Intermediaries are entities that provide services enabling the delivery of online content to the end user Let us look at the players involved in this chain:
Internet Service Providers(ISP) – ISPs like Airtel and MTNL help users to get connected to the internet by means of wired or wireless connections.
Search engines – These are web sites like Google and Bing that help users to search for specific information on the web and provide links to web-sites having content relevant to the search terms given bye the user.
DNS providers – These service providers translate the domain names(eg. www.sflc.in) to addresses (eg. 126.96.36.199) that can be understood by computers.
Web hosts – These are service providers like Godaddy.com that provide space on server computers to place files for various web sites so that these sites can be accessed by users
Interactive websites: This includes social media sites like Facebook and Twitter that act as platforms to store and retrieve content, blogging platforms like Blogspot and WordPress, auction sites like eBay, and payment gateways like PayPal. The pictorial representation gives an overview of the intermediaries involved in a common internet transaction.
Cyber Cafes – It means any facility from where access to the internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public. The Information Technology Act, 2000 includes cyber cafes also under the ambit of the definition of intermediaries.