Abstract

We present a review of some of the main trends of research into web genres. Genres are documents defined primarily by the communicative purpose they accomplish for their producers and recipients, though they also present specific characteristics of topic and form. Thinking of web documents in terms of genres provides a selection criterion which is complementary to topic or subject, and which can also be implemented in automatic classifiers. The review offers a definition of web genres, a summary of achievements in automatic classification of web genres, and a perspective from which to sort out the increasing number of contributions on genres.