What is a web site?

On the web now a days the definition of a website in terms of a collection of web pages and resources on a domain name is blurring. For example our website has sub domains. We are also using web forwarding. Also we are using Google Apps. Where we start and where we end is blurring. We use many solutions of Google. So where do we start and where Google starts is the issue. We use Google authentication for most tasks. In fact such blurring is there that on the face of it we found us more integrated with Google than DoubleClick.com which is a Google company. For all our needs we first check if there is any Google service available.

This blurring lead us to an interesting question : What is a web site?

At first the question seemed childish as we have been on the web since many years. In fact even raising the question seemed laughable. When we tried to answer the question seemed a heavy one to answer crisply. There was no direct answer which can accommodate the reality that there was a blurring between two web domains. Where our site ends and Google's starts was a question. Also many things were commonly used but were not compulsory. Therefore we brainstormed and then eliminated as many optional things as we could. Every thing that was left raised other important questions.

The following constituents that make a web site were left for us:
  • Domain Names
    • Are sub domains part of main site?
    • Are masked domains part of same site or are they different site?
    • Are forwarding domain names not web sites specially when they are more commonly used?
  • Hosting
    • Is the physical location of hosting important or not?
    • Is FTP important or not? 
  • MIME Type
  • Binary Data
  • Protocols
    • HTTP
    •  Are more protocols required?
  • Standards
    • HTML
    • XHTML (What's its penetration?)
    • CSS
    • ECMAScript
    • DOM
    • URI
    • What others are important? 
  • Authentication
    • Proprietary
    • OpenID
    • OAuth
    • Google Login
    • Are there more common authentication mechanisms?
  • UNICODE
    • Does it cover all major languages and scripts?
    • Is there universal support for it?
  • Access Control
  • Browser
    • Internet Explorer
    • Mozilla Firefox
    • Google Chrome
    • Safari
    • Opera
    • Are there more?
    • Are they relevant?
    • What are the differences between mobile browsers and desktop browsers?
    • When are mobile browsers expected to be as good as desktop browsers?
    • What are the major mobile browsers?
    • Do mobile browsers support HTML 5?
  • Devices
    • Desktop Computer
    • Laptop
    • Net book
    • Tablet
    • Smart Phone
    • Television
    • Feature Phone (What is its definition?)
    • Whats the difference between all these?
    • Are there more important device categories ?
  • DOM
  • IP Addresses
    • We are currently using IPv4 or IPv6?
    • How to get a static IP?
The following parameters for customization of content were also discovered by us:
  • User
  • Language
  • Geography [Country / City / Region]
  • User Agent [Browser/Bot]
  • Device Features [Screen Size / Colors / OS]
  • IP Address
  • Referer
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