Today internet has completely changed the way we live our lives. Many websites are there, which have made our life easier and simpler, while some have actually transfigured the concept of our social life. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee a physicist launched the concept of 'WWW' (World Wide Web) and it was made available to all common users since 1993. Within a few years, it had a massive impact on the environment around us. Websites that changed the world of internet have also made a great impact on our lifestyle. Now we just require sitting in front of our computer, and everything will be available right at our fingertips. Today, we cannot even imagine spending a single day without using at least any one of the Google applications may be it is Google Earth, Google News, Google Book Search, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Maps or Froogle.
Some websites have changed the world of Internet and highly affected our lifestyle. In terms of traffic and influence the list of top websites keeps changing, some websites that redefined the internet world can be enlisted. The comfort and convenience that we enjoy today can be accredited to some very popular websites.
Search Engines:
Sergey Brin and Larry Page also known as the 'Google Guys' founded Google in September 1998. In the year 2010, it had revenue of US$ 29.321 billion. Google.com is the most visited website of internet today. It is the most relevant and fastest search engine. It is well-known for its other products and services also like Google Images, Google Earth, Google Talk, etc. Google attends more than one billion search requests and processes about 24 petabytes of data everyday. In May 2011, it recorded over 1 billion visitors. The word 'Google' actually has no particular meaning; but it appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb now.
Yahoo
Yahoo is another popular search engine founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang in March 1995. In the year 2010, it had revenue of US$ 6.324 billion. For some, it is a favorite shopping/gaming center; whereas for some, it is the most preferred news provider or e-mail service. Its other services like 'Yahoo! Groups', 'Yahoo! Maps', 'Yahoo! Messenger' and 'Yahoo! Finance' have gained popularity worldwide. Every month more than 700 million people log in to Yahoo website.
Information sites:
Wikipedia
Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger founded this website in January 2001; today it has more than 365 million of users. It is a free, user-generated multilingual encyclopedia. It contains more than twenty million articles and provides information on almost everything. For latest happenings too, people search on this website. It is well-known for perfect and most reliable information. There are about 90 thousand active contributors who regularly write for Wikipedia. These articles are available in about 282 languages. Among all the monthly page views, about 2.7 billion are from the US only. Wikipedia is and will remain amongst the 10 most visited websites of the world.
Answers.com
Bob Rosenschein founded Answers.com in 1999. The present site is a result of an evolution of concepts of the company and names over the years. Answers.com includes over 20 million questions with answers in its community-generated database and over seven million articles from more than 300 reference sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
Social networking sites:
In July 2006, Jack Dorsey founded Twitter. It is a micro blogging service, through which one can read and send posts of up to 140 characters. These posts are in text format and are better known as 'tweets'. The concept of sharing views and thoughts has now earned tremendous popularity worldwide. The subscribers are called as 'followers' and they can subscribe to or 'follow' other users or tweets.
Mark Zuckerberg along with his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes founded Facebook in February 2004. Originally introduced as a site to connect the Harvard university students, the rise of Facebook resulted in the decline of many other social networking websites such as MySpace and Friendster. Facebook is the most popular website in the world today. It recorded one trillion page views in June 2011. It allows the user to create a personal profile. The user can add others as friends and can join common-interest groups like 'family tree', 'people from work', 'close friends', etc. The user can also upload photos and videos, send private or public messages, chat with friends, write on someone's wall or can even poke. Today it has more than 800 million users. It had more than 138.9 million monthly visitors from US only in May 2011.
Mailing sites:
Hotmail
Hotmail was launched in July 1996. Keeping in mind the 'HTML,' initially it was launched as 'HoTMaiL'. It can be referred as 'the pioneer of email services'. It was presented by Microsoft as a component of 'Windows' applications. Today it is available in 36 languages. 'Windows Live Hotmail' was recorded as the largest e-mail service of the world in Aug. 2010. That time it recorded nearly 364 million users.
Gmail
Gmail is an email based service provided by Google. Launched in April 2004, this service was made available to the public in February 2007. It offers a storage capacity of 1 GB per user. A mail with an attached file can be up to 25 MB, which is quite huge in comparison to other mail services. This service supports advertising, so the users may see relevant advertisements on their page when the mailbox is opened. Google voice and video chat are pretty popular today. 'Gmail Mobile' service is accessible in 40 languages. Gmail has more than 260 million users worldwide.
Video sharing sites:
YouTube
Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, who were employees of PayPal founded YouTube in February 2005. It has earned incredible popularity as here the user can view, upload and share videos. Now it is a subsidiary of Google. Today it is ranked third. Even 3D videos can be uploaded here. It's simple and user-friendly procedure attracts the visitors. As of May 2011, it has more than 3 billion visits per day.
MySpace
MySpace was founded by Tom Anderson in 2003. It is a leading social entertainment site powered by the passions of the fans. Aiming at an audience of Gen Y, it drives social interaction by giving a highly modified experience around entertainment. It also connects people to the celebrities, movies, TV, games and music that they love. MySpace Music offers an ever-growing list of freely streamable video and audio content to users. The company is a subsidiary of Specific Media and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA.
Shopping sites:
eBay
Founded by Pierre Omidyar, the website was launched in September 1995. In the year 2010, it had revenue of US$ 9.156 billion. It has revolutionized the way of shopping today. It is a leading auction site, where the user can bid on items and win. Almost anything except animals, lock-picking devices, franking machines, guns, fireworks, etc. can be bought here. The other services offered by the site include money transfers, classified advertisements, event ticket trading, etc.
Amazon.com
Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year 1995. It had revenue of US$ 34.204 billion in the year 2010. Today it is one of the most visited e-commerce websites. It may be called 'the world's largest online retailer'. It started as an online bookstore, but now it sells numerous other items. Just provide name of the item and you will get it here. International shipping is available for selected products in some countries. It had 120 million unique visitors as of October 2011.
Blogging sites:
Blogger
Originally launched by Pyra Labs, Blogger was founded by Evan Williams in August 1999. Today it is owned by Google Inc. It supports the AdSense service of Google and so the user can earn money through a blog. The 'multiple author support' feature allows establishing 'group blogs'. Those who love writing can enjoy writing here. Every minute, a new blog is created, so just imagine how this site has twisted the print-world upside down. It was ranked 7th in November 2011.
WordPress
WordPress was founded by Matt Mullenweg in the year 2003. It is an open-source site which means there are hundreds of people worldwide working on it. It powers more than fifty million blogs, including some that are published by leading news sites like the Automattic Inc. and New York Times. WordPress started just as a blogging website, but has developed to be used as full content management system. It includes thousands of themes, plugins and widgets limited only by your imagination.
News sites:
CNN.com
The channel CNN (Cable News Network) was founded by Ted Turner in 1980; however the website was launched in August 1995. It is known for the latest breaking news. It is read for special reports, in-depth coverage, audio clips, videos, etc. The 'sign up' option was added in 2009, whereas 'Eatocracy' (a food blog) was added in 2010, to the website. In terms of unique users, the website stood at the third place among the global news sites, in the U.S. in April 2009.
Los Angeles times
The LATMG (Los Angeles Times Media Group) businesses and affiliates include The Envelope, Times Community News, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Hoy Los Angeles and LA. It reaches approximately 38% or 5.1 million of all the adults in the Southern California marketplace. It owns and operates California Community News as well as Tribune Direct's west coast division. It is a part of Tribune Company, one of the leading media companies of the country with businesses in publishing and broadcasting.
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