History of Billiards.
A lot of time people have been getting confused as to what exactly is snooker, billiards, pool etc. Whats the official name for the game? Well today i'd like to tell you a little history about it and to clear up all confusions. Snooker, pool etc are variations of "Cue Sports". "Billiards" is what its all derived from.
(image taken from wikipedia)
The word billiard is derived from the French word 'Bille" meaning ball, referring to a game involving ball and stick, and "art" meaning the art of playing the game.
Billiards was played as an out door lawn game, resembling golf or croquet, in Northern Europe during the 1500 century. It was not played by many people, though, as it generally only took place in royal palaces with aristocrats. This gave the sport a reputation of being a 'gentleman's game'. The tables used back then did not consist of any side rails, pockets or cushions, however. They only contained holes for the balls to be potted. This meant that every time that a pot was achieved the ball would fall on to the ground. The table was not the only thing different from modern billiards equipment as the balls were then made of ivory. The innovations of the cue, in the 1700's, lead to the disappearance of the mace that was initially used. Soon, billiards acquired its status as a scientific game with precisely designed equipment, manufacturing plants for tables, standardized rules, etc.(source=http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Billiards&id=253926)
Snooker and various other forms of pool (3 ball, 8 ball, 9 ball etc) were derived from Billiards over the years. 8 ball being the most popular game played world wide and preferred by beginners.
Just to give you an idea here's a list I got from Wiki on how many different games are there in Billiards.
Main category: Carom billiards
* Artistic billiards
* Balkline games (18.1, 18.2, etc.)
* Cowboy pool (a hybrid carom/pocket game)
* English billiards (another hybrid)
* Five-pins
* Four-ball (yotsudama, sagu)
* Straight-rail
* Three-cushion billiards
Pool (pocket billiards) games
Main category: Pool
* Artistic pool
* Bank pool (banks, nine-ball banks)
* Baseball pocket billiards
* Blackball and British eight-ball pool
* Bottle pool
* Bowlliards
* Chicago
* Chinese eight-ball
* Cowboy pool (hybrid)
* Cribbage pool
* Cutthroat
* Eight-ball (stripes-and-solids, highs-and-lows)
* English billiards (hybrid)
* Equal offense
* Irish standard pool
* Kelly pool (pill/pea pool)
* Killer
* Nine-ball
* One-pocket
* Poker pool (hybrid)
* Rotation
* Russian pyramid
* Seven-ball
* Seven-Card Ball
* Skittle pool variants (pin pool)
* Snooker (see below; popularly regarded as its own sport, not a pool variant)
* Speed pool
* Straight pool (also called "14.1 continuous")
* Line-up Straight pool
* Ten-ball
* Three-ball
* Trick shot competition
Snooker games
Main category: Snooker
* Snooker
* Six-red snooker
* American snooker
* Sinuca brasileira
* Snooker plus
* Golf billiards (and its variant, around-the-world)
Obstacle billiards games
Main category: Obstacle billiards
* Bagatelle
* Bar billiards
* Bumper pool
* Bottle pool, skittle pool (pin pool),
