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A Website is space on a computer where anyone who
subscribes can say "This is me, this is what I do, or what I am
interested in, what I know, or what I can sell you". An electronic
brochure and source of information available to the whole world 24 hours
a day.
Within the website, each screenful of information
is called a page. Pages may contain text, or graphic images, or even
photographs, sound and video.
A main feature are the "links" embedded within a
page that can be clicked with a computer mouse and which transport
viewers to other pages. To continue with the brochure analogy, you would
normally open a brochure at the front or the back and browse forwards or
backwards a page at a time. With a website, the user decides the order
they want to see the pages in by clicking the links that interest them.
This interactivity generates a sense of ownership
and participation in the user, binding them to the information much more
tightly than a traditional brochure.
To maximize this benefit, it really needs someone
with an understanding of interactive programming to get the best out of
creating the electronic pages and links that build the website.
What sort of websites are there?
There
are many sorts of Websites, ranging from a single page "This is us"
offering, through to mammoth Websites like the Indian Railway site which
has several thousand pages full of information about reservation, train
timings, schedule, and so on, together with links to all the government
departments and agencies.
Websites may be provided by individuals (in which
case they are usually called homepages), special interest groups, such
as "The Association of Widget Collectors", educational establishments
like universities, or science and research centre, Governments,
voluntary organisations, individual retailers, banks and businesses,
manufacturers and importers, news, media and financial organisations and
multinational corporations. Although the size of the organisations may
differ, each has the same opportunity and scope.
A small businesses can have the same presence and
create the same image as a multinational. Each chooses the style and
content of its own pages.
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