You may have come across the term 'web hosting' before and wondered what exactly it meant.  In general it is a term which refers to the saving and providing of data for private or public users of the internet.  It is quite a broad term and can be applied to many different varieties of data (such as images, music, text, and so forth), but usually is used when referring to the hosting of websites for private individuals and companies. 

Web hosting is the service that a web hosting company or internet service provider (ISP) offers to customers who want to have a site-based presence on the internet.  As we all know, websites are great marketing tools and can be relied upon to bring in additional business, extra customers, and many new readers and fans.

In basic terms, every website you visit - whether it is a large website such as Google, or a small one such as a page for a local band or business - has to be hosted somewhere.  In other words, the information your computer receives and processes from each website you look at must be stored in a physical location such as a server.  Every time someone enters the web address for the website in question, the server storing the data will be contacted through the magic of the internet by the computer trying to view the site, and will send the necessary information to the computer so that the website can be viewed properly. 

Even if you don't have your own website, you may find you are using a form of web hosting anyway.  Whenever you upload something to the internet, for example (such as pictures on Facebook or diary entries and songs to MySpace) this data has to be 'hosted' or stored somewhere.