Personal computer hardware

A personal computer is made up of multiple physical components of computer hardware, upon which can be installed an operating system and a multitude of software to perform the operator's desired functions.

Typical PC hardware

Hardware of Personal Computer.
1. Monitor
2. Motherboard
3. CPU
4. RAM Memory
5. Expansion card
6. Power supply
7. CD-ROM Drive
8. Hard Disk
9. Keyboard
10. Mouse
Inside a custom computer.Though a PC comes in many different form factors, a typical personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop) and the following parts:

Motherboard
Components directly attached to the motherboard include:

The central processing unit (CPU) performs most of the calculations which enable a computer to function, and is sometimes referred to as the "brain" of the computer. It is usually cooled by a heat sink and fan.
The chipset mediates communication between the CPU and the other components of the system, including main memory.
RAM Stores all running processes (applications) and the current running OS. RAM Stands for Random Access Memory
The BIOS includes boot firmware and power management. The Basic Input Output System tasks are handled by operating system drivers.
Internal Buses connect the CPU to various internal components and to expansion cards for graphics and sound.
Current
The northbridge memory controller, for RAM and PCI Express
PCI Express, for expansion cards such as graphics and physics processors, and high-end network interfaces
PCI, for other expansion cards
SATA, for disk drives
Obsolete
ATA (superseded by SATA)
AGP (superseded by PCI Express)
VLB VESA Local Bus (superseded by AGP)
ISA (expansion card slot format obsolete in PCs, but still used in industrial computers)
External Bus Controllers support ports for external peripherals. These ports may be controlled directly by the southbridge I/O controller or based on expansion cards attached to the motherboard through the PCI bus.
USB
FireWire
eSATA
SCSI
Power supply
Main article: Power supply unit (computer)
Includes power cords, switch, and cooling fan. Supplies power at appropriate voltages to the motherboard and internal disk drives. It also converts alternating current to direct current and provides different voltages to different parts of the computer.

Video display controller
Main article: Graphics card
Produces the output for the computer monitor. This will either be built into the motherboard or attached in its own separate slot (PCI, PCI-E, PCI-E 2.0, or AGP), in the form of a graphics card.

Most video cards support the most basic requirements, and video card manufacturing companies are doing a good job of keeping up with the requirements the games need. However the games are still evolving faster than the video because of manufacturing companies.

Removable media devices
Main article: Computer storage
CD (compact disc) - the most common type of removable media, suitable for music and data.
CD-ROM Drive - a device used for reading data from a CD.
CD Writer - a device used for both reading and writing data to and from a CD.
DVD (digital versatile disc) - a popular type of removable media that is the same dimensions as a CD but stores up to 12 times as much information. It is the most common way of transferring digital video, and is popular for data storage.
DVD-ROM Drive - a device used for reading data from a DVD.
DVD Writer - a device used for both reading and writing data to and from a DVD.
DVD-RAM Drive - a device used for rapid writing and reading of data from a special type of DVD.
Blu-ray Disc - a high-density optical disc format for data and high-definition video. Can store 70 times as much information as a CD.
BD-ROM Drive - a device used for reading data from a Blu-ray disc.
BD Writer - a device used for both reading and writing data to and from a Blu-ray disc.
HD DVD - a discontinued competitor to the Blu-ray format.
Floppy disk - an outdated storage device consisting of a thin disk of a flexible magnetic storage medium. Used today mainly for loading RAID drivers.
Iomega Zip drive - an outdated medium-capacity removable disk storage system, first introduced by Iomega in 1994.
USB flash drive - a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface, typically small, lightweight, removable, and rewritable. Capacities vary, from hundreds of megabytes (in the same ballpark as CDs) to tens of gigabytes (surpassing, at great expense, Blu-ray discs).
Tape drive - a device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape, used for long term storage and backups.
Internal storage
Hardware that keeps data inside the computer for later use and remains persistent even when the computer has no power.

Hard disk - for medium-term storage of data.
Solid-state drive - a device similar to hard disk, but containing no moving parts and stores data in a digital format.
RAID array controller - a device to manage several internal or external hard disks and optionally some peripherals in order to achieve performance or reliability improvement in what is called a RAID array.
Sound card
Main article: Sound card
Enables the computer to output sound to audio devices, as well as accept input from a microphone. Most modern computers have sound cards built-in to the motherboard, though it is common for a user to install a separate sound card as an upgrade. Most sound cards, either built-in or added, have surround sound capabilities.

Other peripherals
Main article: Peripheral
In addition, hardware devices can include external components of a computer system. The following are either standard or very common.


Wheel MouseIncludes various input and output devices, usually external to the computer system.

Input
Main article: Input
Text input devices
Keyboard - a device to input text and characters by depressing buttons (referred to as keys), similar to a typewriter. The most common English-language key layout is the QWERTY layout.
Pointing devices
Mouse - a pointing device that detects two dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface.
Optical Mouse - a newer technology that uses lasers, or more commonly LEDs to track the surface under the mouse to determine motion of the mouse, to be translated into mouse movements on the screen.
Trackball - a pointing device consisting of an exposed protruding ball housed in a socket that detects rotation about two axes.
Gaming devices
Joystick - a general control device that consists of a handheld stick that pivots around one end, to detect angles in two or three dimensions.
Gamepad - a general handheld game controller that relies on the digits (especially thumbs) to provide input.
Game controller - a specific type of controller specialized for certain gaming purposes.
Image, Video input devices
Image scanner - a device that provides input by analyzing images, printed text, handwriting, or an object.
Webcam - a low resolution video camera used to provide visual input that can be easily transferred over the internet.
Audio input devices
Microphone - an acoustic sensor that provides input by converting sound into electrical signals.

Computer

Computer Technology Limited [CTL] was a British company founded by Ian Barron in the late 1960s to manufacture and sell an innovative minicomputer system.

CTL employed some innovative human relations procedures (13 pay periods, pay 4 weeks in advance, a very flat organizational structure.) It was founded slightly later than Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the United States, and was also a rival of Elliot Computing. Barron had worked for Elliot but left to found CTL when he couldn't persuade Elliot to incorporate his ideas in their next generation of computers. He left CTL in 1971 and later created Inmos and developed the transputer.

The first CTL computer (the Modular One) appeared for sale in 1969. The Modular One was a 16-bit computer built with Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) and was competitive with other first generation minicomputers. Its most distinctive hardware features were memory-mapped I/O, and an early version of segmented memory (similar to the later Intel 8086 but having both base and limit). The latter, together with two execution states (Normal State and Special State) made possible the implementation of a self-protecting operating system kernel (known as the Executive, or Exec). Such ideas were popular in British computer academia at the time and later were adopted by some US designs such as the aforementioned Intel 8086. Also, the power system was set up as a peripheral with interrupt capabilities which gave the machine the ability to power down gracefully in an emergency.

The Exec was known as E4. (E1, E2 and E3 were much simpler execs used only in the first few years of the company). E4 was based on an early version of object-oriented principles, though lacking most of what are now considered essential features of the paradigm. Objects included Activities (now more commonly known as tasks or processes), Segments (of memory), Files, Semaphores and Clocks. Another object type, the Sphere, was a run-time protection domain within which all other object types (including other Spheres) existed. There was some similarity to Unix in the use of serial byte oriented streams in the file system and interprocess communication, in contrast to the record-oriented file systems then dominant in commercial data processing. E4 also supported real-time priorities and virtual memory at the Segment level. It was a relatively elegant OS for its time but was never ported to other hardware, having been written entirely in assembler. (Appropriate and effective high-level language implementations were not readily available at the time.)

The Modular One was comparatively expensive. It was somewhat exotic in that its modular design resulted in almost every system delivered being somewhat different, which created a high maintenance burden. It never sold widely outside of the UK, and even in the UK it was surpassed in sales by DEC and Data General before the end of the 1970s. The systems were cost reduced with new technology over the mid '70s to mid '80s but never gained a significant market share. During the mid '80s, the company realised that the future lay in open systems and attempted to make the transition to Unix with re-badged systems from Motorola and Sequoia, however, sales of the proprietary systems fell off before the new systems could be ramped up to replace them, and the company was taken over by ACT in late 1989.

Computer

A programmable machine. The two principal characteristics of a computer are:
It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner.
It can execute a prerecorded list of instructions (a program).
Modern computers are electronic and digital. The actual machinery -- wires, transistors, and circuits -- is called hardware; the instructions and data are called software.

All general-purpose computers require the following hardware components:

memory : Enables a computer to store, at least temporarily, data and programs.
mass storage device : Allows a computer to permanently retain large amounts of data. Common mass storage devices include disk drives and tape drives.
input device : Usually a keyboard and mouse, the input device is the conduit through which data and instructions enter a computer.
output device : A display screen, printer, or other device that lets you see what the computer has accomplished.
central processing unit (CPU): The heart of the computer, this is the component that actually executes instructions.
In addition to these components, many others make it possible for the basic components to work together efficiently. For example, every computer requires a bus that transmits data from one part of the computer to another.

Computers can be generally classified by size and power as follows, though there is considerable overlap:

personal computer : A small, single-user computer based on a microprocessor. In addition to the microprocessor, a personal computer has a keyboard for entering data, a monitor for displaying information, and a storage device for saving data.
workstation : A powerful, single-user computer. A workstation is like a personal computer, but it has a more powerful microprocessor and a higher-quality monitor.
minicomputer : A multi-user computer capable of supporting from 10 to hundreds of users simultaneously.
mainframe : A powerful multi-user computer capable of supporting many hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously.
supercomputer : An extremely fast computer that can perform hundreds of millions of instructions per second.

Computer

Computer Technology Limited [CTL] was a British company founded by Ian Barron in the late 1960s to manufacture and sell an innovative minicomputer system.

CTL employed some innovative human relations procedures (13 pay periods, pay 4 weeks in advance, a very flat organizational structure.) It was founded slightly later than Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the United States, and was also a rival of Elliot Computing. Barron had worked for Elliot but left to found CTL when he couldn't persuade Elliot to incorporate his ideas in their next generation of computers. He left CTL in 1971 and later created Inmos and developed the transputer.

The first CTL computer (the Modular One) appeared for sale in 1969. The Modular One was a 16-bit computer built with Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) and was competitive with other first generation minicomputers. Its most distinctive hardware features were memory-mapped I/O, and an early version of segmented memory (similar to the later Intel 8086 but having both base and limit). The latter, together with two execution states (Normal State and Special State) made possible the implementation of a self-protecting operating system kernel (known as the Executive, or Exec). Such ideas were popular in British computer academia at the time and later were adopted by some US designs such as the aforementioned Intel 8086. Also, the power system was set up as a peripheral with interrupt capabilities which gave the machine the ability to power down gracefully in an emergency.

The Exec was known as E4. (E1, E2 and E3 were much simpler execs used only in the first few years of the company). E4 was based on an early version of object-oriented principles, though lacking most of what are now considered essential features of the paradigm. Objects included Activities (now more commonly known as tasks or processes), Segments (of memory), Files, Semaphores and Clocks. Another object type, the Sphere, was a run-time protection domain within which all other object types (including other Spheres) existed. There was some similarity to Unix in the use of serial byte oriented streams in the file system and interprocess communication, in contrast to the record-oriented file systems then dominant in commercial data processing. E4 also supported real-time priorities and virtual memory at the Segment level. It was a relatively elegant OS for its time but was never ported to other hardware, having been written entirely in assembler. (Appropriate and effective high-level language implementations were not readily available at the time.)

The Modular One was comparatively expensive. It was somewhat exotic in that its modular design resulted in almost every system delivered being somewhat different, which created a high maintenance burden. It never sold widely outside of the UK, and even in the UK it was surpassed in sales by DEC and Data General before the end of the 1970s. The systems were cost reduced with new technology over the mid '70s to mid '80s but never gained a significant market share. During the mid '80s, the company realised that the future lay in open systems and attempted to make the transition to Unix with re-badged systems from Motorola and Sequoia, however, sales of the proprietary systems fell off before the new systems could be ramped up to replace them, and the company was taken over by ACT in late 1989.

Web Designing

In software engineering, a web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via a web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, JavaScript, Java, etc.) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.

Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of web browsers, and the convenience of using a web browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity, as is the inherent support for cross-platform compatibility. Common web applications include webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, wikis and many other functions.
History
In earlier types of client-server computing, each application had its own client program which served as its user interface and had to be separately installed on each user's personal computer. An upgrade to the server part of the application would typically require an upgrade to the clients installed on each user workstation, adding to the support cost and decreasing productivity.

In contrast, web applications use web documents written in a standard format such as HTML (and more recently XHTML), which are supported by a variety of web browsers.

Generally, each individual web page is delivered to the client as a static document, but the sequence of pages can provide an interactive experience, as user input is returned through web form elements embedded in the page markup. During the session, the web browser interprets and displays the pages, and acts as the universal client for any web application.

In 1995, Netscape introduced a client-side scripting called JavaScript, which allowed programmers to add some dynamic elements to the user interface that ran on the client side. Until then, all the data had to be sent to the server for processing, and the results were delivered through static HTML pages sent back to the client.

In 1996, Macromedia introduced Flash, a vector animation player that could be added to browsers as a plugin to embed animations on the web pages. It allowed the use of a scripting language to program interactions on the client side with no need to communicate with the server.

In 1999, the "web application" concept was introduced in the Java language in the Servlet Specification version 2.2. [2.1?].At that time both JavaScript and XML had already been developed, but AJAX had still not yet been coined and the XMLHttpRequest object had only been recently introduced on Internet Explorer 5 as an ActiveX object.

In 2005, AJAX was coined, and applications like Gmail started to make their client sides more and more interactive.


Interface

Webconverger operating system provides an interface for web applications.The web interface places very few limits on client functionality. Through Java, JavaScript, DHTML, Flash and other technologies, application-specific methods such as drawing on the screen, playing audio, and access to the keyboard and mouse are all possible. Many services have worked to combine all of these into a more familiar interface that adopts the appearance of an operating system. General purpose techniques such as drag and drop are also supported by these technologies. Web developers often use client-side scripting to add functionality, especially to create an interactive experience that does not require page reloading. Recently, technologies have been developed to coordinate client-side scripting with server-side technologies such as PHP. Ajax, a web development technique using a combination of various technologies, is an example of technology which creates a more interactive experience.


Structure
Applications are usually broken into logical chunks called "tiers", where every tier is assigned a role.[4] Traditional applications consist only of 1 tier, which resides on the client machine, but web applications lend themselves to a n-tiered approach by nature.[4] Though many variations are possible, the most common structure is the three-tiered application.[4] In its most common form, the three tiers are called presentation, application and storage, in this order. A web browser is the first tier (presentation), an engine using some dynamic Web content technology (such as ASP, ASP.NET, CGI, ColdFusion, JSP/Java, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails or Struts2) is the middle tier (application logic), and a database is the third tier (storage).[4] The web browser sends requests to the middle tier, which services them by making queries and updates against the database and generates a user interface.

For more complex applications, a 3-tier solution may fall short, and you may need a n-tiered approach, where the greatest benefit is breaking the business logic, which resides on the application tier, into a more fine-grained model.[4] For example, creating a separate business logic tier. Or adding an integration tier that separates the data tier from the rest of tiers by providing an easy-to-use interface to access the data. For example, you would access the client data by calling a "list_clients()" function instead of making a SQL query directly against the client table on the database. That allows you to replace the underlying database without changing the other tiers.

There are some who view a web application as a two-tier architecture. This can be a "smart" client that performs all the work and queries a "dumb" server, or a "dumb" client that relies on a "smart" server. The client would handle the presentation tier, the server would have the database (storage tier), and the business logic (application tier) would be on one of them or on both. While this increases the scalability of the applications and separates the display and the database, it still doesn't allow for true specialization of layers, so most applications will outgrow this model.


Business use
An emerging strategy for application software companies is to provide web access to software previously distributed as local applications. Depending on the type of application, it may require the development of an entirely different browser-based interface, or merely adapting an existing application to use different presentation technology. These programs allow the user to pay a monthly or yearly fee for use of a software application without having to install it on a local hard drive. A company which follows this strategy is known as an application service provider (ASP), and ASPs are currently receiving much attention in the software industry.


Writing web applications
There are many web application frameworks which facilitate rapid application development by allowing the programmer to define a high-level description of the program. In addition, there is potential for the development of applications on Internet operating systems, although currently there are not many viable platforms that fit this model.

The use of web application frameworks can often reduce the number of errors in a program, both by making the code simpler, and by allowing one team to concentrate just on the framework. In applications which are exposed to constant hacking attempts on the Internet, security-related problems caused by errors in the program are a big issue. Frameworks may also promote the use of best practices such as GET after POST.


Applications
Browser applications typically include simple office software (word processors, online spreadsheets, and presentation tools), with Google Docs being the most notable example, and can also include more advanced applications such as project management, computer-aided design, video editing and point-of-sale


Benefits
Browser applications typically require little or no disk space on the client, upgrade automatically with new features, integrate easily into other web procedures, such as email and searching. They also provide cross-platform compatibility (i.e., Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) because they operate within a web browser window.


Drawbacks
Standards compliance is an issue with any non-typical office document creator, which causes problems when file sharing and collaboration becomes critical. Also, browser applications rely on application files accessed on remote servers through the Internet. Therefore, when connection is interrupted, the application is no longer usable. Google Gears is a platform to ameliorate this issue and improve the usability of browser applications.

Web Designing

A website (or web site) is a collection of related webpages (or 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 the Internet or a private local area network.

A webpage is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A webpage may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.

Webpages 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 webpage 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 1989 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

a personal website
a commercial website
a government website
a non-profit organization website
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.

Website styles

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, Flash animation, 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, where any media rich online presentation like websites, widgets, intro, blogs etc. are created on a flash based platform
Template-based editors, such as Rapidweaver and iWeb, which allow users to quickly create and upload websites to a web server without having to know anything about HTML, as they just pick a suitable template from a palette and add pictures and text to it in a DTP-like fashion without ever having to see any HTML code

Dynamic website
A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes content automatically and/or frequently based on certain criteria. The page composition is usually data-driven and collates information ad hoc each time a page is requested.

A website can be dynamic in one of two ways. The first is that the web page code is constructed dynamically. The second is that the web page content displayed varies based on certain criteria. The criteria may be pre-defined rules or may be based on variable user input.

The main purpose of a dynamic website is that it is much simpler to maintain a few template pages and a database than it is to build and update hundreds or thousands of individual web pages and links.

A dynamic website also describes 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.

Some countries, for example the U.K. and the U.S., have introduced legislation regarding web accessibility.


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 ins are available to expand the features and abilities of web browsers, which use them to show active content, such as Flash, 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 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 ads).


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
As noted above, there are several different spellings for this term. Although website and web site are commonly used (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 shortened 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 master/webmaster and Web cam/webcam).

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:[original research?]

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 (or web log) site: sites generally used to post online diaries which may include discussion forums (e.g., blogger, Xanga).
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 (eCommerce) site: a site offering goods and services for online sale and enabling online transactions for such sales.
Community site: a site where persons with similar interests communicate with each other, usually by chat or message boards, such as MySpace or Facebook.
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.
Gripe site: a site devoted to the critique of a person, place, corporation, government, or institution.
Forum: a site where people can sign up and discuss different topics.
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.
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.
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.
Video sharing: A site that enables user to upload videos, such as YouTube and Google Video.
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).
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 eCommerce 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.

Web Designing

Website architecture is an approach to the design and planning of websites which, like architecture itself, involves technical, aesthetic and functional criteria. As in traditional architecture, the focus is properly on the user and on user requirements. This requires particular attention to web content, a business plan, usability, interaction design, information architecture and web design. For effective search engine optimization it is necessary to have an appreciation of how a single website relates to the World Wide Web.
Since web content planning, design and management come within the scope of design methods, the traditional vitruvian aims of commodity, firmness and delight can guide the architecture of websites, as they do physical architecture and other design disciplines. Website architecture is coming within the scope of aesthetics and critical theory and this trend may accelerate with the advent of the semantic web and web 2.0. Both ideas emphasise the structural aspects of information. Structuralism is an approach to knowledge which has influenced a number of academic disciplines including aesthetics, critical theory and postmodernism. Web 2.0, because it involves user-generated content, directs the website architect's attention to the structural aspects of information.
"Website architecture" has the potential to be a term used for the intellectual discipline of organizing website content. "Web design", by way of contrast, describes the practical tasks, part-graphic and part-technical, of designing and publishing a website. The distinction compares to that between the task of editing a newspaper or magazine and its graphic design and printing. But the link between editorial and production activities is much closer for web publications than for print publications.

Website design styles
Over the short history of the web, various architectural and artistic styles have developed among different online language, national, social and cultural communities. Such differences in website design styles would set European websites apart from North American ones, Taiwanese websites from the ones originated in Mainland China (marked by the tendency to proliferate pop-up windows activated by left-click), Japanese (marked by employment of bright colors and flashing cute anime characters) from Korean (marked by gray text-white background, clean, "MacIntosh"-style interface). Especially innovative is a style originated in the Netherlands and other Dutch-speaking online communities, of the web interface heavily drawing on flash and postmodern visual arts at the expense of text and ordinary functionality.