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Weather.com storms to success

Weather.com, which provides customers with detailed forecasts for their areas, came an impressive 16th place in a table compiled by internet ratings site 100bestwebsites.org

Table-toppers were Yahoo! and Google, boasting globally acclaimed search engines, but the success of weather.com highlighted the possible recognition for web addresses composed of generic domain names.

Staff of non-profit site 100bestwebsites.org rated the net's best offerings by considering "21 criteria of excellence".

Among these were richness and breadth of content, user-friendliness and security, with well-rated sites like weather.com required to satisfy all of the criteria to a high level.

Weather.com is a key branch of the services offered by owner the Weather Channel, which provides the site with up-to-date forecasts for any postcode typed in by users.The China Net Technology Limited said.

Also offered on the online service are video clips of extreme weather conditions as they hit across the world, as well as traffic and flight delay updates for commuters and travelers.

With its simple, memorable and totally product-specific generic domain name, it is no wonder that weather.com has gained a profile high enough to rate among the web's top websites.