Internet advertising & Security

Security concerns

For both companies and consumers that participate in online business, security concerns are very important. Many consumers are hesitant to buy items over the Internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private. Recently, some companies that do business online have been caught giving away or selling information about their customers. Several of these companies have guarantees on their websites, claiming customer information will be private. Some companies that buy customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from the database (known as opting out). However, many customers are unaware that their information is being shared and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies.

Security concerns are of great importance and online companies have been working hard to create solutions. Encryption is one of the main methods for dealing with privacy and security concerns on the Internet. Encryption is defined as the conversion of data into a form called a cipher. This cipher cannot be easily intercepted unless an individual is authorized by the program or company that completed the encryption. In general, the stronger the cipher, the better protected the data is. However, the stronger the cipher, the more expensive encryption becomes.

Another major security concern that consumers have with ecommerce merchants is whether or not they will receive exactly what they purchase. Trustworthy, reliable merchant performance has been a consumer concern since the inception of ecommerce, and to date, merchants have attempted to address these concerns by investing in and building strong consumer brands (Amazon, eBay, Overstock.com), and by leveraging merchant / feedback rating systems and ecommerce bonding solutions. All of these solutions attempt to assure consumers that their transactions will be free of problems because the merchants can be trusted to provide reliable products and services. In addition, the major online payment mechanisms (credit cards, PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.) have also provided back-end buyer protection systems to address problems after they actually do occur.

Types of security

IT realm

Computing security Data security

Application security

Information security

Network security

Physical realm

Physical security Shopping centre security

Airport security

Food security

Home security

Political

International security National security

Human security

Monetary

Financial security

Security management in organizations

In the corporate world, various aspects of security were historically addressed separately -

notably by distinct and often non communicating departments for IT security, physical

security, and fraud prevention. Today there is a greater recognition of the interconnected

nature of security requirements, an approach variously known as holistic security, "all

hazards" management, and other terms. Inciting factors in the convergence of security

disciplines include the development of digital video surveillance technologies (see

Professional video over IP) and the digitization and networking of physical control systems

(see SCADA). Greater interdisciplinary cooperation is further evidenced by the February

2005 creation of the Alliance for Enterprise Security Risk Management, a joint venture

including leading associations in security (ASIS), information security (ISSA, the

Information Systems Security Association), and IT audit (ISACA, the Information Systems

Audit and Control Association).

INTERNET SECURITY

The internet is a world wide collection of networks that can be accessed by individual

computers in a variety of ways including gateways, routers, dialup connections and internet

services providers (ISPs). However the convenient access to information comes with certain

risks: the possibility of valuable information being lost, stolen corrupted or misused. With the

introduction of e-commerce many people have been skeptical about releasing their personal

identification information, such as credit card numbers, over the internet.

While corporate presence on the internet has soared many companies are simply providing

information about themselves- annual reports, product documentation, service information. In

general security concerns in electronic commerce can be divided into concerns about user

authorization and concerns about the data and transaction security. Authorization schemes

such as password protection, encryption smart card, biometrics and firewalls ensure that only

valid user and programs have access to information resources such as user accounts, files and

databases. Network security and data security must be addressed simultaneously. In much the

same way as it is pointless to use an armored truck to transport cash from one bank to another

bank and then leave the cash in middle of the bank lobby, online business information that is

protected en route needs to be securely.

Risks of using internet:

Sited offering pornographic images are increasing at a phenomenal rate on the

internet. Perhaps adults, who desire access to these sites, should be given such

access, when required, but there is no means to verify the age of a site’s

visitor.

Innocent and well intentioned surfing can also lead to less than desirable

results.

Hackers attempt to break into networks to view, alter to destroy private files.

More disturbing is the fact that hackers no longer need to be skilled in

attacking a network as there are “hacker’s helper” programs readily available

to any user with an internet connection.

Attacks can be launched from anywhere in the world and the location of the

attacker can be easily hidden.

Many sites place unwarranted trust in the internet. As technology is constantly

changing and intruders are constantly developing new tools and techniques,

security solutions do not remain indefinitely effective.

Traffic on the internet is not encrypted, making confidentiality and integrity

difficult to achieve.

The rapid deployment of network services involving complex applications

often compromises on security of design, configurations and maintenance.

Operating system security is often compromised by customer demand for

performance, price, and ease of use, maintenance and support. Sites sometimes

run on this operating system and are not fully configured form a security

perspective.

METHODS OF INTERNET SECURITY

Content filter

Firewall security

Encryption and Transaction security

1. Content filter:

A content filter allows schools, business and other organizations to set and enforce the

standard of what is and what is not appropriate material. Content filtering can be

accomplished by varying methods:-

Text screening

Proxy or allow only lists

Web rating systems

URL blocking

Text screening:

Text screening is the oldest method of content filters. Text screening stops

internet pages from loading when the filter encounters a word on its list. The key

disadvantages of this method are that many useful sites will block out breast cancer sites

and sex will block out middle sex. Text screening is also ineffective if content does not

contain any words on the block list.

Proxy or allow only list:-

With a proxy or allow only list only sites that have been screened and approved

are allowed. This method is useful in education institution. The proxy lists blocks access

to unwanted sites. There are two methods of implementing this. First is by use of software

that only allows access to approved sites. The second is by use of a centralized proxy

server that pre-loads all approved content: all client access is to the proxy server and

never directly to the internet.

This, method is very effective to block pornography and other objectionable material. But his

method is also blocking many useful sites

Web rating system:-

In this method the person running the web site assign a rating to each page on the

site. There are several rating systems: the ages rating services, recreational software

advisory council rating service and the safe surf rating service. This method had two main

drawbacks:-

If the site’s web controller has not rated the site or page, the web browser is unable to

enforce any restriction. This can lead to restricting access to sites that would

otherwise be acceptable.

Second, it is still dependent on the webmaster’s honesty when assigning a valid rating

to the content.

URL blocking:-

In URL blocking members of a committee continuously search the internet

looking for offensive sites. Sites are selected and placed in one or more categories such as

full nudity, drug use. And editor reviews the selections before the site is added to the filter

list. Blocking is the preferred method of content filtering because of its ability to block

offensive or inappropriate content while preserving access to other internet sites.

2. Firewall security:-

A firewall is one of the most popular tools used by organizations for network security and

is very beneficial for organizations that provide internet access to their employees. A

firewall controls the network traffic flow with in internal network of an organization. It

also controls the network traffic flow between the internal and external networks.

A firewall is defined as software or hardware that allows only those external users with

specific characteristics to access a protected network. A firewall allows insiders to have

full access to services on the outside while granting access from the outside on a selective

basis based on user name and passwords, internet IP address or domain name.

A fire works by establishing a barrier between the corporate network and the external

internet. This barrier shields vulnerable corporate networks from prying eyes in the public

network. A firewall is not simply hardware or software; it is an approach to implementing

a security policy that defines the services and access to be permitted to various users.

A firewall tracks all the details of the user request on the network. Every firewall policy

states that the details of every request made by the user must pass through the firewall and

the firewall must list and track all the details. The details should include:

The user’s request time

The internet protocol address and the port number of the host and its destination

Whether the user is authorized or not

Whether the request is by an internal or external user

Categories of firewall:

There is various type of firewall which offers various level of security. the most widely

used methods of fire walling is to place a computer or a router between the network and

the internet, which will control and monitor all traffic between the outside world and the

local network.

Packet filter

Application level proxy servers

Stateful inspection

Simple traffic logging system

IP Packet screening router

Hardened firewall hosts

Proxy application gateways

Packet filter:

Packet filters were the first generation of firewalls and are typically implemented on

routers- device used to connect two or more computers networks together. A packet

firewall examines and filters every IP packet, as it passes through the router, based on the

IP addresses of the source and destination hosts and the transmission control protocols.

Packet filters are faster than any other firewall because they ignore the data inside the

packets and work only on the IP addresses and TCP ports.

Application level proxy server:

A proxy application gateway is a special server that typically runs on a firewall machine.

Their primary use is access to applications such as the World Wide Web from within a

secure perimeter.

It blocks access to services you do not want should be used by user.

It hides the real identity of the user.

It provides logging and statistics on network utilization.

It is easy to configure and manage.

It does not require the use of valid internet IP addresses.

It does not provide packet filtering

It does not support al TCP application protocols

Stateful inspection:

This method is considered by internet experts to be the most advanced and secure firewall

technology. It examines all OSI layers to either accept or reject the requested

communication. Because of this, stateful inspection is visible to user on the LAN and

requires no client configuration.

Stateful inspection is also known as packet inspection. It supports numerous internet

protocols, including TCP used by application such as HTTP, FTP, POP3, and Telnet.

Simple traffic logging system:

Traffic logging systems are the predominant firewall method used in web servers. Such

systems record all network traffic flowing through the firewall in a file or database for

auditing purposes. On most web servers an HTTPD log also called audit log file, lists

every access of files on a given web site. It records the name of the file accessed, the

domain name that the user came in on, on exact second of the access and number of bytes

transmitted. By analyzing the audit log of a web site, mangers can answer the following

questions: what are the peak demand hours? What directories and pages most frequently

requested? How many times was the home page requested? By asking these questions and

analyzing their answers, managers can understand traffic patterns and more importantly

customer behavior at a particular site.

IP Packet screening routers:

The screening routers also called packet filtering gateway is the simplest firewall. The

screening router operates by filtering information packets that pass through the firewall.

The firewall router filters incoming packets and permits or denies IP packets based on

several screening rules that are programmed into the router and performed automatically.

Most frequently screening rules includes:

Incoming packet protocol: control filtering of network traffic base on protocol (TCP)

Destination application to which the packet is routed: restrict access to certain

applications; target TCP port 80 usually reserved for the web server application.

Known source IP address: block access to packet coming from certain IP address. For

instance, everything coming from a non corporate site could be secured and thrown

away.

Hardened firewall host:

A hardened firewall host is a stripped down computer that has been configured for increased

security. A hardened firewall host requires inside or outside users to connect to the trusted

applications on the firewall machine before connecting further. These firewall machines are

configured to protect against unauthenticated interactive log-ins from the external world. In

order to create a hardened host system must:

Remove all user accounts except those necessary for operation of the firewall.

Remove all non crucial files and executable especially network server program and

client programs like FTP

Extend traffic logging and monitoring to check remote access.

Disable IP forwarding to prevent the firewall from forwarding unauthorized packets

between the internet and the enterprise network

Hardened firewall hosts offer specific security advantages:

Concentration of security: all modified software and logging is located on the firewall

system rather than distributed on many hosts.

Information hiding: a firewall can “hide” names of internal systems or e-mail

addresses, thereby protecting information from outside hosts.

Centralized and simplified network services management: services such as FTP, e-mail and

other service are located on the firewall system rather than being maintained on many

systems.

There are some contingent problems in the design of current hardened host firewall. Because

of hardened hosts concentrate security in one spot as opposed to distributing it among

systems, a compromise of the firewall could be disastrous to other less-protected system on

the network.

Proxy application gateway:

Firewall can also be created through software called a proxy service. The host computer

running the proxy service sis referred to as an application gateway. Application gateways sit

between the internet and a company’s internal networks and provide middleman services to

users on either side. If a computer user on one company’s network wants to talk to a user at

another organization, the first user actually talks to the proxy application on the firewall, and

the proxy then talk to the remote computer. Similarly, outside hosts talks to internal

computers through the proxy on the firewall. The firewall thus serves as a proxy for traffic in

both directions and can support a number of internet navigation software programs such as

World Wide Web.

Proxy server often used for caching documents. Caching is the act of storing a document on a

local server, enabling it to be presented faster than if it is accessed from the document’s

original server. The disadvantage of caching from a marketing measurement perspective is

that when a document is copied from its original server and stored locally the user data is

blocked from the advertiser.

3. Encryption and Transaction security:

Sensitive information that must travel over public channels can be defended by encryption, or

secret codes. Although it may sound like the stuff of spy novels, electronic commerce relies

heavily on encryption. The goal of encryption is to make it impossible for a hacker who

obtains the cipher text as it passes on the network to recover the original message. Encryption

is the mutation of information in any form into a form of readable only with a decryption key.

There are two main kinds of encryption in common use today. The older and simpler one is

called single key or secret key encryption. The more recent method is called public key

encryption.

Secret key encryption:

It is also known as symmetric encryption, involves the use of a shared key for both

encryption by the transmitter and decryption by the receiver. Although secret key encryption

is useful in many cases, it has significant limitations. All parties must know and trust each

other completely, and have in their possession a protected copy of the key. If the transmitter

and receiver are in separate site, they must trust not being overheard during face to face

meeting or a over a public messaging system when the secret key is being exchanged. Secret

key encryption suffers from the problem of key distribution- generation, transmission and

storage of keys. Secure key distribution is cumbersome in large networks and does not scale

well to a business environment where a company deals with thousand of online customers.

Public key encryption:

Public key encryption also known as asymmetric encryption uses two keys: one key to

encrypt the message and a different key to decrypt the message. The two keys are

mathematically related so that data encrypted with one key can only be decrypted using the

other.

Internet marketing

Internet marketing also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or e-marketing,

is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs

for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of

Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a

unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader

scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media;

however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and

electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including

design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail

building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website.

Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given

company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing

on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the

customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine

optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0

strategies. In 2008 The New York Times working with com Score published an initial estimate

to quantify the user data collected by large Internet-based companies. Counting four types of

interactions with company websites in addition to the hits from advertisements served from

advertising networks, the authors found the potential for collecting data upward of 2,500

times on average per user per month.[

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing or E marketing, is the marketing of

products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to

marketing including low costs in distributing information and media to a global audience.

The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of instant response and in eliciting

response, are unique qualities of the medium.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including

design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods include search engine

marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising,

online reputation management and also Social Media Marketing Methods such as blog

marketing, and viral marketing.

Internet marketing is the process of growing and promoting an organization using online

media. Internet marketing does not simply mean 'building a website' or 'promoting a website'.

Somewhere behind that website is a real organization with real goals.

An Internet marketing strategy includes all aspects of online advertising online activity that

promotes a company online, including websites, blog sites, article and press releases, online

market research, email marketing, and advertising, as appropriate for the promotion of one’s'

business.

Advantages

Internet marketing is relatively inexpensive. Companies can reach a wide audience for a

small fraction of traditional advertising budgets. The nature of the medium allows consumers

to research and purchase products and services at their own convenience: An internet

marketing campaign puts an organization's message in front of consumers precisely when

they want it.

However, internet marketing isn't a panacea. It still requires intelligent planning and careful

execution. Emphasize business goals and use methods such as CVP analysis when

determining strategy and the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

There are a few important characteristics that differentiate Internet marketing from "off-line

marketing":

- One-to-one vs. one-to-many approach: The targeted user is typically browsing the Internet

on their own, and the marketing messages reach them personally. This can be very clearly

seen in search marketing, where the users find advertisements targeted to specific keywords

that the users asked for (1).

- Demographics targeting vs. behavioral targeting: off-line marketers typically segment their

markets according to age group, sex, geography, and other general factors. Online marketers

have the luxury of targeting by activity. This is a deeper form of targeting, since the

advertiser knows that the target audience are people who do a certain activity (upload

pictures, have blogs, etc.) instead of just expecting that a certain group of people will like

their new product or service.

- Measurability: Almost all aspects of an online campaign can be traced, measured, and

tested. The advertisers either pays per banner impression (CPM), pay per click (PPC), or pay

per action accomplished. Therefore, it is easy to understand which messages or offering are

more appealing to the audience.

- Response and immediate results: Since the online marketing initiatives usually require users

to click on the message, go to a website, and perform a targeted action, the results of

campaigns are immediately measured and tracked. On the other hand, someone driving a car

who sees a billboard, will at best be interested and might decide to get more information at

some time.

Internet marketing, as of 2007, is growing faster than other types of media. [citation needed]Since

exposure, response and overall efficiency of Internet media is easier to track than traditional

"off-line" media, through the use of web analytics for instance, Internet marketing can offer a

greater sense of accountability for advertisers. Increasingly, however, marketers and their

clients are becoming aware of the need to measure the collaborative effects of marketing, i.e.

how the Internet affects in-store sales, etc., instead of siloing each medium. The effects of

Multi-Channel Marketing can be difficult to determine, but are an important part of

ascertaining the value of media campaigns.

Limitations

Because Internet marketing requires customers to use newer technologies than traditional

media, not all people may get the message. Low speed Internet connections are one barrier. If

companies build overly large or complicated web pages, some Internet users struggle to

download the information on dial up connections or mobile devices.

From the buyer's perspective, another limitation is the inability of shoppers to touch, smell,

taste or try-on tangible goods before making an online purchase. However, it is an industry

standard for e-commerce vendors to have liberal return policies and in store pick up services

to reassure customers.

A survey of 410 marketing executives listed insufficient ability to measure impact, a lack of

internal capability, and difficulty convincing senior management as the top three barriers to

entry for large companies looking to market online.

E- MARKETING

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of

communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense,

every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing.

However, the term is usually used to refer to:

Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current

or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to

buy something immediately.

Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.

Emails that are being sent on the Internet.

Advantage

Email marketing is popular with companies because:

The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range

of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.

Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less

expensive.

An exact Return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly.

Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective

online marketing tactic.

It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement; an email arrives in a few seconds or

minutes.

It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for

customers to come in.

It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, unsubscribe,

read-receipts, click-through, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or

negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.

Advertisers generate repeat business affordably and automatically

Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented)

to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them

Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.[3]

Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically

delivered.

Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the

profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.

Green - email marketing is paper-free

Disadvantages

Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many

other companies send unsolicited bulk email, also known as spam.

Illicit email marketing antedates legitimate email marketing, since on the early Internet. It

was not permitted to use the medium for commercial purposes. As a result, marketers

attempting to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in email marketing have had an

uphill battle, hampered also by criminal spam operations billing themselves as legitimate.

It is frequently difficult for observers to distinguish between legitimate and spam email

marketing. First off, spammers attempt to represent themselves as legitimate operators,

obfuscating the issue. Second, direct-marketing political groups such as the U.S. Direct

Marketing Association (DMA) have pressured legislatures to legalize activities which many

Internet operators consider to be spamming, such as the sending of "opt-out" unsolicited

commercial email. Third, the sheer volume of spam email has led some users to mistake

legitimate commercial email for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance,

as when messages include HTML and flashy graphics.

Due to the volume of spam email on the Internet, spam filters are essential to most users.

Some marketers report that legitimate commercial emails frequently get caught by filters, and

hidden; however, it is somewhat less common for email users to complain that spam filters

block legitimate mail.

Companies considering an email marketing program must make sure that their program does

not violate spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of

Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), the European Privacy & Electronic

Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if

a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is

likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS.

E- ADVERTISING

The issue of how to advertise just like many others remains unresolved due to the lack of a specific

policy and an authoritative body to enforce it. In their absence the business community will need to be

sensitive to the internet user and vice versa. Considering the kind of dialogue the internet make

possible, there is no reason why internet advertising could not peacefully cost with any other aspect of

doing business and not degenerate into the mass mails out that everyone hates.

The topic of internet advertising provokes extreme opinions in many. One of the questions

still discussed on some internet forums is whether advertising should be allowed on the internet at all.

Some who are not comfortable with other commercial activity in cyberspace have stated adjusters and

other organization threat spread posting claiming that the internet should not be soiled by advertising.

This view presumes that the internet is a haven from commercialization. It ignores the fact that

business is already being conducted on the internet and that advertising usually goes hand in hand

with business. Everyone acknowledges either publicly or privately hand with at advertising is a

necessary evil profits from which can subsidize other activities such as network improvement and

cheaper access.

Equating all advertising with junk mail is not fair to advertising in general. Advertising also

serves many other purposes such as educating customers about what’s out there introducing new

products or alternatives to existing products and stimulating a desire to buy by increasing consumer

confidence. There are two very reasons for embracing the inevitability of a growing amount of

commercial advertising on the internet:

Advertising conveys much needed information: appropriate ways and means for

conveying product or service information need to be devised, much as we already

have for conveying the same through print and other media.

Advertising generates significant revenue and defrays the costs of infrastructure and

some existing research and education publications.

In addition a host of key questions must be resolved before the internet can compete effectively with

commercial advertising:

Advertising process:

How can advertising be offered in a way that meets the needs of both advertisers and potential

buyers without becoming the digital analog of junk mail?

Core content: what kind of advertising content is most useful to both advertisers and potential

buyers?

Supporting contents: what additional services can meet the information needs of advertisers?

Market and consumer research: how can the needs of advertisers are met with out either

interfering with or invading the privacy of other online consumers?

Repeat customers: how can viable sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships are

created between information publishers, advertisers and consumers?

Online advertising paradigms:

Despite these unresolved issues, advertising on the internet is inevitable. The next question logically

becomes what is the right paradigm for online advertising? Two different advertising paradigms are

emerging in the online world; active or push based advertising and passive or pull based advertising.

Active or passive refer to the activity on the company’s side. Push based advertising’s prime example

is infamous broadcast or spamming. Pull based advertising is more discourse oriented and content

driven and as such promotes interactivity between customers and firms.

(A) Active or push based advertising:

In the context of most media today, advertising is inherently intrusive, even invasive. Print and TV

ads are constant in your face reminders of who’s paying the lions share for information services. On

the internet overt sometimes evensybtle advertising advertising often results in the unmerciful flaming

of the perpetrator.

Push based advertising is of two types:

Broadcast model

Junk email

Broadcast model:

Broadcasting messages provides a means for reaching a great number of people in a short

period of time. The broadcast model basically mimics the traditional model, in which the

customer is exposed to the advertisement during TV programming. Broadcast model typically use

direct mail spot television or cable television. A spot television ad runs on one station in one

market. The number of viewers who see, the ad depends on how many viewers are tuned into the

television station at a specific time. The number of people reached by advertising depends on the

penetration and channel viewer ship in a given market. Text based broadcast messages can be

seen in advertising posted in Usenet news groups. Although frowned upon in most serious groups

it is becoming commonplace as more people come online. People do get flamed even when asking

for names and addresses of businesses or information about pricing of a product or service.

Junk mail model:

Direct mail advertisers use targeted mailing lists to reach highly specialized audiences. In

addition to low waste in ad exposure direct mail provides an advertiser with great flexibility in the

message presentation. Disadvantage of direct mail include relatively high cost per contact the

need to obtain updated and accurate mailing lists the difficulty in getting the audience attention

and the possible cost to customers who pay for email plus of course the noise factor. As an old

marketing joke goes, junk mail is just poorly targeted direct mail. Junk mail is the most intrusive

of all forms of internet advertising because it is easily implemented using electronic mail.

Junk mail creates an unwanted expense as well as an annoyance. Some people pay usage

fees based on time online or storage charges for mail boxes and probably would not want to

receive unsolicited junk mail. Even the post office charges the mailer not the recipient for direct

mail. Even so advertiser will try sending junk mail to lists of email addresses gathered openly or

covertly. These advertisers believes that even if most of the recipients throw away the message,

those few users who are induced to buy will more than make up for papering the net with

unwanted mail.

(B)Passive or pull based advertising:

Apart from the negative response it evokes, push base advertising simply misses the

fundamental point of interactive marketing- adaptability, flexibility and responsiveness. Effective

marketing requires a feedback loop leading back into the organization. It is this element that is

missing from the monologue of advertising but that is built into the dialogue of pull bases marketing.

The internet offers more than the same old paradigm of advertisers bludgeoning passive consumers.

The main difference is discourse a word not much used in the business world but the sums up much of

the internet core value. Discourse simply means people talking to other people. Many companies

today are fielding questions, providing detailed answers and pointers to additional information even

engaging in useful debates on industry wide issues. Online pull based advertising includes:

Billboards:

Billboard model refers to information places where it will come to the attention of

customers in the course of other activities and does not require active research. Billboard

advertising is often used to reinforce or remind the consumer of the advertising messages

communicated through other media.

Catalogs or yellow pages directories:

Catalog model is the least intrusive model but requires active search on the part of the

customer. Catalog services are becoming an essential tool for organizing information on computer

networks as the ability to interact with a company is only possible if one locate the people or

organizations with whom they need to work. In fact it is widely acknowledged that one of the

limitations imposed on the effective use of the network will be determined by the quality and

coverage of directory services available.

Customer endorsements:

Endorsements, where people tell of their experience with products and services-both

positive and negative- represent on unique aspect of advertising on the internet. Endorsements

might be exempted from the advertising category because they often come in the context of a

question answered or an experience shared.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a process or methodology used

to learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships

with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in

primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as a

process that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales,

marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

CRM helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior

of customers and the value of those customers.

CRM Software

Sales Force Automation

Contact managementContact management software stores, tracks and manages contacts, leads of an enterprise.

Lead managementEnterprise Lead management software enables an organization to manage, track and forecast sales leads. Also helps understand and improve conversion rates.

E CRM or Web based CRM

Self Service CRMSelf service CRM (e CRM) software Enables web based customer interaction, automation of email, call logs, web site analytics, campaign management.

Survey Management SoftwareSurvey Software automates an enterprise's Electronic Surveys, Polls, Questionnaires and enables understand customer preferences.

Customer Service

Call Center Software

Help Desk Software

Partner Relationship Management

Contract Management SoftwareContract Management Software enables an enterprise to create, track and manage

partnerships, contracts, agreements. Example: Upside Software, Accruent Software, diCarta, I-Many.

Distribution management Software

Advantages of CRM

Using CRM, a business can:

Provide better customer service

Increase customer revenues

Discover new customers

Cross sell/Up sell products more effectively

Help sales staff close deals faster

Make call centers more efficient

Simplify marketing and sales processes

Consumer search & resource discovery

Consumer Search

Consumer Search is an English-language search engine for consumer product reviews, plus

a database of reports on consumer products and services, published and updated only online.

(Thus it's an example of online journalism.) Consumer Search does not review products and

services directly, nor does the site publish reviews from users. Rather, Consumer Search

writers review the print and online reviews of products and services, using a set of objective,

published ratings criteria.

From the reviews judged most credible, information and product recommendations are then

analyzed and summarized in the product report. This report also identifies the best products

for specific uses or prices ranges, again based on the most credible reviews. Although the

Fast Answers section that presents these products is published at the top of the report, this

section is actually the culmination of the reporting process.

Scope and organization of content

The 235 Consumer Search report categories are organized into 13 meta-categories:

• Automotive

• Computers

• Electronics

• Family

• Health & Fitness

• House & Home

• Internet

• Kitchen

• Lawn & Garden

• Office

• Photo & Video

• Software

• Sports & Leisure

As of May 4, 2006, there are 235 product and service categories covered by reports. In 2005,

reports on 27 new products or services were added. In order for a product or service category

to be covered in a Consumer Search report, at least one comparative review must already

exist, based on objective testing.

Computer based education & training

Electronic learning

Electronic learning or eLearning is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced

learning. It is used interchangeably in so many contexts that it is critical to be clear what one

means when one speaks of 'eLearning'. In many respects, it is commonly associated with the

field of advanced learning technology (ALT), which deals with both the technologies and

associated methodologies in learning using networked and/or multimedia technologies.

Market

The worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth over 38 billion euros according to

conservative estimates, although in the European Union only about 20% of e-learning

products are produced within the common market [1]. Developments in internet and

multimedia technologies are the basic enabler of e-learning, with content, technologies and

services being identified as the three key sectors of the e-learning industry. [2]

Growth of e-learning

By 2006, nearly 3.5 million students were participating in on-line learning at institutions of

higher education in the United States.[3] Many higher education, for-profit institutions, now

offer on-line classes. By contrast, only about half of private, non-profit schools offer them.

The Sloan report, based on a poll of academic leaders, says that students generally appear to

be at least as satisfied with their on-line classes as they are with traditional ones. Private

Institutions may become more involved with on-line presentations as the cost of instituting

such a system decreases. Properly trained staff must also be hired to work with students on-

line. These staff members must be able to not only understand the content area, but also be

highly trained in the use of the computer and Internet. Online education is rapidly increasing,

and online doctoral programs have even developed at leading research universities. [4] .

Technology

Many technologies can be, and are, used in eLearning, including:

blogs

classroom response system

collaborative software

computer aided assessment

discussion boards

e-mail

educational animation

electronic performance support system

ePortfolios

games

hypermedia in general

learning management systems

PDA's

podcasts

MP3 Players with multimedia capabilities

multimedia CD-ROMs

screencasts

simulations

text chat

virtual classrooms

web-based teaching materials

web sites and web 2.0 communities

wiki

E-learning is naturally suited to distance learning and flexible learning, but can also be used

in conjunction with face-to-face teaching, in which case the term Blended learning is

commonly used.

In higher education especially, the increasing tendency is to create a Virtual Learning

Environment (VLE) (which is sometimes combined with a Management Information System

(MIS) to create a Managed Learning Environment) in which all aspects of a course are

handled through a consistent user interface standard throughout the institution. A growing

number of physical universities, as well as newer online-only colleges, have begun to offer a

select set of academic degree and certificate programs via the Internet at a wide range of

levels and in a wide range of disciplines. While some programs require students to attend

some campus classes or orientations, many are delivered completely online. In addition,

several universities offer online student support services, such as online advising and

registration, e-counseling, online textbook purchase, student governments and student

newspapers.

e-Learning can also refer to educational web sites such as those offering learning scenarios,

worksheets and interactive exercises for children. The term is also used extensively in the

business sector where it generally refers to cost-effective online training.

Services

E-learning services have evolved since computers were first used in education. There is a

trend to move toward blended learning services, where computer-based activities are

integrated with practical or classroom-based situations.

Goals of e-learning

E-Learning lessons are generally designed to guide students through information or to help

students perform in specific tasks. Information based e-Learning content communicates

information to the student. Examples include content that distributes the history or facts

related to a service, company, or product. In information-based content, there is no specific

skill to be learned. In performance-based content, the lessons build off of a procedural skill in

which the student is expected to increase proficiency.

Computer-based learning

Computer Based Learning, sometimes abbreviated to CBL, refers to the use of computers as a

key component of the educational environment. While this can refer to the use of computers

in a classroom, the term more broadly refers to a structured environment in which computers

are used for teaching purposes. The concept is generally seen as being distinct from the use of

computers in ways where learning is at least a peripheral element of the experience (e.g.

computer games and web browsing).

Computer-based training

Computer-based training (CBT) services are where a student learns by executing special

training programs on a computer relating to their occupation. CBT is especially effective for

training people to use computer applications because the CBT program can be integrated with

the applications so that students can practice using the application as they learn. Historically,

CBTs growth has been hampered by the enormous resources required: human resources to

create a CBT program, and hardware resources needed to run it. However, the increase in PC

computing power, and especially the growing prevalence of computers equipped with CD-

ROMs, is making CBT a more viable option for corporations and individuals alike. Many PC

applications now come with some modest form of CBT, often called a tutorial. Web-based

training (WBT) is a type of training that is similar to CBT; however, it is delivered over the

Internet using a web browser. Web-based training frequently includes interactive methods,

such as bulletin boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, videoconferencing, and discussion

threads. Web based training is usually a self-paced learning medium though some systems

allow for online testing and evaluation at specific times.

Computer-aided assessment and learning design

Computer-aided Assessment (also but less commonly referred to as E-assessment), ranging

from automated multiple-choice tests to more sophisticated systems is becoming increasingly

common. With some systems, feedback can be geared towards a student's specific mistakes

or the computer can navigate the student through a series of questions adapting to what the

student appears to have learned or not learned. Most software for this is still very primitive

however.

The term learning design has sometimes come to refer to the type of activity enabled by

software such as the open-source system LAMS[citation needed] which supports sequences of

activities that can be both adaptive and collaborative. The IMS Learning Design specification

is intended as a standard format for learning designs, and IMS LD Level A is supported in

LAMS V2.

Digital Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which

implements two 1996 WIPO treaties. It criminalizes production and dissemination of

technology, devices, or services that are used to circumvent measures that control access to

copyrighted works (commonly known as DRM) and criminalizes the act of circumventing an

access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright itself. It also heightens the

penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998 by a

unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on

October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended title 17 of the U.S. Code to extend the reach of

copyright, while limiting the liability of Online Providers from copyright infringement by

their users.

On May 22, 2001, the European Union passed the EU Copyright Directive or EUCD, which

addresses some of the same issues as the DMCA. But the DMCA's principal innovation in the

field of copyright, the exemption from direct and indirect liabilty of internet service providers

and other intermediaries (Title II of the DMCA), was separately addressed, and largely

followed, in Europe by means of the separate Electronic Commerce Directive.

DMCA Title I: WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties

Implementation Act

DMCA Title I, the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties

Implementation Act has two major portions. One portion includes works covered by several

treaties in US copy prevention laws and gave the title its name. For further analysis of this

portion of the Act and of cases under it, see WIPO Copyright and Performances and

Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act.

The second portion is often known as the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. These

provisions changed the remedies for the circumvention of copy prevention systems (also

called "technical protection measures") and required that all analog video recorders have

support for a specific form of copy prevention commonly known as Macro vision built in,

effectively giving Macro vision a monopoly on the analog video recording copy prevention

market. However, section 1201(c) of the title clarified that the title does not change the

underlying substantive copyright infringement rights, remedies, or defenses. The title

contains other limitations and exemptions, including for research and reverse engineering in

specified situations.

DMCA Title II: Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act

DMCA Title II, the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act ("OCILLA")

creates a safe harbor for online service providers (OSPs, including ISPs) against copyright

liability if they adhere to and qualify for certain prescribed safe harbor guidelines and

promptly block access to allegedly infringing material (or remove such material from their

systems) if they receive a notification claiming infringement from a copyright holder or the

copyright holder's agent. OCILLA also includes a counter-notification provision that offers

OSPs a safe harbor from liability to their users, if the material upon notice from such users

claiming that the material in question is not, in fact, infringing. OCILLA also provides for

subpoenas to OSPs to provide their users' identity.

DMCA Title III: Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act

DMCA Title III modified section 117 of the copyright title so that those repairing computers

could make certain temporary, limited copies while working on a computer.

DMCA Title IV: Miscellaneous Provisions

DMCA Title IV contains an assortment of provisions:

Clarified and added to the duties of the Copyright Office.

Added ephemeral copy for broadcasters provisions, including certain statutory licenses.

Added provisions to facilitate distance education.

Added provisions to assist libraries with keeping copies of sound recordings.

Added provisions relating to collective bargaining and the transfer of movie rights.

DMCA Title V: Vessel Hull Design Protection Act

DMCA Title V added sections 1301 through 1332 to add a sui generis protection for boat hull

designs. Boat hull designs were not considered covered under copyright law because they are

useful articles whose form cannot be cleanly separated from their function.

Search engines

Web search engine

A Web search engine is a search engine designed to search for information on the World

Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images and other types of files.

Some search engines also mine data available in newsgroups, databases, or open directories.

Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate

algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

History

Timeline

Note: "Launch" refers only to web

availability of original crawl-based

web search engine results.

Year Engine Event

1993 Aliweb Launch

1994

WebCrawler Launch

Infoseek Launch

Lycos Launch

1995AltaVista Launch (part of DEC)

Excite Launch

1996

Dogpile Launch

Inktomi Founded

HotBot Founded

Ask Jeeves Founded

1997 Northern Light Launch

1998 Google Launch

1999

AlltheWeb Launch

Naver Launch

Teoma Founded

Vivisimo Founded

2000 Baidu Founded

2003 Info.com Launch

2004Yahoo! Search Final launch

A9.com Launch

2005

MSN Search Final launch

Ask.com Launch

GoodSearch Launch

2006

wikiseek Founded

Quaero Founded

Ask.com Launch

Live Search Launch

ChaCha Beta Launch

Guruji.com Beta Launch

2007wikiseek Launched

AskWiki Launched

The very first tool used for searching on the Internet was Archie.[1] The name stands for

"archive" without the "vee". It was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill

University in Montreal. The program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located

on public anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, creating a searchable database of file

names; however, Archie did not index the contents of these files.

The rise of Gopher (created in 1991 by Mark McCahill at the University of Minnesota) led to

two new search programs, Veronica and Jughead. Like Archie, they searched the file names

and titles stored in Gopher index systems. Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide

Index to Computerized Archives) provided a keyword search of most Gopher menu titles in

the entire Gopher listings. Jughead (Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And

Display) was a tool for obtaining menu information from specific Gopher servers. While the

name of the search engine "Archie" was not a reference to the Archie comic book series,

"Veronica" and "Jughead" are characters in the series, thus referencing their predecessor.

The first Web search engine was Wandex, a now-defunct index collected by the World Wide

Web Wanderer, a web crawler developed by Matthew Gray at MIT in 1993. Another very

early search engine, Aliweb, also appeared in 1993, and still runs today. JumpStation

(released in early 1994) used a crawler to find web pages for searching, but search was

limited to the title of web pages only. One of the first "full text" crawler-based search engines

was WebCrawler, which came out in 1994. Unlike its predecessors, it let users search for any

word in any webpage, which became the standard for all major search engines since. It was

also the first one to be widely known by the public. Also in 1994 Lycos (which started at

Carnegie Mellon University) was launched, and became a major commercial endeavor.

Soon after, many search engines appeared and vied for popularity. These included Excite,

Infoseek, Inktomi, Northern Light, and AltaVista. Yahoo! was among the most popular ways

for people to find web pages of interest, but its search function operated on its web directory,

rather than full-text copies of web pages. Information seekers could also browse the directory

instead of doing a keyword-based search.

Search engines were also known as some of the brightest stars in the Internet investing frenzy

that occurred in the late 1990s. Several companies entered the market spectacularly, receiving

record gains during their initial public offerings. Some have taken down their public search

engine, and are marketing enterprise-only editions, such as Northern Light. Many search

engine companies were caught up in the dot-com bubble, a speculation-driven market boom

that peaked in 1999 and ended in 2001.

Around 2000, the Google search engine rose to prominence.[citation needed] The company achieved

better results for many searches with an innovation called PageRank. This iterative algorithm

ranks web pages based on the number and PageRank of other web sites and pages that link

there, on the premise that good or desirable pages are linked to more than others. Google also

maintained a minimalist interface to its search engine. In contrast, many of its competitors

embedded a search engine in a web portal.

By 2000, Yahoo was providing search services based on Inktomi's search engine. Yahoo!

acquired Inktomi in 2002, and Overture (which owned AlltheWeb and AltaVista) in 2003.

Yahoo! switched to using Google's search engine until 2004, when it launched its own search

engine based on the combined technologies of its acquisitions.

Microsoft first launched MSN Search (since re-branded Live Search) in the fall of 1998 using

search results from Inktomi. In early 1999 the site began to display listings from Looksmart

blended with results from Inktomi except for a short time in 1999 when results from

AltaVista were used instead. In 2004, Microsoft began a transition to its own search

technology, powered by its own web crawler (called msnbot).

As of late 2007, Google was by far the most popular Web search engine worldwide. A

number of country-specific search engine companies have become prominent; for example

Baidu is the most popular search engine in the People's Republic of China.

Current market share

Most popular search engines worldwide, Dec. 2007[5][not in citation given]

Company Millions of searches Relative market share

Google 28,454 46.47%

Yahoo! 10,505 17.16%

Baidu 8,428 13.76%

Microsoft 7,880 12.87%

NHN 2,882 4.71%

eBay 2,428 3.9%

Time Warner (includes AOL) 1,062 1.6%

Ask.com and related 728 1.1%

Yandex 566 0.9%

Alibaba.com 531 0.8%

Total 61,221 100.0%

How Web search engines work

This section does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007)

Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may

be challenged and removed.

A search engine operates, in the following order

1. Web crawling

2. Indexing

3. Searching

Web search engines work by storing information about many web pages, which they retrieve

from the WWW itself. These pages are retrieved by a Web crawler (sometimes also known as

a spider) — an automated Web browser which follows every link it sees. Exclusions can be

made by the use of robots.txt. The contents of each page are then analyzed to determine how

it should be indexed (for example, words are extracted from the titles, headings, or special

fields called meta tags). Data about web pages are stored in an index database for use in later

queries. Some search engines, such as Google, store all or part of the source page (referred to

as a cache) as well as information about the web pages, whereas others, such as AltaVista,

store every word of every page they find. This cached page always holds the actual search

text since it is the one that was actually indexed, so it can be very useful when the content of

the current page has been updated and the search terms are no longer in it. This problem

might be considered to be a mild form of linkrot, and Google's handling of it increases

usability by satisfying user expectations that the search terms will be on the returned

webpage. This satisfies the principle of least astonishment since the user normally expects the

search terms to be on the returned pages. Increased search relevance makes these cached

pages very useful, even beyond the fact that they may contain data that may no longer be

available elsewhere.

When a user enters a query into a search engine (typically by using key words), the engine

examines its index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria,

usually with a short summary containing the document's title and sometimes parts of the text.

Most search engines support the use of the boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to further

specify the search query. Some search engines provide an advanced feature called proximity

search which allows users to define the distance between keywords.

what order the results should be shown in, varies widely from one engine to another. The

methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.

SEARCH ENGINES

A Search Engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored

on a computer system. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information

and the amount of information which must be consulted, akin to other techniques for

managing information overload.

The most public, visible form of a search engine is a Web search engine which searches for

information on the World Wide Web.

How search engines work:

Search engines provide an interface to a group of items that enables users to specify criteria

about an item of interest and have the engine find the matching items. The criteria are

referred to as a search query. In the case of text search engines, the search query is typically

expressed as a set of words that identify the desired concept that one or more documents may

contain.

There are several styles of search query syntax that vary in strictness. Where as some text

search engines require users to enter two or three words separated by white space, other

search engines may enable users to specify entire documents, pictures, sounds, and various

forms of natural language. Some search engines apply improvements to search queries to

increase the likelihood of providing a quality set of items through a process known as query

expansion.

Index-based search engine:

The list of items that meet the criteria specified by the query is typically sorted, or ranked, in

some regard so as to place the most relevant items first. Ranking items by relevance (from

highest to lowest) reduces the time required to find the desired information. Probabilistic

search engines rank items based on measures of similarity and sometimes popularity or

authority. Boolean search engines typically only return items which match exactly without

regard to order.

To provide a set of matching items quickly, a search engine will typically collect metadata

about the group of items under consideration beforehand through a process referred to as

indexing. The index typically requires a smaller amount of computer storage, and provides a

basis for the search engine to calculate item relevance. The search engine may store a copy of

each item in a cache so that users can see the state of the item at the time it was indexed or for

archive purposes or to make repetitive processes work more efficiently and quickly.

Notably, some search engines do not store an index. Crawler or spider type search engines

may collect and assess items at the time of the search query. Meta search engines simply

reuse the index or results of one or more other search engines.

VARIUOS SEARCH ENGINES

Google:

http://www.google.com

Voted four times Most Outstanding Search Engine by Search Engine Watch readers, Google

has a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-

based service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy.

It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for. Google

provides the option to find more than web pages, however. Using on the top of the search box

on the Google home page, you can easily seek out images from across the web; discussions

that are taking place on Usenet newsgroups, locate news information or perform product

searching. Using the More links provides access to human-compiled information from the

Open Directory (see below), catalog searching and other services.

Google is also known for the wide range of features it offers, such as cached links that let you

"resurrect" dead pages or see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers excellent spell

checking, easy access to dictionary definitions, integration of stock quotes, street maps,

telephone numbers and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown on some of these

features. The Google Toolbar has also won a popular following for the easy access it provides

to Google and its features directly from the Internet Explorer browser. In addition to Google's

unpaid editorial results, the company also operates its own advertising programs. The cost-

per-click Ad Words program places ads on Google as well as some of Google's partners.

Similarly, Google is also a provider of unpaid editorial results to some other search engines.

For a list of major partnerships, see the Search Providers Chart. Google was originally a

Stanford University project by students Larry Page and Sergey Brin called Backrub. By 1998,

the name had been changed to Google, and the project jumped off campus and became the

private company Google. It remains privately held today.

Yahoo:

http://www.yahoo.com

Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors

organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to

crawler-based listings for its main results. These came from Google until February 2004.

Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology. Learn more in this recent review from our

Search Day newsletter, which also provides some updated submission details.

In addition to excellent search results, you can use tabs above the search box on the Yahoo

home page to seek images, Yellow Page listings or use Yahoo's excellent shopping search

engine. Or visit the Yahoo Search home page, where even more specialized search options

are offered.

The Yahoo Directory still survives. You'll notice "category" links below some of the sites

lists in response to a keyword search. When offered, these will take you to a list of web sites

that have been reviewed and approved by a human editor. It's also possible to do a pure

search of just the human-compiled Yahoo Directory, which is how the old or "classic" Yahoo

used to work. To do this, search from the Yahoo Directory home page, as opposed to the

regular Yahoo.com home page. Then you'll get both directory category links ("Related

Directory Categories") and "Directory Results," which are the top web site matches drawn

from all categories of the Yahoo Directory. Sites pay a fee to be included in the Yahoo

Directory's commercial listings, though they must meet editor approval before being

accepted. Non-commercial content is accepted for free. Yahoo's content acquisition program

also offers paid inclusion, where sites can also pay to be included in Yahoo's crawler-based

results. This doesn't guarantee ranking, Yahoo promises. The CAP program also brings in

content from non-profit organizations for free.

Like Google, Yahoo sells paid placement advertising links that appear on its own site and

which are distributed to others. Yahoo purchased Overture in October 2003. Overture was

formerly called Go To until late 2001. More about it can be found on the Paid Listings Search

Engines page. Overture purchased all the web in March 03 and Alta vista in April 03. Now

Yahoo owns these, gained as from its purchase of Overture. Technology AltaVista and

AllTheWeb was combined with that of Inktomi, a crawler-based search engine that grew out

UC Berkeley and then launched as its own company in 1996, to make the current Yahoo

crawler. Yahoo purchased Inktomi in March 2003.

Ask:

http://www.ask.com

Ask Jeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the "natural language" search

engine that let you search by asking questions and responded with what seemed to be the

right answer to everything.

In reality, technology wasn't what made Ask Jeeves perform so well. Behind the scenes, the

company at one point had about 100 editors who monitored search logs. They then went out

onto the web and located what seemed to be the best sites to match the most popular queries.

In 1999, Ask acquired Direct Hit, which had developed the world's first "click popularity"

search technology. Then, in 2001, Ask acquired Teoma's unique index and search relevancy

technology. Teoma was based upon the clustering concept of subject-specific popularity.

Today, Ask depends on crawler-based technology to provide results to its users. These results

come from the Teoma algorithm, now known as Expert Rank.

AllTheWeb.com

http://www.alltheweb.com

Powered by Yahoo, you may find All The Web a lighter, more customizable and pleasant

"pure search" experience than you get at Yahoo itself. The focus is on web search, but news,

picture, video, MP3 and FTP search are also offered. All TheWeb.com was previously owned

by a company called FAST and used as a showcase for that company's web search

technology. That's why you sometimes may sometimes hear AllTheWeb.com also referred to

as FAST or FAST Search. However, the search engine was purchased by search provider

Overture (see below) in late April 2003, then later become Yahoo's property when Yahoo

bought Overture. It no longer has a connection with FAST.

AOL Search

http://aolsearch.aol.com(internal)

http://search.aol.com/(external)

AOL Search provides users with editorial listings that comes Google's crawler-based index.

Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches.

So, why would you use AOL Search? Primarily because you are an AOL user. The "internal"

version of AOL Search provides links to content only available within the AOL online

service. In this way, you can search AOL and the entire web at the same time. The "external"

version lacks these links. Why wouldn't you use AOL Search? If you like Google, many of

Google's features such as "cached" pages are not offered by AOL Search.

HotBot

http://www.hotbot.com

HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo,

Google and Teoma. Unlike a Meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these

crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in

one place. HotBot's "choose a search engine" interface was introduced in December 2002.

However, HotBot has a long history as a search brand before this date. HotBot debuted in

May 1996; it gained a strong following among serious searchers for the quality and

comprehensiveness of its crawler-based results, which were provided by Inktomi, at the time.

It also caught the attention of experienced web users and techies, especially for the unusual

colors and interface it continues to sport today. HotBot gained more notoriety when it

switched over to using Direct Hit's "click through" results for its main listings in 1999. Direct

Hit was then one of the "hot" search engines that had recently appeared. Unfortunately, the

quality of Direct Hit's results couldn't match those of another "hot" player that had debuted at

the same time, Google. HotBot's popularity began to drop. Even worse, HotBot also suffered

by being owned by Lycos (now Terra Lycos). Lycos had acquired HotBot when it purchased

Wired Digital in October 1998. Lycos failed to make search a priority on its flagship Lycos

site as well as HotBot through much of 1999 and 2000, as it focused instead on adding

"portal" features. The company refocused on search in late 2001, making significant

improvements to the Lycos site and, as noted, reworked the HotBot site at the end of 2002.

AltaVista

http://www.altavista.com

AltaVista opened in December 1995 and for several years was the "Google" of its day, in

terms of providing relevant results and having a loyal group of users that loved the service.

Sadly, an attempt to turn AltaVista into a portal site in 1998 saw the company lose track of

the importance of search. Over time, relevancy dropped, as did the freshness of AltaVista's

listings and the crawler's coverage of the web. Today, AltaVista is once again focused on

search. Results come from Yahoo, and tabs above the search box let you go beyond web

search to find images, MP3/Audio, Video, human category listings and news results. If you

want a lighter-feel than Yahoo but to still have Yahoo's results, AltaVista is worth

considering. AltaVista was originally owned by Digital, and then taken over by Compaq,

when that company purchased Digital in 1998. AltaVista was later spun off into a private

company, controlled by CMGI. Overture purchasing the search engine in April 2003, then it

later became part of Yahoo when Yahoo bought Overture.

Live Search

http://www.live.com/

Live Search (formerly Windows Live Search) is the name of Microsoft's web search engine,

successor to MSN Search, designed to compete with the industry leaders Google and Yahoo.

The search engine offers some innovative features, such as the ability to view additional

search results on the same web page (instead of needing to click through to subsequent search

result pages) and the ability to adjust the amount of information displayed for each search-

result. It also allows the user to save searches and see them updated automatically on

Live.com. The service was previously powered by Look Smart results and gained top marks

for having its own team of editors that monitored the most popular searches being performed

to hand-pick sites believed to be the most relevant. The system worked well.

Look Smart

http://www.looksmart.com

Look Smart is primarily a human-compiled directory of web sites. It gathers its listings in two

ways. Commercial sites pay to be listed in its commercial categories, making the service very

much like an electronic "Yellow Pages." However, volunteer editors at the Look Smart-

owned Zeal directory also catalog sites into non-commercial categories for free. Though Zeal

is a separate web site, its listings are integrated into Look Smarts results. Look Smart

launched independently in October 1996 was backed by Reader's Digest for about a year, and

then company executives bought back control of the service.

Look Smart also bought the Wise Nut crawler-based search engine in April 2002. Wise Nut's

are offered through the Look Smart via its Web tab above the search box. Unlike its

competitors, the Wise Nut crawler has often been out of date, sometimes for months at a

time. Finally, the real gem at Look Smart can be found via its Articles tab. That provides

access to content from thousands of periodicals.

Netscape Search

http://search.netscape.com

Owned by AOL Time Warner, Netscape Search uses Google for its main listings, just as does

AOL's other major search site, AOL Search. So why use Netscape Search rather than

Google? Unlike with AOL Search, there's no compelling reason to consider it. The main

difference between Netscape Search and Google is that Netscape Search will list some of

Netscape's own content at the top of its results. Netscape also has a completely different look

and feel than Google. If you like either of these reasons then tries Netscape Search.

Otherwise, you're probably better off just searching at Google.

SOFTWARE AGENTS

The competitive business environment and the growing complexity of work and personal

lives create demands to perform many tasks efficiently and promptly. To support these

imperatives, new computing tools are needed. One such emerging tool is the notion of an

intelligent autonomous software agent. The underlying vision behind the development of

software agents involves a paradigm shift from the traditional software as tool to software as

assistant.

In the existing tool base model a user initiates various actions that are passively

facilitated by the software. This is a do what I say model. For instance a user instructs a

software program to download files from the internet, browse the www or compute a

spreadsheet column in a more efficient fashion but the commands themselves issue directly

from the user’s mouse clicks or keyboard input.

In the new agent base model, the user informs an agent about the various actions to be

performed or tasks to be accomplished. This is a do what I imply model. The agent takes

these requests and actively performs tasks on behalf of the user, such as comparing prices in

online shopping malls or monitoring incoming electronic mail message and organizing an

agenda even when the user is on vacation.

In many ways software agents mimic real world roles of a highly competent secretary,

reference librarian, personal and relentless world events watcher, news clip agency office and

personal assistant, personal online shopper, personal investment adviser or decision making

counselor. These capabilities or indisputable value will bring about a service model shift in

the software world that will touch and shape all of our lives significantly.

Recently the term software agent has become a marketing buzzword to describe

everything from a spreadsheet’s macro function to complex mobile code that can roam

networks to do our bidding.

Characteristics of software agents:

Software agent technology is relatively new on the computing scene, so there is no

firm consensus on what constitutes an intelligent agent. Following capabilities are often

associated with the notion of an intelligent agent.

Independent agency:

Agency independence is the ability to handle user defined tasks autonomous of the

user and often without the user’s guidance or presence. The user does not become directly

involved in executing the task. Independent agents are usually created via scripting languages

like Apples Script, Tele script.

Agent learning:

Agency learning is the ability to mimic the user’s steps when normally performing a

task. The simplest form of this type of agent is a user interface agent that records the user’s

actions as he or she opens files. Agent learning usually occurs through observation, user

feedback or training.

Agent reasoning capability:

This is the ability to operate in a decision making capacity in complex changing

condition. This property is usually associated with making inferences, having the competence

to choose among different strategies or being capable of planning a task. Three approaches

are: the rule based approach, the knowledge based approach, and the learning approach.

Agent interface:

The notion of a software agent that can effectively help humans perform daily task is

even more powerful when users think of the agents as some sort of humanoids. Some

researchers believe that computer users will be more likely to trust and feel comfortable with

a system that present a humanlike interface.

Types of Software agents:

Two type of human agents function in the workplace: office bound workers and

mobile field workers. Similarly, two type of software agent’s function: static and mobile. The

static software agent simply sits on the server or PC and actively monitors the environment.

For instance, a user mail agent executes in the background and is activated when there is an

incoming mail message. After processing the mail, the mail agent becomes dormant again

until another event requires processing. In short, stationary agents do not roam around the

online world but use embedded knowledge to assist in filtering and a processing the volume

of incoming information.

Advanced forms of agents incorporate the mobility that allows a software agent to

execute commands while living on a remote server only reporting back to its home base when

the given task is accomplished. Mobile or roaming agents promise to create a new computing

environment in which software assistants perform a plethora of tasks for consumers. The

consumer will be able to use his client to give the agent instructions find the cheapest flight to

Bermuda, or all news stories on the internet, and to launch it also can be programmed to

make purchase decisions.

Agents can also cooperate with other agents to accomplish a common activity such as

meeting scheduling. Imagine a scenario where the agent travels to an online travel agency in

search of the cheapest wound trip ticket to Hawaii. The agent buys the most economic fare

and returns to user’s computer, entering the flight itinerary and checking the monthly planner

for any potential conflicts.

To accomplish complex tasks static agents and mobile agents may actually work

together. Software agent technology has the potential to affect peoples’ lives in many ways.

And the agent technology looks set to radically alter not only the way in which we interact

with computers but also the way we conceptualize and build complex systems.

BENEFITS OF SOFTWARE AGENTS

Here are some typical reasons why we need software agents. The basic premise is that

software agents are autonomous, background software processes that execute on behalf of the

user:

Managing the information overload:

Users are overwhelmed by the huge amount of information available and the

effort time and cost required finding the specific information they need. Agent support is

needed to sort and filter an incoming data stream automatically into a manageable amount of

high value information.

Decision support:

There is a need for increased support for tasks performed by knowledge workers,

especially in the decision making area. Timely and knowledgeable decisions made by these

professionals greatly impact their effectiveness and success of their businesses in the

marketplace.

Repetitive office activity:

There is a pressing need to automate tasks performed by administrative and clerical

personnel in functions such as sales or customer support to reduce labor cost and increase

productivity.

Search and retrieval:

Because it is not possible to manipulate directly a distributed database system in an

electronic commerce setting with millions of data objects, user will have to relegate the task

of searching and cost comparison to agents.

Domain experts:

We need to model costly expertise and make it widely available. Example of expert

software agents could be models of real world agents such as translators, lawyers.

In short, software agents can improve the productivity of the end user by performing

various tasks, the most important being gathering information, filtering information and using

it for decision making.

DRAWBACKS OF SOFTWARE AGENTS

The various limitations of software agents are:

No overall system controller:

Agent technology may not be appropriate for the system:

In which globe constraints have to be maintained.

Where a real time response must be guaranteed.

In which deadlock or live lock must be avoided.

No global perspective:

Agents may make sub optimal decisition because of the agents’ tunnel vision. Multi

agent system will need to work on co corporation and negotiation technique to promote more

optimal global decision.

Trust and delegation:

Individual must trust underlying technology of agents and actual knowledge base of

agent in order for them to comfortable delegate task to an agent. Agent must strike a balance

need lessly consulting the user and exceeding its authority by not consulting the user enough.

Directory services & Agents in electronic commerce

Intelligent Agents for Electronic Commerce

In recent years, many researchers and practitioners have focused on the design of market

architectures for electronic commerce, and on protocols governing the interaction of self-

interested agents engaged in such transactions. While providing support for direct agent

negotiation, the existing architectures for multi-agent virtual markets usually lack explicit

facilities and infrastructure for handling multiple and varied negotiation protocols. Since

existing market architectures do not provide such protocols as an integrated part of the

framework, they will have to be extended in order to provide such support.

We have developed MAGNET (Multi AGent Negotiation Testbed), and architecture that

provides support for complex agent interactions, such as in automated contracting, as well as

other types of negotiation protocols. In particular, we are interested in business-to-business

situations in which a company outsources production to outside contractors and needs to

automate as much as possible the management of the supply-chain.

Agents in MAGNET negotiate and monitor the execution of contracts among multiple

suppliers. Each agent is an independent entity, with its own structure, goals, and resources. In

general, the resources under ``control'' of an individual agent are not sufficient to satisfy that

agent's goals, and so the agent must negotiate with other agents in its environment in order to

meet its goals.

We distinguish between two agent roles, the Customer and the Supplier. A Customer is an

agent who needs resources outside its direct control in order to carry out his plans. In

response to a Request for Quotes, some set of Supplier agents may offer to provide the

requested resources or services, for specified prices, over specified time periods. Once the

Customer agent receives bids, it evaluates them based on cost, risk, and time constraints, and

selects the optimal set of bids which can satisfy its goals. Suppliers are then notified of their

commitments, and the Execution Manager is called to oversee completion of the plan. Plan

maintenance includes re-negotiating existing commitments, re-bidding portions of the plan,

re-planning, and abandoning the goal.

Here is a screen shot of the Plan/RFQ generation screen. The current TaskPlan is represented

by a Table view (in the upper left-hand corner) and a Gantt chart view (in the upper right-

hand corner.) The thin line trailing each Gantt object depicts the amount of schedule slack

each task has allotted to it. The lower half of the screen allows for editing of the TaskPlan, as

well as specifying RFQ-related parameters before submitting an RFQ.