The world has become such a close knit family because of the internet. The reason we are so close to each other on the planet now is because we have some great websites to tell us about the world. The other reason is that we can touch each other in the web sphere through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Some websites have become so much a part of our lives that their names are now accepted as established words in the English language as parts of our daily speech. Such an example is at the top of the list:-
1. Google
It is common for us to say when we want to search for some topic, ‘Let’s Google it.’ Google is the top web site in the world because this is the site everyone thinks of immediately on having to search for something on the internet. Google.com is the world’s most used site for searches and receives millions of search requests daily making it the most visited site in the world. Google is such an important part of the web that webmasters are constantly looking for ways to improve their ranking on this search engine.
2. Facebook
Facebook is the number one social networking site with more than 600 million registered members but it is still behind Google in the world listings of most visited web sites. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg with the help of his college mates at Harvard. The popularity of the site stems from the ability to log and check on friends’ pages and to post important events of your own life on your own page. This way friends and colleagues keep in touch all over the world and reply with postings on individual ‘walls.’ Mark Zuckerberg is the protagonist in ‘The Social Network’ an Oscar winning movie.
3. YouTube
YouTube is a very popular web site used by users to watch and upload personal videos. Today it is a major video sharing site and is ranked number three in the world listing because of its serving of more than two billion videos a day for the general public. It is also screening movies of big Hollywood giants like MGM and CBS. The original founders were Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Javed Karim. Today the company is a subsidiary of Google Inc.
4. Yahoo
Yahoo is a web portal and search engine which is very popular because of the many services it offers, including Yahoo Mail. It was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo. Despite many attempts by Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo has retained its independence. Yahoo has a world wide presence including China. The Yahoo management has faced flak from the press of the world for giving into Chinese censor regulations. The charge is that one of the pillars of freedom of the press and information and entertainment dissemination is giving into a country notorious for human rights violations.
5. Blogger.com
Blogger.com or blogspot is a very popular as a blog publishing site. It was launched by Pyra Labs in 1999 but now is owned by Google. Google operates Blogger through its sub domain of blogspot.com. The Blogger logo with a white B on an orange background is very eye catching and has become a good international brand. People interested in writing their journals and poems use this web side to update their writings on quaintly named individual pages some of which are popular and well read and attract advertising through AdSense a Google subsidiary generation profit from advertisements.
6. Baidu
Baidu is a Chinese language search engine very popular in Asia. Baidu has a market share of more than 55 per cent in Chinese search queries. The founders of this site are Robin Li and Eric Xu. They founded the company in the year 2000 and it is registered in the Cayman Islands although its headquarters are in Beijing. The web site also has multi media content which is very popular with its Chinese clients. Baidu follows all the censorship regulations imposed upon it by the Chinese Government.
7. Windows Live
Hotmail is the reason why Windows Live is holding on to this position. It has a loyal band of email subscribers who keep the rating of this web site in the top ten. Originally established as HoTMaiL by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in1996, it was one of the leading edge providers of free email service. The capitalized HTML in the name stood for the language used by the World Wide Web. Hotmail was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 at a then staggering price of 400 million dollars. Windows live also has Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live as its other much visited components.
8. Wikipedia
Wikipedia is number eight on the top ten web sites because of the millions of visits made by people to check this online encyclopedia. It is the brainchild of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger who started it as Nupedia a formal encyclopedia with all the reference entries by experts. Then they changed to the idea of an open site where visitors from all over the world could contribute in the making and maintenance of the web pages. Today it has almost 4 million entries in English and the total number of entries amount to 18 million. The name Wikipedia is a mixture of wiki meaning quick in Hawaiian and the ending of encyclopedia, that is, pedia. The web site tries to maintain a policy of neutral view point.
9. Twitter
Twitter is a popular social networking site which provides a forum for messages between users. These messages ore tweets are received at the normal rate of 750 per second and go up to 3000 and more during special events like American basketball games or international events like the FIFA World Cup. Twitter was the brain child of Jack Dorsey and was launched in 2006. Twitter messages are seen by everyone unless the user decides to use the private only option.
10. QQ. COM
QQ.com or Tencent QQ is the most used program in computer messaging in China. It has more than 636 million registered users of its instant messaging service. Tencent Holdings Ltd are the developers of this site. It was founded in China by Ma Huateng in 1998. QQ. Com has been accused of using users’ personal data without permission.
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