International comparative study of identity as presented on the Internet

The objective of this study is to explore the cultural differences that appear in terms of Web usage. We examined the homepages of 987 individuals of homogeneous social standings from Japan, the United States, Germany and South Korea. The contents of the homepages, such as academic backgrounds, research outcomes and personal information, were found to exhibit interesting differences. Subjects in the United States are more likely to express the identity of researchers´ aspect, Japanese their whole personal identities and Koreans social status. Professors from Germany tend to use prepared templates and do not offer much information on their homepages