|
| |
Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to
contain content of a personal nature. The content can be about that person or
about something he or she is interested in. Personal web pages can be the entire
content of a domain name belonging to the person (which would then be a personal
website), or can be a page or pages that are part of a larger domain on which
other pages are located - an example of one such larger site is GeoCities.
Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment
purposes. Defining personal web page is difficult, because many domains or
combinations of web pages that are under the control of a single individual can
be used by the individual for commercial purposes, ranging from just the
presentation of advertising, to electronic commerce: the sale of goods, services
or information; in fact eBay began as the personal web page of Pierre Omidyar.
Personal web pages may be as simple as a single page or may be as elaborate as
an online database with gigabytes of data. Many Internet service providers offer
a few megabytes of space for customers to host their own personal web pages.
The content of personal web pages varies and can, depending on the hosting
server, contain anything that any other websites do. However, typical personal
web pages contain images, text and a collection of hyperlinks. Many can contain
biographical information, résumés, and blogs. Many personal pages will include
information about the author's hobbies and pastimes, and information of interest
to friends and family of the author.
Motivations
Many people maintain personal web pages because they are the most effective
medium to express their opinions or creative endeavours that, otherwise, simply
would not have an outlet. These types of sites may contain short fiction such as
short stories or samples of artwork. Other netizens view the concept of a
personal web pages with a more metaphysical bent, placing value in the concept
of owning space in and "residing" in cyberspace and on the World Wide Web. This
can also extend to the ownership of personal domain names and the associated
personal web pages and e-mail addresses connected to those domains, although
with the advent of affordable web hosting fewer people own or manage their own
personal servers. Currently, the vast majority of casual internet users tend to
utilize personal web pages included in the free services provided by social
networking sites such as MySpace and Blogger. Blogging is an emerging trend and
has simplified the process of creating a space of one's own.
Official celebrity sites
Many celebrities, (examples include actor William Shatner, author Stephen King,
and singer Barbra Streisand), have websites. Were their owners not famous, these
sites would generally be considered personal web pages. 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 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." 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 pop star Michael
Jackson and media mogul Martha Stewart, 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) are
often given space for creating and storing personal web documents, including
personal web pages, on the sites of their employers.
Criticisms
A common pejorative term for a personal web page is vanity site. This term is
often used by other internet users who consider personal web pages with no real
practical purpose or useful content to be pathologically narcissistic and a
waste of bandwidth . Also, since many personal web pages are produced by
individuals who have limited experience with HTML and graphic design, often
these sites are created with WYSIWYG HTML editors (like Microsoft Office
FrontPage or site-specific Web templates) and clipart graphics. This leads to
what many consider to be poorly-designed, amateurish, and monotonous sites .
Because most personal websites are ultimately unprofitable they are often hosted
for free in exchange for advertisements being placed on the web site. Hosting
companies encourage their customers to upgrade to paid hosting to remove the
adverts and for certain privileges such as server-side scripting. These
criticisms were most notably leveled at the personal homepages created by users
of free web hosting services such as GeoCities, Angelfire, and Tripod.com in the
mid to late 1990s. Some fear that social networking sites and products such as
Google Page Creator will revive this trend.
| |
|
