Gloss

There are really two fundamentally different types of gloss paper:

• Fibre Based Gloss Papers - These papers are made with real paper fibre - usually cotton rag fibre. Specifically designed to mimic the traditional photographic air dried fibre based darkroom papers. The beauty of these is that they offer very classically photographic results, but for the first time the same papers can be used for black and white AND colour - something never possible with the darkroom equivalents.
• Resin Coated Gloss Papers - Resin here is a nicer way of saying plastic. Resin coated semi-gloss papers offer a robust surface to work with (resistant to fingerprints and the like), but with the good D-Max and the large gamut typical of gloss papers. These are good, pedestrian papers for day to day printing e.g. of family photos.

High Gloss Papers

Pigment inks and very high gloss papers are traditionally not the best of friends, with some issues with gloss differential remaining even now.  It's the one area that chemistry printing can still claim to be competitive with inkjet printing.  This is because the inks sits on top of the inkjet coating, whereas with traditional photo chemistry the light sensitive layer is below the gloss.

That said, there are some good options - and whilst you may not get quite as pure a gloss as with chemistry prints,  you do get all the other inkjet benefits - like wider gamut, deeper blacks and vastly greater print longevity.