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The third is the integrative portal sites which are still the largest websites in China. Like sina, sohu, 163.com and so on. They are very famous among the net-citizens because of the large information everyday. But in other words they are not in the same way as those famous traditional newspapers: they have no or few reporters but many editors:) It is said the most regular important thing is copy paste. In my opinion they like huge animals, awesome, but slow-action. Nowadays it’s not “large fish eats small one” but “quick fish eats slow one”. Their hugeness may be big resistance to keep developing.

What’s next? I think the next big thing will be the searching engine and the professional portal. For the portal sites like sina, because of the RSS technology’s widely using, some personal sites can import the news produced by sina and we can read it easily, without opening sina’s large page and bearing the lots of advertisements. So the pageview of these portal sites will decrease and the incoming by Ads in page will also decrease. Because of the inexhaustible information in the internet, we will depend on the searching engine much more. Without it we can’t find the useful things in the net and will be lost. Baidu is the largest Chinese searching sites now, while Google is the biggest one in the world. Which will be better in the next decade is an interesting thing. I prefer Google more:)

How about professional portal then? Where will you go if want to buy a notebook, computer market or supermarket? I guess most of us will choose the front. It’s the same to find or study something in the network. Professional sites will be much more believable. What are the examples? CSDN is the professional programmer site, taobao is the professional C2C trading site, YouXia is the professional PC game site, etc.

Some other company will be remarkable for sure. Because the large number of QQ’s user, QQ.com easily get into the top 5 sites in China. MSN.com.cn is mussy now but nobody will look down on it.

What do you think? Is there any other sites missed?

In the short “history” of China internet development, we can easily point out several gradations.

The first is the sites of ISP (Internet Service Provider). At that time the internet is not widely used as today. Most of people had just heard of it but had no actual experiences. And because of the large costs, the internet was regarded as the mystical tool of some experts. Even how to connect to the net (by modem dialing) was unknown to the public. So when an employee set up the connection for you, usually he also set the homepage of your browser (the Netscape navigator was the best one) to the ISP’s site. So for many friends include me, the first step to the cyberspace is from that site The Yin-Haiwei may be the most important one of them. It was so famous because of the sign near to the company by a road: “You are 1500m away from information highway!” But several days ago the news said the YHW was sold at a very low price.

(ps: I can’t find a valid url for IHW, but someone make this site, maybe for just remember.)

The second is the provider of some free services. The expense of surfing was not totally unacceptable but still very high. So we were so glad to find some free services, like email webspace and so on. Some sites, most of which had a numerical domain name, appeared. I still remember every newspapers and magazines had some of this news. We compared the number of free-emails with each other. We registered every free services we can find even no need indeed Free service was the best method to making site well-known. But no one could support and continue to be free for ever. How about these sites today? Some are still alive but not as famous as they were, like 163.net and 263.net. Some have disappeared with the wind, like 371.net and 188.net.

(To be continued…)

What is internet? Hmm, maybe you will tell me it’s the world-wide-web or the network which can make all of us living in a small earth-village. But I feel it’s more and more like a large closed network.

I met the internet very early, at about ten yeas ago en I’m only 16 as a freshman of middle-school. At that time computer was generally regarded as a computing device and only scientists need it. Nearly none of families had PC. I use a ancient modem to call 163 (the number of ISP, which I can’t remember clearly) at the poor speed of 9600bps (it means you can down at the speed for 1k/s most). The cost is more than 30rmb/h (it’s very very expensive at that time, about 1/10 of my father’s salary).

Even with that low speed I can still felt, the internet is free, and world-wide. If I want, I could find everything in the net. Of course google is not exist then and searching is difficult. But I could still visit any website and get any information.

From when? Our dear government noticed that the free internet may threaten the society stability. So another battle started in the cyberspace. A new occupation called cyberspace-policemen pay attention to the internet and cut off any websites they think illegal. Hehe, it likes a scene of the famous movie — the Matrix. But it’s real.

How bad? Nearly all the universities’ BBS (Bulletin Board Service) are intranet. That means only the students in the area of universities can visit their own one but can’t go to others. Maybe someone will think that’s nothing. But when smth, which is the most famous BBS in China as its academic status, was closed to the outside someday, thousands of people found no where to communicate their sights. Thanks gods, we now have the newsmth instead.

And more? Nowadays, in some cases, we can’t use Chinese to write, chat, even blog about some keywords like freedom, democracy, independence, etc. That sounds like a joke. I insist the appropriate control is needed but the too strict one is terrible. Now the control we are under is just terrible.

Not serious? About five years ago, a crazy professor suggested the government to start a plan called “China C Network” which is absolute break off from the internet and can be controlled very easily. Because you must use the true name when you post in that network. I can’t imagine what the world would be if that plan was put into practice.

What is internet? It is just a large intranet we can play with.