A website is a set of interlinked words, images, video and sound, and usually with links to other websites. Each piece of interlinked content is coded by web developers so that people using a browser, such as Internet Explorer™ or Netscape™, can find the website and see its contents, select images to print or select and pay for products and services.  

Here are some of the defining features of the Web and websites that make it such a powerful tool. A website...  

• can be used to inform, promote, market, entertain, educate and train, and buy and sell goods and services
• can contain text, images, animations, diagrams, illustrations, maps, video and sound, all of which can be manipulated, edited, copied, stored and audited at any time
• is capable of being accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or whenever users are interested in "visiting" it
• knows no borders - it is global
• can be highly interactive, allowing  the user not merely to see or hear information but to interact with it and other users via email, discussion groups and various types of forums
• can be constructed to allow authors to personalise it so that different users see only those aspects of the site that they want to see
• does not know a person's race, colour, creed, socio-economic status or cultural background
• can provide links to other websites at the click of a mouse button, thereby creating a reservoir of inter-connected information
• can be used by business and consumers to order and distribute goods and services
• can enable the secure exchange of money for goods and services.