Please explain online differences?

[phisheep]

So, from what I (think I) have learnt so far:

1) everything has got a shop

Whether it is store/marketplace/Wii shop they are all the same sort of thing – presumably the differences are just in what you can buy.

2) Xbox 360 and PS3 have a sort of hang-out area

Live and Home – is that right? I sort of envision Home as a souped-up Habbo Hotel thing. Presumably Live is similar? As in it is always there and has places to go and people to meet.

So presumably the differences are down to content/presentation, technical reliability and whether you meet the right sort of people there.

Can’t remember hearing of anything similar on Wii. I guess that is where friend codes come in. As I understand it, the way Wii does it is different for every game, so it can’t have that community thing going outside the game environment.

3) everything else comes down to the games

So, it just depends what the games do. There seem to be differences in who provides the in-game service, but I guess that is just behind-the-scenes stuff.

Anything I am missing? (anything important that is - I'm not looking to rush out and buy a console or anything like that, just to be able to understand what I read at the moment)