Personal web page

Last updated
The personal web site of athlete Keira Shepherd. The navigation bar on the top of the page contains links to additional content, such as more digital photos, information about her sponsors, press clippings and news links, a calendar of her appearances at athletic competitions, and contact information. Keira Shepherd.png
The personal web site of athlete Keira Shepherd. The navigation bar on the top of the page contains links to additional content, such as more digital photos, information about her sponsors, press clippings and news links, a calendar of her appearances at athletic competitions, and contact information.

Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature rather than content pertaining to a company, organization or institution. Personal web pages are primarily used for informative or entertainment purposes but can also be used for personal career marketing (by containing a list of the individual's skills, experience and a CV), social networking with other people with shared interests, or as a space for personal expression.

Contents

These terms do not usually refer to just a single "page" or HTML file, but to a collection of webpages and related files under a common URL or Web address. In strictly technical terms, a site's actual home page (index page) often only contains sparse content with some catchy introductory material and serves mostly as a pointer or table of contents to the more content-rich pages inside, such as résumés, family, hobbies, family genealogy, a web log/diary ("blog"), opinions, online journals and diaries or other writing, examples of written work, digital audio sound clips, digital video clips, digital photos, or information about a user's other interests. [1] Many personal pages only include information of interest to friends and family of the author. However, some webpages set up by hobbyists or enthusiasts of certain subject areas can be valuable topical web directories.

History

In the 1990s, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provided a free small personal, user-created webpage along with free Usenet News service. These were all considered part of full Internet service. Also several free web hosting services such as Geocities provided free web space for personal web pages. [2] These free web hosting services would typically include web-based site management and a few pre-configured scripts to easily integrate an input form or guestbook script into the user's site. Early[ when? ] personal web pages were often called "home pages" and were intended to be set as a default page in a web browser's preferences, usually by their owner. These pages would often contain links, to-do lists, and other information their author found useful. In the days when search engines were in their infancy, these pages (and the links they contained) could be an important resource in navigating the web.[ citation needed ] Since the early 2000s, the rise of blogging and the development of user friendly web page designing software made it easier for amateur users who did not have computer programming or website designer training to create personal web pages. Some website design websites provided free ready-made blogging scripts, where all the user had to do was input their content into a template. At the same time, a personal web presence became easier with the increased popularity of social networking services, some with blogging platforms such as LiveJournal and Blogger. These websites provided an attractive and easy-to-use content management system for regular users. Most of the early personal websites were Web 1.0 style, in which a static display of text and images or photos was displayed to individuals who came to the page. About the only interaction that was possible on these early websites was signing the virtual "guestbook".

With the collapse of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, the ISP industry consolidated, and the focus of web hosting services shifted away from the surviving ISP companies to independent Internet hosting services and to ones with other affiliations. For example, many university departments provided personal pages for professors and television broadcasters provided them for their on-air personalities. These free webpages served as a perquisite ("perk") for staff, while at the same time boosting the Web visibility of the parent organization. Web hosting companies either charge a monthly fee, or provide service that is "free" (advertising based) for personal web pages. These are priced or limited according to the total size of all files in bytes on the host's hard drive, or by bandwidth, (traffic), or by some combination of both. For those customers who continue to use their ISP for these services, national ISPs commonly continue to provide both disk space and help including ready-made drop-in scripts. [3]

With the rise of Web 2.0-style websites, both professional websites and user-created, amateur websites tended to contain interactive features, such as "clickable" links to online newspaper articles or favourite websites, the option to comment on content displayed on the website, the option to "tag" images, videos or links on the site, the option of "clicking" on an image to enlarge it or find out more information, the option of user participation for website guests to evaluate or review the pages, or even the option to create new user-generated content for others to see. A key difference between Web 1.0 personal webpages and Web 2.0 personal pages was while the former tended to be created by hackers, computer programmers and computer hobbyists, the latter were created by a much wider variety of users, including individuals whose main interests lay in hobbies or topics outside of computers (e.g., indie music fans, political activists, and social entrepreneurs).

Motivations

The personal webpage of surfer Sean O'Brien that opens with a splash screen Seanobrien.jpeg
The personal webpage of surfer Sean O'Brien that opens with a splash screen

In a study done by Zinkhan, participants had four main reasons to create personal web pages. First, people use personal web pages as a portrayal of self, in a sense marketing themselves, since creators have the freedom to portray their own identities. Second, personal web pages are a way to interact with people who have similar interests as the creator, possible employers, or colleagues. Third, personal web pages can gain social acceptance with groups that the creator is interested in depending on the information that the creator reveals about themselves. Fourth, personal web pages can give creators a sense of connection to the world since these web pages are public and a way to introduce oneself to other people around the globe. [4]

People may maintain personal web pages to serve as a showcase for their skills in professional life, [5] creative skills or self promotion of their business, charity or band. [6] The use of personal web pages to display an individual's professional life has become more common in the 21st century. Mary Madden, an expert researcher on privacy and technology, did a study that found a tenth of American jobs require Personal web pages that advertise an individual online. [7] Personal web pages have become a source of initial impression of possible employees used by employers. It can also be used to express opinions on issues ranging from news and politics to movies. Others may use their personal web page as a communication method. For example, an aspiring artist might give out business cards with their personal web page, and invite people to visit their page and see their artwork, "like" their page or sign their guestbook.

A personal web page gives the owner generally more control on presence in search results and how they wish to be viewed online. It also allows more freedom in types and quantity of content than a social network profile offers, [8] and can link various social media profiles with each other. It can be used to correct the record on something, or clear up potential confusion between you and someone with the same name. [9] [10] [11]

In the 2010s, some amateur writers, bands and filmmakers release digital versions of their stories, songs and short films online, with the aim of gaining an audience and becoming more well-known. While the huge number of aspiring artists posting their work online makes it unlikely for individuals and groups to become popular via the Internet, there are a small number of YouTube stars who were unknown until their online performances garnered them a huge audience.[ citation needed ]

Contrast with social network accounts

Both individual, personal web sites and personal social networking accounts give the user a personally customized Web presence. In the 2010s most casual Internet users join free social networking services such as Twitter or Facebook to serve many of the same purposes as a personal webpage without having to learn web design and writing HTML markup. That prerequisite is not required, as Web hosting services provide more help to enable regular users to create Web pages. [12]

Social networks often used prefabricated "black box" structures. On one hand, these templates are much easier for neophyte users to work with, since users simply have to add in information in spaces which indicate the required information. Once the user "saves" or finishes entering the information, the social network website's software system automatically creates a fairly professional-looking layout. "Black box" templates are much simpler to begin using and navigating, but more advanced users may be frustrated that they cannot "tweak" the formatting, amount of content, type of content, etc. For example, most social networks have rules regarding casual users who are uploading (loading files onto the website) audio files to their account. Furthermore, these companies intentionally retain the specific service's look and feel and identity of each user personal account within that corporate social network. For example, all profiles may have the same background color, font and website trademark. The emphasis there is on being part of a branded "network," not on the "personal," or the individual. Thus, these accounts are not normally thought of as (personal) web sites or home pages.

There are other differences. Unlike actual personal web pages, social networking services and ad-based "free" web hosting service personnel, advertisers and nanny-bots can see everything inside the user accounts, and rules are enforced by the firm,[ citation needed ]not by the courts as would be the case with a personally owned, full-featured personal web page.[ citation needed ] However some social services allow the display of almost any content or media produced by the site's creator. This avenue of distribution satisfies most amateurs and aspiring content creators. Web site creation tools permitted by some companies have the potential to allow users more flexibility. As a rule of thumb, the amount of creative freedom one is allowed in creating a personal Web page can be predicted by the site's URL. A pure URL similar to www.yourname.com predicts total ownership and the resulting rights. But a shared-name URL similar to www.yourname.home.othercompany.com suggests account rental and regulations which benefit or protect a corporation (in this case, Othercompany Inc).[ citation needed ]

"Free" sites based on advertising revenue face the dilemma that while relaxation of the rules encourages users to post their feelings and opinions and upload user-generated content with less fear of being censored or shut down, it also increases the risk of an offended sponsor pulling its sponsorship, if offensive materials or comments are made online. With more uploading and content-posting freedom comes an increased risk of copyright and defamation lawsuits, hate speech charges and other legal problems. Free hosting services do not allow users many options to customize the look of pages, because this would reduce page uniformity, thus reducing the common "look and feel" on the website, which becomes a key part of its identity and "branding". In short, if a social networking company allowed total personal freedom of content posting and profile modification for users, it also risks a degradation of its own look-and-feel, branding, function, and profit and legal risks. In the 2010s, this balance of interests is leading toward more user choices and a narrowing of the differences between personal web sites and other personal web presence providers.

Official celebrity sites

Many celebrities from the movies, TV shows, professional sports and popular music have websites. Were their owners not famous, some might think due to their tone and personal ambiance that these sites were personal web pages. However, the celebrity is the "product" or brand being sold, and however casual a celebrity website may appear, with short blog posts and comments appearing on a regular basis, these are typically professionally authored and maintained. Some celebrities' public relations firms and managers hire ghostwriters to author blog posts and Tweets in the style of the celebrity. The celebrity status of the subject and the existence of separate fan-created sites (over which the celebrity in question has no direct control) leads the existence of multiple websites for each celebrity: a personal site authorized by the celebrity and maintained by an individual or company directly associated with the celebrity to be labeled an "official website", and one or more fan-run websites. This designation is often a seal of approval and an assurance to the public that the information provided on the site (including press releases, tour dates, and promotional materials) has been authored or approved by the celebrity in question. Some celebrities involved in criminal and civil trials, such as late pop star Michael Jackson and media mogul Martha Stewart, as well as celebrity chef Paula Deen establish official websites to issue statements to the press and to respond to statements and press releases issued by the prosecuting officials. Most celebrity sites are created and maintained by marketing and web professionals employed by the celebrity or the celebrity's publicist; however, some celebrities, such as film director Roger Avary, actor Wil Wheaton, and video game developer John Romero, maintain their own official sites without professional help, although many of them still use third-party templates and blogging software.

Sites of academics

Academic professionals (especially at the college and university level), including professors and researchers, are often given online space for creating and storing personal web documents, including personal web pages, CVs and a list of their books, academic papers and conference presentations, on the websites of their employers. This goes back to the early decade of the World Wide Web and its original purpose of providing a quick and easy way for academics to share research papers and data.

Researchers may have a personal website to share more information about themselves, about their academic activities and for sharing (unpublished) results of their research. This has been noted as part of the success of open-access repositories such as arXiv. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blog</span> Discussion or informational site published on the internet

A blog is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Website</span> Set of related web pages served from a single domain

A website is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, commerce, entertainment or social networking. Hyperlinking between web pages guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page. As of May 2023, the top 5 most visited websites are Google Search, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Spamdexing is the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes. It involves a number of methods, such as link building and repeating unrelated phrases, to manipulate the relevance or prominence of resources indexed in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system.

A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displaying information ; often, the user can configure which ones to display. Variants of portals include mashups and intranet dashboards for executives and managers. The extent to which content is displayed in a "uniform way" may depend on the intended user and the intended purpose, as well as the diversity of the content. Very often design emphasis is on a certain "metaphor" for configuring and customizing the presentation of the content and the chosen implementation framework or code libraries. In addition, the role of the user in an organization may determine which content can be added to the portal or deleted from the portal configuration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proxy server</span> Computer server that makes and receives requests on behalf of a user

In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. It improves privacy, security, and performance in the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web hosting service</span> Service for hosting websites

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web hosting services are sometimes called web hosts.

Social software, also known as social apps or social platform includes communications and interactive tools that are often based on the Internet. Communication tools typically handle capturing, storing and presenting communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a pair or group of users. They focus on establishing and maintaining a connection among users, facilitating the mechanics of conversation and talk. Social software generally refers to software that makes collaborative behaviour, the organisation and moulding of communities, self-expression, social interaction and feedback possible for individuals. Another element of the existing definition of social software is that it allows for the structured mediation of opinion between people, in a centralized or self-regulating manner. The most improved area for social software is that Web 2.0 applications can all promote co-operation between people and the creation of online communities more than ever before. The opportunities offered by social software are instant connections and opportunities to learn.An additional defining feature of social software is that apart from interaction and collaboration, it aggregates the collective behaviour of its users, allowing not only crowds to learn from an individual but individuals to learn from the crowds as well. Hence, the interactions enabled by social software can be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many.

IP address blocking or IP banning is a configuration of a network service that blocks requests from hosts with certain IP addresses. IP address blocking is commonly used to protect against brute force attacks and to prevent access by a disruptive address. It can also be used to restrict access to or from a particular geographic area; for example, syndicating content to a specific region through the use of Internet geolocation.

The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social interactions form the basis of much online activity including online shopping, education, gaming and social networking services. The social aspect of Web 2.0 communication has been to facilitate interaction between people with similar tastes. These tastes vary depending on who the target audience is, and what they are looking for. For individuals working in the public relation department, the job is consistently changing and the impact is coming from the social web. The influence held by the social network is large and ever changing.

Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Image sharing</span> Publishing or transfer of photos online

Image sharing, or photo sharing, is the publishing or transfer of digital photos online. Image sharing websites offer services such as uploading, hosting, managing and sharing of photos. This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of online photo galleries that are set up and managed by individual users, including photoblogs. Sharing means that other users can view but not necessarily download images, and users can select different copyright options for their images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web 2.0</span> World Wide Web sites that use technology beyond the static pages of earlier Web sites

Web 2.0 refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability for end users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">User-generated content</span> Online content created by users

User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is generally any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online content aggregation platforms such as social media, discussion forums and wikis. It is a product consumers create to disseminate information about online products or the firms that market them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piczo</span> Social network and blogging website

Piczo was a social networking and blogging website for teens. It was founded in 2003 by Jim Conning in San Francisco, California. Early investors included Catamount, Sierra Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, and Mangrove Capital Partners.

A social news website is a website that features user-posted stories. Such stories are ranked based on popularity, as voted on by other users of the site or by website administrators. Users typically comment online on the news posts and these comments may also be ranked in popularity. Since their emergence with the birth of Web 2.0, social news sites have been used to link many types of information, including news, humor, support, and discussion. All such websites allow the users to submit content and each site differs in how the content is moderated. On the Slashdot and Fark websites, administrators decide which articles are selected for the front page. On Reddit and Digg, the articles that get the most votes from the community of users will make it to the front page. Many social news websites also feature an online comment system, where users discuss the issues raised in an article. Some of these sites have also applied their voting system to the comments, so that the most popular comments are displayed first. Some social news websites also have a social networking service, in that users can set up a user profile and follow other users' online activity on the website.

Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the major reason for their popularity. Some popular social networks such as Twitter, Mastodon, Tumblr, Koo, and Instagram can be viewed as collections of microblogs.

A click path or clickstream is the sequence of hyperlinks one or more website visitors follows on a given site, presented in the order viewed. A visitor's click path may start within the website or at a separate third party website, often a search engine results page, and it continues as a sequence of successive webpages visited by the user. Click paths take call data and can match it to ad sources, keywords, and/or referring domains, in order to capture data.

Content creation is the act of producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. According to Dictionary.com, content refers to "something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts" for self-expression, distribution, marketing and/or publication. Content creation encompasses various activities including maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, article writing, photography, videography, online commentary, social media accounts, and editing and distribution of digital media. In a survey conducted by Pew, content creation was defined as "the material people contribute to the online world."

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop application, or other interfaces (API), and typically provides embed codes or links that allow others to view the video content.

References

  1. ↑ "People's Personal Web Sites - People Tell About Themselves" ..."some great personal Web sites Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine " -- about.com.
  2. ↑ Edwards, Benj. "Remembering GeoCities, the 1990s Precursor to Social Media". How-To Geek. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  3. ↑ HostingLords.com: "Personal Web Page Archived 2016-02-19 at the Wayback Machine "
  4. ↑ Zinkhan, George M.; Conchar, Margy; Gupta, Ajay; Geissler, Gary (1999). "Motivations Underlying the Creation of Personal Web Pages : an Exploratory Study". ACR North American Advances. NA-26.
  5. ↑ Ryan M. Frischmann (19 July 2014). Online Personal Brand: Skill Set, Aura, and Identity. Ryan Frischmann. p. 8. ISBN   978-1-5003-7098-5.
  6. ↑ Eight Clever Things You Can Do with Your Underused Personal Domain Name - lifehacker.com
  7. ↑ Weisbuch, Max; Ivcevic, Zorana; Ambady, Nalini (2009-05-01). "On being liked on the web and in the "real world": Consistency in first impressions across personal webpages and spontaneous behavior". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 45 (3): 573–576. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.009. ISSN   0022-1031. PMC   2674641 . PMID   20161314.
  8. ↑ Avenue, Next. "Beyond LinkedIn - Why You Need Your Own Website For A Job Search". Forbes .
  9. ↑ Motivation for: "A Web Page of One's Own" - WSJ.com -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121562102257039585.html
  10. ↑ "Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook - The Social Network".
  11. ↑ "How Uzi Nissan Lost Everything to Win His Name". Jalopnik.
  12. ↑ Create a free personal web page with Google -- "Get started with [free] Personal Web Pages"
  13. ↑ Más-Bleda, Amalia, and Isidro F. Aguillo. "Can a personal website be useful as an information source to assess individual scientists? The case of European highly cited researchers." Scientometrics 96.1 (2013): 51-67.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.