Generally, commercial websites are divided into eight categories namely search and portal, storage and infrastructure, information, entertainment, communication and social networking, e commerce, brand and personal identity, and crime.
Search and portal sites like Google, Yahoo!, Live, and Baidu (the popular Chinese search engine), are four of the top ten sites globally according to hits. Many people utilizes search engines to find the information which is required.
Storage and infrastructure sites will offer file hosting such as Rapidshare and Hotfile, ad networks such as Doubleclick and Clicksor, and content delivery networks such as Akamai are the most heavily trafficked destinations on the Internet.
Informational websites which mainly host information comprises of sites like Internet Movie Database (imbd.com) and TV.com. A host of other sites maintain archives, most notably newspaper and magazine websites like nytimes.com, CNN.com, and the Weatherchannel.com. Other informational websites are tens of thousands of blog sites on which users disclose information about several different topics. Most of the analysts use different categories to divide these sites, like sports, health, news, etc.
Entertainment sites comprises of free and open video sharing sites like YouTube and its Chinese counterpart Tudou, and also commercial streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, are famous online destinations. Entertainment sites consists of websites like NBA.com and NFL.com, and also gaming sites like poker.com and World of Warcraft. These sites are constantly including video. This category also has sites hosting pornography, which are in the top 100 sites globally in traffic.
Social networking and communication sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Mixi (popular Japanese social networking site) help users to be in touch with friends and professional colleagues. Sites like Twitter and qq.com, help users to quickly interact with each other. Sites like Flickr and Photobucket help users to share pictures and services like Scribd and Google Docs help users to share and assist documents.
Websites that support selling of products or services financially consists of both Web pure-play (online only) companies like Amazon, eBay, eSurance, Mint.com, and Taobou (the eBay of China), and also the millions of websites of brick-and-click businesses (conduct business on Internet and also at physical location), like BarnesandNoble.com or Borders.com.
Websites are designed by companies for customer service or general brand promotion and by individuals who have established websites to promote individual identity on the Web (informational and non-transactional in nature). Personal websites and blogs play major role in assisting people to find and learn more about each other.
Phishing websites (sites which make consumer believe that they are of a legitimate site, but they are not) and piracy websites, like Piratebay, isoHunt, and ZLM.com (the Russian movie piracy site), all provide connection to content by violation of content owners’ wishes.
