How to describe different kinds of websites in English

The Internet is huge, and there are a lot of different kinds of websites out there. If you spend time on the Internet, it's helpful to be able to talk about the different kinds of websites you use in English. Here's an overview of some of the different kinds of sites you might come across:

Social Media sites

A social media site is something like Facebook or Twitter, which allows you to communicate with other people.

You can also call these sites "social media networks":

I don't have time to try out every new social media network that pops up.

 

E-commerce sites

An e-commerce site is an online store. You can buy things on it. One example of an e-commerce site is Amazon.com.

An e-commerce site might just sell stuff from one brand, or it might be a marketplace that connects sellers and buyers.

 

News sites

News sites like The New York Times are like online newspapers. They report on recent events.

Another term that you may hear is news portal. A "portal" is a website that has links to lots of other websites. A good example of that is Yahoo.com, which has sections for sports, finance, weather, and other topics.

 

Blogs

A "blog" is a website with articles arranged by date, with the newest article first. There are food blogs, tech blogs, political blogs, and personal blogs.

Most blogs are small websites written by a single person, though some have many authors and millions of readers.

 

Online Services

Some websites are made to do things for you. For example, this website was created to help you learn English. You might use the word "service" to describe this website:

It's an online service that helps people to learn English.

Another example of a "service" is dropbox.com, which allows you to easily share files between different computers.

These kinds of websites are usually either free or subscription services. If a company gives away some services for free but charges users for extra features, you can call it a "freemium service".

 

Forums

A forum is a website where people have written discussions. Discussions are arranged by topic. Sometimes users' comments are threaded so you can see who responded to each other.

Most forums are dedicated to a specific topic, like a particular TV show, a sport, a hobby, etc.

 

Porn sites

This list of website types would not be complete without discussing porn sites. These are websites where you can look at pornography - videos or pictures of people having sex or posing without their clothes on.

 

Portfolios

An artist, photographer, or model might have an online portfolio which shows examples of their work.

 

Wikis

A wiki is a specific kind of website that allows users to edit its content. The most popular example of a wiki is Wikipedia.

 

Tutorial sites

A "tutorial" teaches you how to do something useful, in a short, easy-to-understand way. Some tutorial sites are full of tutorials on things like photography, computer programming, woodworking, and other skills.

  Print this Article