📕 Part 1: Websites

This episode's vocabulary

Hoarder (n) – a person who collects and keeps large amounts of something, often secretly. → He’s a book hoarder; he has bookshelves in every room of his house.

Bookmarked (v) – to record the address of a website on your computer so that you can find it again easily. → I have a few of my favorite news sites bookmarked so I can see them every morning.

Log on to (phrasal verb) – to connect to a computer system by putting in a particular set of letters or numbers. → I log on to Duolingo to practice different languages.

Layout (n) – the way in which the parts of something, such as a website or a page, are arranged. → The BBC news site changes its layout all the time.

Aggressive marketing (phrase) – using forceful and determined methods to promote and sell products. → Duolingo is much more aggressive with its marketing than it used to be.

Social media sites (n) – websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. → I used to look at lots of different social media sites, but nowadays it's just Instagram.

Online encyclopedia (n) – a digital reference work or compendium holding a comprehensive summary of information. → Lots of people go on Wikipedia, which is a popular online encyclopedia.

Search engine (n) – a program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords specified by the user. → Google is the most popular search engine in the world.

Get a lot of traffic (idiom) – (for a website) to have a large number of visitors. → Search engines and social media sites get a lot of traffic.

Video essay (n) – a piece of video content that presents an argument or an analysis about a particular topic. → I love listening to the different video essays and documentaries on YouTube.

Keeps me entertained (phrase) – provides someone with amusement or enjoyment. → Watching videos on YouTube always keeps me entertained.

Run a search (collocation) – to perform a search on a computer or network. → People often run Google searches to check facts.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What's your favorite website?

Rory: Probably YouTube, I'd say. I love listening to the different video essays and documentaries and audiobooks on there. It always keeps me entertained.

Maria: What kinds of websites do you often visit?

Rory: Apart from YouTube, I have a few of my favorites bookmarked so I can see them every morning. I check the news on the BBC's news site and the weather for the day as well. So news sites. And I log on to Duolingo to practice different languages. So I don't know what kind of website that would be, like a language practice website. And then there are a couple of market research sites that I complete surveys on just at the start of my day when I'm not doing much.

Maria: Have the websites you often visit changed over the years?

Rory: Oh, absolutely. The BBC changes its layout all the time and Duolingo is much more aggressive with its marketing than it used to be. I also used to look at lots of different social media sites, but nowadays it's just Instagram and that's about it.

Maria: What kinds of websites are popular in your country?

Rory: Good question. I suppose the ones I mentioned, like anything connected to social media and the news. Lots of people go on Wikipedia and run Google searches to check things. So anything like online encyclopedias and search engines will get a lot of traffic along with AI sites as well. I think everyone is on them these days for various reasons.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listener. Websites. I asked Rory, what's your favorite website? What did he say? Did he say success with IELTS?

Rory: I was tempted, but.

Maria: What's your problem, Rory, seriously, seriously, what's your problem? SuccesswithIELTS.com?

Rory: We've done our advertising.

Maria: Yeah, but come on, so it's not your favorite website. No, it's not. It's not your favorite. Dear listener, do you see? We tell you the truth, on this podcast. Right, dear listener. So we tell you the truth. And Rory has just admitted that...

Rory: Our website is not my favorite. It's not my favorite. I'm sorry. I like YouTube.

Maria: Is YouTube a website?

Rory: Well you can, you can listen to our episodes on YouTube, so it's not that bad.

Maria: Is YouTube even a website?

Rory: Yes, absolutely. It's a website, a video hosting platform. You have to type in a web address to go there.

Maria: Yes, it is a website, dear listener. It's the second most visited website in the world.

Rory: What's the most visited one? Is it Google?

Maria: Ooh, I've just Googled it and,

Rory: You just asked Google what the most popular website is.

Maria: Yes, Google, Google. In May 2026, Google had the largest number of visits. It's over 100 billion visits. Then YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, chat.gpt.com, Reddit, Wikipedia, and then... Oh yeah, WhatsApp, TikTok, Amazon, XHamster.com. Oh, there's also, right. So weather.com is actually at the bottom of the list. But dear listener, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT, Reddit and Wikipedia. They are top websites. And you can talk about them. Now you know the trends, all right. And you can say, yeah, I love listening to different videos. I love listening to IELTS Speaking for Success podcast on YouTube. Listen to something on YouTube. I listen to documentaries, audiobooks. It keeps me entertained. Keeps me amused, keeps me happy. So it gives me fun. So you visit websites, you go to websites, you use different websites. And I check the news on BBC website. Oh, how English is this, Rory, using BBC.

Rory: Well, that's what it's there for.

Maria: I check up the weather, I check the weather forecast. Also, Rory told us about Duolingo. It's a website for learning languages. Also, they have an application. So, Duolingo, if you want to get in touch, just go ahead. We can do something together. And, dear listener, what websites do you use? Maybe some local ones. But you can name the website and say, yeah, I check the weather, I check the news, I listen to this, I watch this, I read, I learn.

Rory: But whatever you do with them, it might keep you entertained. So if you find something fun, it keeps you entertained.

Maria: About the past, you can say, I used to use blah, blah, blah. These days, I normally visit Google, or I usually use Google. I used to use Facebook, but now I'm on Instagram. I used to use blah, blah, but now TikTok. I look at different social media sites. I use different social media. And again, on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, maybe your local websites. And which websites are popular in your country? So, I've just told you, right? Google, they are popular all over the world. Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT, Reddit. And actually it's ChatGPT, not some other AI. Amazon perhaps. Oh, now some local websites.

Rory: But you will need to explain what you can do on them. For example, on YouTube, you can listen or watch video essays, documentaries, and audiobooks. But when you go onto a site and you need a password, you have to log on.

Maria: Google is a search engine. It is a website, but to be more specific, it's an online search engine. You search for things on Google. And you can say, oh, I go on the Wikipedia.

Rory: Yeah, or I go to Wikipedia. Both of them are okay.

Maria: On a website. Yeah.

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: I read it on Wikipedia, I go to Wikipedia.

Rory: But you run a search, or you run a Google search.

Maria: I use different AI websites.

Rory: Perplexity, ChatGPT.

Maria: Now what else? Gemini?

Rory: Oh god, there's about three billion of them these days. Claude.

Maria: Yeah, but you see, according to semrush.com, ChatGPT is the most popular.

Rory: I think that's just because we hear about it on the news all the time.

Maria: Do you have a favorite AI website?

Rory: Perplexity. Yeah, I usually use Perplexity.

Maria: I like Claude. When Claude decides to work.

Rory: All right, okay.

Maria: I'm checking some other website and it's also Google, YouTube, ChatGPT, Wikipedia, Amazon. Baidu. That's Chinese, right? Netflix. Baidu. I think Baidu is to learn Chinese, or Baidu Maps. There we go. I couldn't download them for some reason. But Google, almost 90 billion visits every month. Oh, gosh. A 90 billion visits, dear listener. Can you imagine? Every month. It's insane. How many people are there in the world?

Rory: How many searches are they running?

Maria: Okay, what's population, Google?

Rory: It's like seven billion people.

Maria: Seven billion? Seven?

Rory: Seven.

Maria: Every month Google gets almost 85 billion visits. Oh, wow. Okay. So, it's eight. Eight billion.

Rory: Is it? I thought it was seven billion. It's a lot of people anyway.

Maria: But whatever you do with your websites, remember to check out our one, success with IELTS. And dear listener, we'll wrap it up with a joke. So, all websites use cookies. Except English websites. They use biscuits. Rory, you explain the joke.

Rory: Cookies are a kind of program, which helps track activity on your computer and informs choices by algorithms. Why they are called cookies, I don't know, but that's what they are called. Cookies are a kind of biscuit in America. But in the UK, what we call cookies are called biscuits. So if we talk about British people, their cookies are biscuits, but these are not the things we eat, these are the things that are computer programs, is the joke. Oh my god.

Maria: Beautifully explained, Rory, band nine, seriously.

Rory: I feel like my brain has just dissolved from explaining this.

Maria: Rory has a PhD in explaining my stupid jokes I take from the internet, dear listener. Right. Thank you very much for listening. Stay with us. Love, hugs, and joy.

Rory: Bye.