Wikipedia
Wowhead is a website that provides a searchable database, forums and armory services for the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW). The site first started out as a talent calculator for the game. It was in beta from April 4 to June 25, 2006, and the database was released on June 26, 2006. Wowhead functions as a user generated database relying upon players of WoW themselves, though the information is uploaded automatically through a client side program.
Client software is available for both the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh platforms. Users can manually add comments to database items or discuss the items themselves in a moderated forum. Comments placed on database items are moderated by the community themselves, with members having the option to "down-rank" outdated and unuseful posts to the point where they are purged, and "up-rank" posts of significance so that they are highlighted. The database is automatically cross referenced by the software between items, non-player characters and zones or dungeons.
Wowhead garnered some attention when it was purchased by the ZAM Network, a subsidiary of Affinity Media which formerly owned real-money trading firm IGE. The ZAM Network also owns other gaming and World of Warcraft information sites such as Thottbot and Allakhazam.
On July 22, 2009, Wowhead announced that it would be offering its members access to premium service for a recurring subscription in order to help support the website. The premium service offers enhanced usage of the website, removes ads, grants a wider range of forum privileges, and allows paying members to skip to the front of the process queue for WoW armory requests.