V is for Visitor

A website is made up of web pages. The pages are read whenever the site is visited.

So we don't talk of web readers but of site visitors. Site visitors read web pages.

People use browsers like Firefox and search engines like Google to browse or surf the web (not the waves).

The metaphors of the internet age are terribly mixed.

To browse in its original meaning could have a negative overtone. The Concise Oxford Dictionary says it means to "read desultorily" meaning half-hearted, disconnected, in a superficial manner. But we have for long also had a positive meaning as well: e.g. to browse a bookshop as a pastime or relaxation.

There are around 6 billion pages on the web in around 76 million websites, yet according to research published by the UK Cabinet Office in March 2006 51% of UK citizens say they only visit about 6 sites on a regular basis. Have we entered the era of the supersite, or are the British just a bit web-unimaginative?

Don't worry 49% of Brits are still surfing and of course the UK population is just a bit of the total WWW-connected population.

There is still good reason to build your website!