pics + pros/cons

An example of a video streaming site is Youtube.

 

Youtube can be used to catch up on parts on tv shows that people have missed. This is useful as it means that it is not that difficult for people to find out what they have missed. However, only parts of the show are uploaded onto youtube. This is because the shows are copyrighted and it would be illegal.

There is a feature on youtube which remembers what videos you have watched and suggests similar videos based on what the tags are. This is useful as it can reslt in finding what you are interested in a lot quicker than searching.

Youtube has a search which enables people to quickly find the video they are after.

Youtubebe is primarily used to upload amateur videos that people have made. This can be explaining how to do something. However most amateur youtube videos aim to be comical and entetaining.

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Another type of streaming website is 4OD (channel 4 on demand). The difference between this and youtube is that 4OD made by channel 4 so can show whole programs without copyright enfringement.

Search bar-quickness
shows popular programs-quickness
only has channel 4 programs

Youtube is the primary source of listening to music on the internet.

Itunes to download music

search bar-quickness

There is a feature on Itunes which remembers what a person has bought or liked and suggests similar products. This is useful as it can mean a person can quickly find something wothout searching for it or without even knowing of its existance.

 
very wide variety but not everything (underground bands)
also sells audio books and downloadable films for computer and ipod/iphone etc

Example of games website is funny games

Most popular games-easy to see what others think is good
Newest games- quickly see new games adding no looking through lists
Links to classes of games-useful if after a specific genre
no search bar- hard to find certain game
annoying/ inappropriate adverts.

An example of an MMORPG is Runescape

News-quickly says how game has been changed
F2P(free to play) basic game, small area, less items
Members(pay monthly to play) full game, large area ots of items.


Another form of online entertainment is casino games. These games are electronic versions of games people would find in a casino. This means that people can play these games even when not at a casino. Most casino game websites provide an option to either bet with real money or to play for free. Using real money means that people can win money. However there is a greater chance or lossing a lot of money. Playing for free is just so people can enjoy the games.

online entertainment (music and games)

There are a few ways of listening to music through the internet. The most common method is to use a streaming video that only contains a few images with the music as the audio. This has all the advantages and disadvantages of using streamed videos.
The main advantage of using the internet to listen to music is very similar to the advantages of using the internet to watch movies. This is that it is possible to find music on the internet that can not be found on CDs
The other main way of listening to music from the internet involves downloading the music onto a computer and then playing the file. This method is useful as it means that people can listen to the music even when offline. By law people are required to pay to download music. This can cause a problem as there are a lot of sites that allow people to illegally download music.

There are a few main types of games on the internet. One of the most common types are free to play games generally made using either flash or adobe. They can generally be found on games websites where people upload the games they have made for any-one to play.
Most of these games are relatively simple and straight-forward to play. This is good as it means that it is possible just to "pick up and play" these games whenever they have some free time on a computer.
These games can have a feature where they can save some files known as cookies onto the computer. This is advantageous as the player can save what progress has been made in the game. However there are a few problems with these cookie files. The main one is that they can fill up space in a computers hard drive resulting in the computer becoming slower. The other problem is that these cookies can contain virus files that can damage a computer.
The other main type of online gaming is in the form of MMORPGs(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). In these games the player creates a character that they control in the game. These characters can be made to interact with characters that other people have made.
Normally it is free to play a basic version of these games, however in order to be able to access everything in the game people will have to pay. These payments can either be a 1-time payment or a monthly charge.
These games are normally found on sites specifically made by the company that made the game for that game.
These games do not use cookies to save a persons progress, instead all the data is stored on a central server that the company has. When a person logs in their computer connects with the server to receive the saved game data. This means that it is possible to play these games from any computer.
It normally takes a very long time to create a powerful character in the game. This has resulted in people buying charcaters from other people, sometimes for really large sums of oney.

online entertainment (videos)

There are a lot of different types of entertainment available via the internet. The main types of entertainment are watching videos, either professional or amateur,  listening to music and playing online games.
A professional video is generally a video made by a company which is then usually sold to make money. An amateur video is generally made by the general public and not sold for money.
The main advatage of watching films on the internet is that it is possible to watch videos that are not available to watch on tele. These include various amateur videos, programs that are no longer being aired, or programs not aired in a particular region or country.
Most websites that enable people to watch videos enable a streaming feature. This is were it is possible to wath the video while it is being down loaded to the computers tempory internet files.
This means that it is is possible to start watching a video before it has been completely downloaded. This is very useful either for very large computer files or for when the internet is not downloading quickly.
The main disadvantage of this type of service is that if the internet is being very slow, possibly due to a lot of people watching movies via streaming services, the movie can play faster than it is being streamed. This results in the point where the movie is playing "catching up" with the point it has streamed to. This will result in the movie being stopped until it has streamed sufficiantly to continue. When the internet is particularly slow it is not uncommon for movies to play for about 2 seconds then have to stream for a few seconds only to play about 2 more seconds before having to stream for another few seconds.
Another problem is where one or more of the streaming bytes gets corrupted as it is is downloaded onto the compter. This can result in the movie freezing or the picture becoming disjointed with the sound. This is sometimes fixed by refreshing the page. If that does not work the only way to be able to watch the movie is to clear the tempory files. This is problematic as it takes a very long time to do and can cause problems on other websites.
 Another way of watching movies from the internet is to download them completely to a computer and then watch them. This is normally the case with professional videos as there is a possibility of copy-right infringement if they are available via streaming.