What is white balance?

I've been using my camera for quite a long time now. I know I should've taken those classes my friend suggested to me a long time ago. I really need to learn photography, not only for blogging but also for family photography purposes, but my hands are so full with many other things. The other day, I was making "kutingting" my camera and wanted to play with white balance. So I pointed at a white flower in my little garden, and ceteris paribus, I changed the white balance setting in 6 six different types - direct sunlight, fluorescent,  incandescent, shade, flash, and cloudy. Oh and well, it was not a sunny day so that explains the general "sad" look of the photos.

Let me share what I've rummaged so far from the internet about white balance:
Auto - camera makes best guess
Incandescent - for indoors, cools down the colors in photos, generates a bluish color
Fluorescent - will warm the cool effect of fluorescent lighting
Direct sunlight - fairly normal setting
Cloudy - warms up more than direct sunlight setting does (turns out more yellowish)
Shade - generally bluer than in direct sunlight, warm things up just little
Flash - also warm up your shots
An introduction to White Balance, I recommend these sites:
Digital Photography School
Pixiq (thumbs up!)