E-mail can also be used to easily send the same message to large or small
groups of people. This could be useful for:
- Notifying customers of the latest developments in a specific project
- Informing potential clients of a new product
- Communicating messages to groups of employees
E-mail can also be used to share messages with all members of a specific group.
This is especially useful for facilitating collaboration of information between several people.
Each member of the group could receive copies of the messages submitted to
the group as individuals. Replies may be directed back either to the entire group or to the
sender.
The World Wide Web :
The World Wide Web (hereinafter called the Web) is the most well known aspect of the
Internet. Often, people mistakenly use the word 'Internet' instead of the more
specific 'Web'. The Web is the front door to your Internet presence.
The characteristics of the Web allow you to display information formatted in an
eye-catching manner using various options such as graphics, photos, varying font
sizes and many different colors and backgrounds.
The Web can be used for a multitude of purposes. If you think of email as
powerful sort of voice mail, then you could think of the Web as a powerful kind of
television commercial. The parallel being that the web site can reach a vast
number of people. Its chief advantage over other mediums is that the only limit
to the amount of information that can be presented is the viewer's attention span.
Secure Commerce or Secure Transactions
These are popular buzzwords for the Internet. They are, quite simply, a means for
sending encoded information via the Internet so that only the recipient
will be able to view the information. This is primarily used to obtain credit
card information for purchases. The process of making these purchases can be
easily done on a form with an encrypted email message containing the order information or
a more robust shopping cart application that integrates with a database of
products, prices and shipping information.
Database integration
This is a very broad category that uses information stored in a database in any
number of ways. Using this technique a web site can be tailored for an individual's
needs and the information provided to the user can be updated quickly and easily.
Some popular uses for database integration include:
- Providing access to vast amounts of information such as part descriptions,
numbers, and prices
- Personalizing pages with the user's name or account information
- Storage of information obtained from the user for later use
A pristine example of a web site that maximizes the use of databases is Amazon.com.
With literally millions of books in their inventory, covering every imaginable
subject, they simply had to embrace database technology to avoid overwhelming
their customers. The database is now used to store the customer's ordering
information. Then after their first order the customer can place new orders,
with only one click. Using information from previous orders, the company employs suggestive
selling by pointing out other titles in their inventory that are similar in
content and lists books that other users bought at the same time. They also provide
comments from other users as well as from professional
literary critics. They allow users to sign up for a service that will send them
an e-mail when a book matching their criteria is added to Amazon's inventory.
If you would like to see database integration in action, you should really
consider visiting Amazon.com. This is probably the most effective retail web site
on the Internet.
Information sharing
One of the objectives of a typical web site is to lure users back to the site as
frequently as possible, thereby keeping your company's name in front of the customer.
Providing the user with reference material or accurate data that changes regularly
may facilitate this strategy. Contributing information such as user's manuals,
product related instruction, or industry news and statistics are reliable ways of
attracting regular visitors to your site. Additionally, many users that frequent
the Internet will perceive this as an attempt at giving something back to the
Internet community.
Bulletin board
Frequently used by educational institutions and research groups, a bulletin board
provides a forum for ongoing discussion similar to that of a news group or e-mail
list. Questions or comments are posted for all to see, and replies to that
message are grouped along with it. This may be handy for providing customer
support, as the user will be encouraged to peruse other people's questions and
answers before using your resources to respond to a repetitive question. Access
to a bulletin board may be custom configured to restrict (or allow) access to
any of the features individually. You may allow anyone in the world to post a
question and only the staff to reply, or you may wish to allow anyone to join
in the conversation, creating a true open forum.
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