The evolution of technology has been increasing everyday, and it has become a medium for communicating all over the world. In this context the language is also evolving and changing. New words and expressions are coined, new meanings are given to existinging words as society, culture and technology progress.
It's really difficult to identify which language is used and how it has been changing, because there are many varieties of Web sites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use. The ones I will try to analyse can be defined "information sites"because their purpose is to inform readers about news, but they are not necessarily used for publicity.It has ( or at least it should have) an educational function. I chose the" BBC homepage" and the "Mirror homepage".Even if these websites are similar ,they different from many aspects.
From the ghrafical point of view both homepages are organized in many sections, each dealing with a particular aspect or news,and every news has subheading which explain shortly the fact.
Moreover the homepages contain music, videos and you can post instantly your comments to.
As far as language is concerned, the expressions used in the homepages are really different,the language used by the BBC site is standard , it's made up of short sentences, nouns are more frequent than verbs in headlines( e.g Your perspective on the word, Weather for London, etc).In many links you find questions to attract readers' attention, as "Can't find it?", but also imperative forms (watch and listen) or gerundiv as"Learning English". I think the BBC site recreates the genre used in its broadcast as the"Mirror" site is similar to its newspaper .
The language is full of colloquial expressions and idiomatic forms to grab readers' attention, as the editor said "As well as exclusive news, showbiz and sport from the paper, we'll be bringing you breaking stories as they happen and incisive analysis". or again in the subheadings you find such a sentence :"Paris Hilton showered with ice as all hell breaks loose after Michael Jackson show...". In my opinion the language is like a sort fo conversation between the author and the audience and really close to the one used for discussion forums or online diaries. This is maybe a strategy to make visitors feel more familiar with ( e.g.HE'S A FLOP..GET HIM OUT OF HERE). The high number of phrasal verbs or idiomatic expressions make the site site sound more informal, whereas the BBC site tends to be more formal.( e.g. Spain unveils Mid-East peace plan).
These are many other important things you can notice in the two websites,but I hope this short analysis give you a general idea of what you can find in them.

Lucrezia