What is the internet today?

The internet itself today is not just changing itself, it is changing us with it and the world as a whole. With the millions of people logging on round the world, creating, sharing, spending, talking it is a wonder such a vast, uncontrollable machine has not crashed. For all the problems though, someone, somewhere is stepping forward with a fresh solution, or even a new product you had no idea you couldn't live without. On the waves of the world wide web are surfers building wonderful creations and here I want to look into the most prominent new sites.

Gaming

Take gaming as just one small example of a renaissance on the internet. While the technical changes have been significant, it is the alteration to the way "online gaming" has been presented as a service that have made the biggest alteration. Prior to the changes, though mostly free, PC gamers had an account per game. Today it is the standard to have a universal account across all games 

Xbox Live

Xbox Live is a subscription based digital retailer and online service that allows users to download a variety of content and play with one another online. It is run and published by Microsoft for their Xbox 360 gaming system but also has been extended somewhat to the P.C and eventually the Windows Live 7 phones.

Each player has his own personnel account with a name, or “Gamertag” they choose. Along with this data the account holds links to friends and their accounts, a feedback system, digital receipt for all purchases and a record of games played and performance in them. Performance is denoted by “Gamerscore” within each retail game 1,000 points are available and are earned for performing specific tasks, as chosen by the games developers. Variations exist for online distributed “Arcade” games that are typically smaller or for add-ons after the games release. Since implementation the “Gamerscore” system has attracted a following of dedicated fans and multiple websites and forums have grown to support this. Games with fun or easy requirements typically do much better at retail than other, similar games and the system has been copied by all of Microsoft’s competitiors.

The service is run through a closed operating system pre-installed onto the Xbox that by terms and conditions cannot be tampered with. The benefit of this is primarily to discourage and impede piracy, but also allows Microsoft complete control and access to data, allowing them to target advertising to specific people. All content made available must be approved by Microsoft , and while independent developers are supported, the process is complex and generally expensive, requiring an additional £250 games maker license for games to be made even eligible for upload. This contrasts the P.Cs free market of home brew games and modifications for games which was a substantial market just a few years ago. However, the P.C games industry has since mostly collapsed, primarily because of the general benefits to the standardised consoles but also because the unpoliced attitude to the platform allowed piracy to eat substantial numbers of sales making developing for the P.C financially impossible. As such, the P.C market has since changed to a subscription basis model, such as the runaway success of World of Warcraft and it’s ilk.

However, Xbox has been criticised for being too strict with it’s rules and regulations. Popular developer Valve have not published some downloadable content for it’s titles due to disputes over mandatory pricing. Furthermore, Microsoft will not co-operate with some new features, so services like OnSteam that allows save games to be backed up on external servers that is available on it’s competitors system.

The pricing system is also fiercely argued over by the fanbase. Currently it is the only one amongst it’s market who charges for use, though the Playstation Network (PSN) is adding a premium service. While a free option is available it contains none of the services and essentially serves as an advert for the full price version. Currently Xbox Live is charging £40 per year. For this the gamer gets the ability to play online, hold multiple voice chats, download from an extended library, stream movies, music and television and access social networking sites. Unlike the PSN an online browser is not available. The cited reason for this is to stop ad revenue going to external sites instead of those paying Microsoft and prevent piracy, though it is argued if we are paying why can’t we go were we want.

The money payed is said to cover running costs, further developments and servers for playing online. However certain developers, such as industry giant Activision have expressed plans to make their games subscription based following the P.Cs current model. This is causing some dispute as to whether customers are being charged twice for the same thing.

The primary improvement possible is to expand these accounts cross platform. This is in all manufacturers best interest as it in no way takes from there profit but users on rival systems will be able to see what other friends are playing. However this far in rehauling established accounts is highly detrimental, so instead I think some third party will step in to universalise the various accounts, somewhat being attempted currently by sites such as GiantBomb

Communication

Chat, I.M, forums, E-Mail and archiving have also undergone dramatic changes and the lines between them have substantially blurred. Not so long ago sites and functions had specific purposes. It used to be that Blogs were the public announcement to the world, a place to post editorials, opinions or even just a daily diary. Social networking sites have since removed the diary feature almost entirely, with Twitter allowing people who want to talk to the greater public, most typically celebrities, a superior platform to do so. The more intimate conversations have been absorbed by facebook.

Facebook

Facebook is an online social networking site that was launched in February 2004. Today it has more than 500 millionactive users as of July 2010.

Users can create “profiles” and attach photos, personal information like birthdays, parties etc. and upload a “status”. All of these can be commented on or “liked”. Chat can be done publically in the comment sections, privately in an incorporated IM feature. Likewise, users can leave public messages on their wall or privately through an internal e-mail system. Users can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" which range from jokes, ideas or forms of media/art like films or TV. Some of these are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising or are simply fan run.

The first name basis and expectation to have a real photograph means finding people is much easier than with previous sites, and emphasis is given to finding friends and as many contacts as possible.

In addition the site runs a variety of flash based games such as MafiaWars and Farmville, which have grown to be incredibly successful, becoming a business venture of their own and incorporating real life money.

The site is free to join and revenue is made by advertising banners dotted around the page. Users are able to manage their own security stating who and under what conditions people can view their profiles. It is requirement that users use their real name instead of a username and features no customizability unlike competitor MySpace.

Facebook also allows users to upload an unlimited amount of photos, putting it ahead of other dedicated sites like Photobucket or Flickr.

The site itself is very minimalist, utilising a simple white and blue colour scheme for all it's pages. The interface can be split into two parts, profile pages and the wall. Everything from apps to games to users has an individual profile page with links to associated images abd information. On the other hand a user has a dedicated wall built for them, a collage of status updates and recent activity that is tailored to show the user what they want to see based on number of interactions with that user and individual selections to hide unwanted content.

Furthermore integration into other sites, pretty much all of any notability, make Facebook a better way to share content found on the internet.

Much of Facebooks success can be attributed to it's universal adoption by so many people, regardless of the quality of the site the shear amount of users would encourage people to follow the trend and sign up. The vast amount of services rolled into one account and the slick minimalist presentation only add to the perfect storm of social networking.

Blogs today remain in a different form, either for editorials or as a universally accessed word processor, making it a successful archiving site.

E-Mail has also changed as family and friends now primarily contact over Facebook. The requirement to hand out an address makes it more private and the confidentiality attributes it more business based use.

Business

Business has always benefited from technology and the internet, the ability to know stuff instantly at any time being very important. Most recently I think the "apps" on modern smart phones have become a primary source of real time information delivered directly to user on the move.

Online banking has also benefitted, though not fundamentally. While having been adopted by many banks it feels more like a helpful addition to an existing trade. 

Online retail, on the other hand, has boomed into a very different industry. The benefits of not having to store goods on physical shelves, in physical buildings with many employees and large, expensive parking lots has allowed salesman to maximise profits greatly while offering a better service to the consumer. Furthermore, anybody can now retail what they like on their terms.

Ebay

An American organisation, eBay is an online auctioning and shopping site where people and business go to buy and sell and vast array of goods, focusing on no real area at all. Today it has operations in other 30 countries worldwide.

In September 1993 Iranian computer programmer founded the site as AuctionWeb. In 1996 they made a contract with third party seller “Electronic Travel Auctioneer” to sell plane tickets. Growth skyrocketed and in January the site hosted 2 million auctions compared to 250,000 in the whole of 1996. In September 1997 they changed their name to eBay. Originally the site was to be called echobay.com, after the founders company, but this domain was already taken and so the second choice was settled on.

With funding by Benchmark Capital the site relaunched on September 21, 1998. The target price of shares was only $18 but by the first day was selling at $53.30, making the founders instant billionaires. As the site expanded to almost any item business grew quickly. With the acquisition of paypal  in 2002 the site secured almost a monopoly in the online auctioning market.

The system works as a user creates an entry, stating the name, condition, category, posting costs and starting bid. The attachment of images and a “buy it now” price are optional but encouraged. A user either bids an increment above the previous bid, hoping to “win” or can pay the “buy it now” option, which is typically higher but guarantees the bidder success. Many options of payment are available, but considerably the most used is a paypal system. Paypal is an online bank account that holds, receives and dispenses funds. Though owned by eBay the site is separate, though the facilities are greatly implemented on eBay. The purchaser can transfer money from a credit or debit card into the sellers paypal account in exchange for the item, or if they have funds in one of their own paypal accounts can pay from that. This is a great system for eBay as it encourages buyers and sellers to frequently use the site. The seller is expected to send the item via the countries mail system, but this is integrated into eBay and the paypal system. The seller can print a postage label, payed for by the paypal. This also has the option to insure the item for it’s exact selling value. Along with the label a proof of posting form is printed and when given to a post office in conjunction with the package insures the buyer and seller completely if the item goes missing, though if the seller is feeling lucky he can just post it.

To further protect the buyer the seller has a feedback score, the more successful sales the seller has done the higher his score. The system is anonymous so feedback is more likely to be honest.

eBay makes it’s profit from a selection of fees, 15p-£3 per £100 for the initial listing and 75p-£100 as 0.1% of the final selling price. The rate depends on exactly what kind of object has been sold.

While eBay sell anything tangible they must also adhere to local laws, meaning in the U.K no weapons, objects specifically for bomb making, “perverse” goods or services or meta-physical objects. If an item infringing on these rules is posted eBay is obliged to remove it.

Entertainment

Another great example of new mediums being created by the internet. While existing distributors, such as television companies have attempted to dent in on the market they have had relatively little success and they most certainly feels like an additional place to watch television. Instead it is the vast amount of user made content being uploaded that has created a medium all of it's own, most notably in the case of video-sharing site You Tube

You Tube

YouTube is a website which users can upload, share, and view videos. It also has integrated forums ability beneath each video. It was set-up by three former paypal employees in February 2005.

An account isn’t required to view videos, though to upload, rate, and comment or watch videos only available to older audiences an account must be made. Prior to YouTube internet users had very limited methods of uploading. With it’s simple interface YouTube opened up this ability, and likewise the universal hub for watching videos attracted many, meaning uploaded videos could potentially be watched by anyone elsewhere on the Earth.

It’s social status today is very high and YouTube can be seen as the most popular part of internet culture, with “viral” videos or memes gaining millions of views and having influences all across the internet.

The user created nature has led to many internet success’ and homebrew gems, though YouTube has encountered criticism because users can upload copyrighted material without permission. The site has a strong and strictly enforced user agreement and holds the right to remove videos or users at will, although the simplicity to recreate an account and reupload the video makes tackling this problem nigh on impossible.

Occasionally some of the content is inappropriate with pornography, animal cruelty and other illegal content contained. Though hard work is done to keep the site clean this is still a major problem.

Tackling copyright and illegal content YouTube higher a 24/7 team that review content.

Corporate presence is ever growing and in attempt to replicate the success of some of the videos forced publicity stunts often show up. Furthermore, adverts, clips and videos are released in conjunction with other products in order to frenzy interest, for example music videos to a new album or trailers and behind-the-scenes footage of  an upcoming movie.

The site makes revenue through advertising that appears in side boxes or at the bottom of the playing video. While this removes fees they can be very annoying and intrusive.

Previously the videos could be rated on a scale of 1-5 stars but today this has been changed to a “like” or “dislike” button, gauging the general reception.

 In addition, other info like when and how many views the content has had is included below. The user can attach a “description” outlining the video or providing back-story to its creation if they wish.

Furthermore, alternative audio tracks and annotations can be added, allowing users to cater for different languages. The annotations can be used creatively such as to add lyrics or hyperlink to other videos.

The videos can be in almost any quality and the ability to upload in high definition is now available, though the processing process typically damages the picture and notably the audio quality. This is often cited as YouTube’s primary downfall and where it’s competitors capitalise, with a large amount of professional quality content being attached to competitor blip.tv’s service instead.

The comments section has become a major feature and an internet standard for most other sites today, but YouTube was one of the first to implement it and so fully. Videos, channels and users have comment boards and while watching the video visitors can discuss it and read others people comments. The major innovation was loading the comments and allowing them to be uploaded without refreshing the page and restarting the video, meaning conversation and watching the video can be done simultaneously.  Typically these are quotes from the video people have found amusing, discussions such as issues raised or comparisons to other works, though alot of these comments can be negative and spiteful, with many videos being overrun by “trolls”, people who serve to annoy the target audience or to upset uploaders. Because of the high viewing figures some people or “bots” acting on their behalf post adverts without paying. Though this will result in an immediate ban when found, but the delay between being discovered and how many people see the video makes this non-the-less profitable.

The huge amount of content now being uploaded would result in an internet overload, had middle men not stepped in to provide the much needed content

Todays Big Thing

A subsidary of InterActiveCorp, Today's Big Thing catalogues funny or interesting media. Videos and images, hosted and created by third parties, are uploaded, categorised and presented on the website. The gimmick is only one of each category, "Entertainment", "Sports", "Technology", "Music", "Funny Video" "Cute Animals" and "Pictures" are presented daily, with a winner presented on the "Today's Big Thing" frontpage, redirected from the URL.

The videos are embedded, typically in a custom flash player, but sometimes in other formats depending on origin, such as YouTube or CollegeHumour's video player. The video takes centre place in the middle of the page. The video is accompanied by the author and a hyperlink to whatever page the content was taken from. A description is present, though typically this is normally just a joke.  Along with this are a variety of sharing options are available, like a Digg link or the ability to share on facebook. Unlike many competitors no comments section is available. Though this often seen as a disadvantage, it removes the need for forum moderators, prevents "trolls" from making the content adult, losing younger or more conservative viewers and generally fits the minimalistic aesthetic. Below is a list of other day's videos and a search bar is present for older content.

The company make money through advertising, with banners above, below and to the right of the video. The one video/one page design and daily nature of the website means an individual can see many adverts in one sitting of the site. The high amount of integrated sharing capabilities are to attract more viewers, who generate revenue.

The page design is reminiscent of the single serving sites of the 90's in very little unnecessary data is available. However the primary colour scheme and replicated house style across "categories" maintains a professional look and feel and the little touches, such as each category having an individual take on the colour scheme and this being replicated when the cursor hover over them in the nav bar reinforce this image.

Finding a practically limitless audience of internet users from confused new adopters to old pros, TBT provides a service by surfing through the mass of the internet for the gems and making them easily available to anyone.

Conclusion

The internet is ever growing, but in many ways it is streamlining itself and conforming to a few major websites instead of thousands of new little ones. Where a problem arises a business oppurtunity opens; to present a much needed service to the millions of users.