home of the first website |url=https://info.cern.ch/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610063709/http://info.cern.ch/ |archive-date=10 June 2017 |access-date=30 August 2008 |website=info.cern.ch}}</ref> On 30 April 1993, [[CERN]] announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for anyone, contributing to the immense growth of the Web.<ref name="w3c">{{cite web |last=Cailliau |first=Robert |title=A Little History of the World Wide Web |url=https://www.w3.org/History.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506021750/http://www.w3.org/History.html |archive-date=6 May 2013 |access-date=16 February 2007 |website=W3C}}</ref> Before the introduction of the [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (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]] in which the user navigates and where they choose files to download. Documents were most often presented as plain text files without formatting or were encoded in [[word processor]] formats.

==History==
While "web site" was the original spelling (sometimes capitalized "Web site", since "Web" is a proper noun when referring to the World Wide Web), this variant has become rarely used, and "website" has become the standard spelling. All major style guides, such as ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=Internet, Web, and Other Post-Watergate Concerns |url=http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/InternetWebandOtherPost-WatergateConcerns/InternetWebandOtherPost-WatergateConcerns13.html |access-date=18 September 2010 |publisher=University of Chicago |archive-date=20 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100220163158/http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/InternetWebandOtherPost-WatergateConcerns/InternetWebandOtherPost-WatergateConcerns13.html |url-status=dead |website=The Chicago Manual of Style}}</ref> and the ''[[AP Stylebook]]'',<ref name="AP tweet">{{Cite tweet|number=12296505018|user=APStylebook|title=Responding to reader input, we are changing Web site to website. This appears on Stylebook Online today and in the 2010 book next month.|author=AP Stylebook|author-link=AP Stylebook|date=16 April 2010|access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref> have reflected this change.

In February 2009, [[Netcraft]], an [[Website monitoring|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 19,732 websites in August 1995.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Web Server Survey |url=https://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820181833/http://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/ |archive-date=20 August 2011 |access-date=13 March 2017 |website=[[Netcraft]] |language=en-US}}</ref> After reaching 1 billion websites in September 2014, a milestone confirmed by Netcraft in its October 2014 Web Server Survey and that Internet Live Stats was the first to announce—as attested by this tweet from the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Berners-Lee—the number of websites in the world have subsequently declined, reverting to a level below 1 billion. This is due to the monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites. The number of websites continued growing to over 1 billion by March 2016 and has continued growing since.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/ |title=Total number of Websites |website=Internet Live Stats |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720110402/http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/|archive-date=20 July 2017 |access-date= 14 April 2015}}</ref> Netcraft Web Server Survey in January 2020 reported that there are 1,295,973,827 websites and in April 2021 reported that there are 1,212,139,815 sites across 10,939,637 web-facing computers, and 264,469,666 unique domains.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Web Server Survey |url=https://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/ |access-date=2021-05-17 |website=Netcraft News |language=en-gb |archive-date=24 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724033250/https://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/ |url-status=live}}</ref> An estimated 85 percent of all websites are inactive.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Deon |date=2020-05-26 |title=How Many Websites Are There Around the World? [2021] |url=https://siteefy.com/how-many-websites-are-there/ |access-date=2021-05-17 |website=Siteefy |language=en-US |archive-date=17 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517211328/https://siteefy.com/how-many-websites-are-there/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Static website==
{{Main|Static web page}}
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); [[Cascading Style Sheets]] (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly used to create the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also be considered "static" content if it plays automatically or is generally non-interactive. 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. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as a ''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 through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and navigation menus.

Static websites may still use [[server side include]]s (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing a common menu bar across many pages. As the site's behavior ''to the reader'' is still static, this is not considered a dynamic site.

==Dynamic website==
{{Main|Dynamic web page|Web application|Progressive web app}}
[[Image:Server-side websites programming languages.PNG|thumb|Server-side programming language usage in 2016]]
A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files). There are a wide range of software systems, such as [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]], [[Java Servlets]] and [[Java Server Pages]] (JSP), [[Active Server Pages]] and [[ColdFusion]] (CFML) that are available to generate [[Programming languages used in most popular websites|dynamic Web systems and dynamic sites]]. Various [[Web application framework]]s and [[Web template system]]s are available for general-use [[programming language]]s like [[Perl]], [[PHP]], [[Python (programming language)|Python]] and [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]] to make it faster and easier to create complex dynamic websites.

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. For example, when the front page of a news site is requested, the code running on the webserver might combine stored HTML fragments with news stories retrieved from a [[database]] or another website via [[RSS]] to produce a page that includes the latest information. Dynamic sites can be interactive by using [[HTML forms]], storing and reading back [[browser cookies]], or by creating a series of pages that reflect the previous history of clicks. Another example of dynamic content is when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input a search request, e.g. 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 CDs, DVDs, and books. [[Dynamic HTML]] uses [[JavaScript]] code to instruct the Web browser how to interactively modify the page contents. One way to simulate a certain type of dynamic website while avoiding the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis is to periodically automatically regenerate a large series of static pages.

==Multimedia and interactive content==
Early websites had only text, and soon after, images. Web browser [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-in]]s were then used to add audio, video, and interactivity (such as for a [[rich Web application]] that mirrors the complexity of a desktop application like a word processor). Examples of such plug-ins are [[Microsoft Silverlight]], [[Adobe Flash Player]], [[Adobe Shockwave Player]], and [[Java SE]]. [[HTML 5]] includes provisions for audio and video without plugins. JavaScript is also built into most modern web browsers, and allows for website creators to send code to the web browser that instructs it how to interactively modify page content and communicate with the web server if needed. The browser's internal representation of the content is known as the [[Document Object Model]] (DOM).

[[WebGL]] (Web Graphics Library) is a modern JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics without the use of plug-ins. It allows interactive content such as 3D animations, visualizations and video explainers to presented users in the most intuitive way.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.khronos.org/webgl/|title=OpenGL ES for the Web|website=khronos.org|date=19 July 2011|access-date=1 April 2019|archive-date=15 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215025546/http://www.khronos.org/webgl/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A 2010-era trend in websites called "responsive design" has given the best viewing experience as it provides a device-based layout for users. These websites change their layout according to the device or mobile platform, thus giving a rich user experience.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ui/responsive/|title=Responsive Web Design Basics - Web|website=Google Developers|access-date=13 March 2017|author=Pete LePage|archive-date=5 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305050613/https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ui/responsive/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Types==
Websites can be divided into two broad categories—static and interactive. Interactive sites are part of the [[Web 2.0]] community of sites and allow for interactivity between the site owner and site visitors or users. Static sites serve or capture information but do not allow engagement with the audience or users directly. Some websites are informational or produced by enthusiasts or for personal use or entertainment. Many websites do aim to make money using one or more business models, including:

* Posting interesting content and selling [[contextual advertising]] either through direct sales or through an advertising network.
* [[E-commerce]]: products or services are purchased directly through the website
* Advertising products or services available at a [[Brick and mortar business|brick-and-mortar business]]
* [[Freemium]]: basic content is available free, but premium content requires a payment (e.g., [[WordPress]] website, it is an open-source platform to build a blog or website).
* Some websites require user registration or [[subscription]] to access the content. Examples of [[paywall|subscription websites]] include many business sites, news websites, [[academic journal]] websites, gaming websites, file-sharing websites, [[Internet forum|message boards]], Web-based [[email]], [[social networking]] websites, websites providing real-time [[stock market]] data, as well as sites providing various other services.

==See also==
{{Portal|Internet|Computer programming}}
{{div col}}
* [[Bulletin board system]]
* [[Link rot]]
* [[Lists of websites]]
* [[Site map]]
* [[Web content management system]]
* [[Web design]]
* [[Web development]]
* [[Web development tools]]
* [[Web hosting service]]
*[[Web framework]]
* [[Web template system]]
<!-- * [[Website architecture]] --><!-- Now a red link but surely there is something equivalent ? -->
* [[Website governance]]
* [[Website monetization]]
* [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (Web standards)
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|website}}
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* [https://www.icann.org/ Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)]
* [https://www.w3.org/ World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)]
* [https://www.internetsociety.org/ The Internet Society (ISOC)]

{{Websites template}}
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[[Category:Websites| ]]