A website or simply site, is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, usually identified with a common domain name and published on at least one web server. A website can be accessed through an Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the Internet or a local area network (LAN), referring to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies the site.
Websites have many functions and can be used in different ways; A website can be a personal website, a business website for a company, a government website or a nonprofit organization website. Web sites are often dedicated to a particular theme or purpose, from entertainment and social networking to news and education. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites, such as a company's website for their employees, are often part of an intranet.
Web pages, which are the basic components of web sites, are documents, usually composed in plain text interspersed with hypertext markup language (HTML, XHTML) formatting instructions. They can incorporate elements of other websites with appropriate markers. Web pages are accessed and transported using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which can optionally use encryption (secure HTTP, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy to the user. The user application, often a web browser, processes the content of the page according to its HTML markup instructions on a display terminal.
The hyperlink between web pages conveys to the reader the structure of the site and guides the navigation of the site, which often begins with a home page containing a directory of the site's web content. Some websites require user registration or subscription to access content. Examples of subscription websites include many business sites, news websites, academic magazine websites, gaming websites, file sharing websites, message boards, web-based email, social networking sites, Websites that provide real-time stock market data, various other services. Beginning in 2016 end users can access websites on a wide range of devices, including desktops and laptops, tablets, smartphones and smart TVs.