Friday, January 23, 2009

E-COM LECTURE NOTES

Lecture 1.
E-Commerce: Introduction to Electronic Commerce: origin and need
Page 1-6 --- P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
1.1,1.2 --- Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
• According to commercial industry:
“E-Commerce is an umbrella that describes automated business-related transactions, spanning the purchase of pencils via an e-mail message to an office supplies store, a shopping trip to an electronic mall on the internet, the electronic filing of tax returns or other high-dollar industrial inventory control transactions.”
• B2B - Business to Business
• Business purchasing products for resale from suppliers
• B2C – Business to Consumer
• Customer purchasing products online via Internet, such as Music, Airline Ticket etc.
• G2B – Government to Business
• Government requesting procurement information online or purchases online
G2C – Government to Consumer
Electronic commerce
Any web site that offers products and/or services for sale is a commercial web site. There are thousands of commercial web sites on the Internet. Some of them have been successful, and some weren't so lucky. What elements make up a good commercial web site? Of course, web pages should look attractive to a customer. However, even the most attractive web pages will not make a person come back to a web site where it takes too long to find the right product or where order forms don't work. In this lecture we will discuss what functionality is needed for a successful commercial web site and what technology implements various web site elements.
Examples of commercial web sites
Let's browse the following two web sites, which are fairly typical web sites for online shopping.
• Online bakery. A web site for a small business.
• Trains.com Online sore of model trains and related products. An example of a larger commercial web site.















Components of a well-functioning commercial web site
A well-organized web site should be easy for a customer to use and easy for the owner to maintain. It takes a lot to build a well-organized web site. Below is a list of the most important elements that a good web site should have:
1. A well-organized collection of products and/or services. Smaller web sites can just list all their products on one or several web pages. Larger sites provide indices of products and search engines so that customers can find what they need. There should be a way for customers to get all necessary information about products, compare several products, get an advice on related products that they might want to get, etc.
To maintain a web site, the owner should be able to change product information easily. A web site where a price change of a single product requires changing 3 web pages is just bound to have inconsistencies. The owner should be able to add or remove products based on every day's availability, change prices, add product cross-references, etc. without making the web site inconsistent even for a minute.
2. A convenient way for a customer to select products. Usually implemented as a shopping cart or a shopping basket. The customer should be able to select and delete products while browsing the web site.
3. Convenient order forms. The form should be flexible enough to allow to specify a different address for the product delivery, a gift message, etc. It should have as few required fields as possible. A returning customer should be provided default information so that not to type it every time. For both the customer and the owner it is essential that the form catches simple typos (s.a. 4 digits in a zip code).
4. Convenient ways of payment. There should be options of paying by a credit card, by a check (not everyone has credit cards!), and by a credit card over the phone if the customer is not comfortable sending his/her credit card number. The options may include some electronic payment systems.
For the owner, there should be a quick way to verify the credit card information or in some other way to check that the payment is valid.
5. Secure communication system not only to protect transmission of a credit card number, but also to guarantee privacy of the customer (including details of the purchase). A web site might have a user registration system with a password, in which case all transactions by the user should be private. It is also important to prevent unauthorized access to the web site (by a hacker or accidental).
6. Some way of storing information about customers. This is convenient for customers so that they don't need to reenter their information every time they access the site. It also allows to "customize" the web site for someone's interests. This can be done via customer registration or by means of "cookies", which we will discuss later.
The owner can benefit a lot from storing information about a customer: he/she can customize ads based on the customer's profile or send an e-mail advertising a new product (but keep in mind that many people don't like this!) However, the greatest benefit is the owner's ability to monitor customer's behaviour: which pages have the customer visited and which purchases (if any) he/she have made afterwards.
7. A way of keeping information about orders. This allows customers to track their orders, and for owners to get all kinds of financial and statistical information. It is also important to keep order information in case of later disputes.
8. The last, but not the least, customer support and feedback. There should be online documentation for all products ever sold on the web site, various FAQs, and, ideally, a way of customers to post their opinion about the product. Easy access to this information may make a difference between a frequently visited web site and a lonely online looser.
This aspect of a web site cannot be completely mechanized: a human being has to answer e-mail, judge the relevance of customer's comments (otherwise the web site may be flooded with nonsense), organize comments by topics, and so on. However, there is a lot that can be computer-aided in this process, for instance sorting incoming messages by their title and/or return address to forward them to an appropriate customer support person.
Note that we are only considering business-to-customer interactions here (so-called B2C), leaving out all the features related to business-to-business (B2B) interactions. While such interactions are basically similar to B2C, they can be optimized if a company has stable business partners which have more powerful computers than an average customer does. Even a customer oriented web site has a B2B part when dealing with vendors of products. We are not considering B2B connections in designing a web site.
Some technologies used to implement all this
1. Convenient storage and retrieval of information about products and customers require a database.
________________________________________
Some terminology: A database is a collection of data organized in such a way that it can be easily accessed, managed, and updated. A query is a request to a database written in a form that's supported by the database. Every brand of databases has its own language of queries (a query language).
________________________________________
A well-organized database allows you to store each piece of information only once, so if you need to change it, you change it in one place. Databases allow you to store information about orders, needed both for you and for customers. For instance, customers can track their orders by requesting information from the database, which will automatically reply whether the order has been shipped. You can use customer information to fill in forms for returning customers with their recorded information. You can store statistics about customers (how many times they have visited the web sites, which pages, what did they buy, and so on). Customer's feedback about products can be organized and displayed later when someone else is interested in the same product. It's hard to imagine an interesting web site that does not have a database behind it.
There are various kinds of databases, from a simple one, which is a collection of "flat" files storing data, to very sophisticated commercial products, s.a. ORACLE. The most common kind is a relational database.
________________________________________
A relational database is a database organized as a collection of tables.
________________________________________
In this course we will use a simple relational database called McKoi database.
2. A convenient interface to the database from the web site. A customer does not need to know anything even about the existence of the database, not to mention details of its organization. He/she should be able to get all necessary information by typing in keywords and filling in electronic forms.
Various programming languages (for instance, Java, JavaScript) provide libraries to implement a remote connection to a database server.
________________________________________
A server is a computer that provides a remote access to some service, for instance a web page server "serves" web pages, i.e. sends HTML files, graphics files, etc. in response to http requests, a databse server provides responses to database queries, and so on. One machine can provide several different services at the same time.
A client is a computer that makes a request for a service.
________________________________________
We will use a Java JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) package to facilitate a connection to a relational database. It does not depend on a particular kind of the database, as long as the database supports SQL (Structured Query Language).
________________________________________
SQL is a standard for a query language of a relational database.
________________________________________
An interface has to provide way for customers to fill in forms, press buttons, etc. We will use javax.swing package to build an interactive graphical interface.
3. We need to be able to process user's forms, for instance order forms, and produce various web pages, depending on the request. Ways of processing electronic forms include various server-side scripts, s.a. CGI, PERL, asp (Active Server Pages, an extension of JavaScript) and others. We will use Java Servlets for this purpose.
4. A web site responds to requests for web pages. It doesn't "know" where the requests have come from, so it can't tell if two requests for web pages have been made by the same user. To keep track of a user during a session (and sometimes between sessions), a web server uses cookies.
________________________________________
A cookie is a small text file placed by a web server on the client machine. The file gets sent back every time the client requests a web page from the server. A cookie has an expiration time, which may be just for the session or longer.
________________________________________
Java Servlet package also implements cookies.
5. Encryption and security. A common way secure communications are implemented is via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which allows various forms of encryption, depending on the maximum level of encryption provided by the server and the client and on geographic location of the machines (a different level of encryption is allowed in the US for connections to domestic and foreign computers). We will study and compare several encryption algorithms. On the practical side, we will use Java packages which implement encryption and secure communications.
6. Electronic payment systems are based on customer's accounts with one of trusted vendors. A cutomer obtains certificates "signed" by the vendor which are analogous to checks ("personal money") and cash ("anonymous money"). The implementation should be such that mere copying of any piece of information transmitted in the transaction does not allow the thief to use the "money". We will study protocols for verifying validity of "checks" and "cash" in electronic transactions. We will also study ways of implementing "coins" on the Internet, i.e. certificates for small amounts of money (this allows some shortcuts in implementation, since the process of breaking even a simpler protocol may not be worth the money stolen).
Advantages of Electronic Commerce
• Increased sales
– Reach narrow market segments in geographically dispersed locations
– Create virtual communities
• Decreased costs
– Handling of sales inquiries
– Providing price quotes
– Determining product availability
Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce
• Loss of ability to inspect products from remote locations
• Rapid developing pace of underlying technologies
• Difficult to calculate return on investment
• Cultural and legal impediments


Lecture 2 – Application of E-Commerce
1.5.1,1.5.2,1.5.3,1.5.4 ------- Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
1.6.1,1.6.2,1.6.3,1.6.4 ------- Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e

• Supply chain management
• Video on demand
• Remote banking
• Procurement and purchasing
• Online marketing and advertisement
• Home shopping
• Auctions













Lecture 3
Network infrastructure (including internet)
B-2.1.1,2.1.2 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e

Network infrastructure (including internet)

• Information superhighway infrastructure
– Internet, LAN, WAN, routers, etc.
– telecom, cable TV, wireless, etc.

• Messaging and information distribution infrastructure
– HTML, XML, e-mail, HTTP, etc.

• Common business infrastructure
– Security, authentication, electronic payment, directories, catalogs, etc.








Lecture 4
Factors affecting e-commerce, Business and technological dimensions of e-commerce
pp-10 P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
pp-29,B-1.5 P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Business and technological dimensions of e-commerce

• Internet
• Mobile technologies
• Web architecture
• Component programming
• Data exchange
• Multimedia
• Search engines
• Data mining
• Intelligent agents
• Access security
• Cryptographic security
• Watermarking
• Payment systems

Infrastructure for E-commerce
• The Internet
– system of interconnected networks that spans the globe
– routers, TCP/IP, firewalls, network infrastructure, network protocols
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
– part of the Internet and allows users to share information with an easy-to-use interface
– Web browsers, web servers, HTTP, HTML
• Web architecture
– Client/server model
– N-tier architecture; e.g, web servers, application servers, database servers

E-Commerce Software
• Content Transport
– pull, push, web-caching, MIME
• Server Components
– CGI, server-side scripting

• Programming Clients
• Sessions and Cookies
• Object Technology
– CORBA, COM, Java Beans/RMI
• Technology of Fulfillment of Digital Goods
– Secure and fail-safe delivery, rights management

















Lecture 5
Electronic payment system, P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Page 171-173 & Page 186
Inter-organizational commerce & intra-organizational commerce
P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e -Page 17















Lecture 6
EDI, & Value-added network
Pp171-173 & pp186
P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
PP17 P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Electronic money (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.
While electronic money has been an interesting problem for cryptography (see for example the work of David Chaum and Markus Jakobsson), to date, use of digital cash has been relatively low-scale. One rare success has been Hong Kong's Octopus card system, which started as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system. Singapore also has an electronic money implementation for its public transportation system (commuter trains, bus, etc), which is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card and based on the same type of card (FeliCa). A very successful implementation is in the Netherlands, known as Chipknip.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) It refers to data transformation from one standard to another standard,(ie) refers to the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is more than mere E-mail; for instance, organizations might replace bills of lading and even checks with appropriate EDI messages. It also refers specifically to a family of standards, including the X12 series. However, EDI also exhibits its pre-Internet roots, and the standards tend to focus on ASCII(American Standard Code for Information Interchange)-formatted single messages rather than the whole sequence of conditions and exchanges that make up an inter-organization business process.
In 1992, a survey of Canadian businesses found at least 140 that had adopted some form of EDI, but that many (in the sample) "[had] not benefited from implementing EDI, and that they [had] in fact been disadvantaged by it." [1]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology in a 1996 publication [1] defines Electronic Data Interchange as "the computer-to-computer interchange of strictly formatted messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media.". It goes on further to say that "In EDI, the usual processing of received messages is by computer only. Human intervention in the processing of a received message is typically intended only for error conditions, for quality review, and for special situations. For example, the transmission of binary or textual data is not EDI as defined here unless the data are treated as one or more data elements of an EDI message and are not normally intended for human interpretation as part of online data processing." [2]
EDI can be formally defined as 'The transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention'. Most other definitions used are variations on this theme. Even in this era of technologies such as XML web services, the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI is still the data format used by the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions in the world.











Lecture 7
Digital library & Smart card
1.2,B-1.9.1 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
10.7,B-10.8 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats (as opposed to print, microform, or other media) and accessible by computers.[1] The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. A digital library is a type of information retrieval system.
The first use of the term digital library in print may have been in a 1988 report to the Corporation for National Research Initiatives[2] The term digital libraries was first popularized by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994.[3] The older names electronic library or virtual library are also occasionally used, though electronic library nowadays more often refers to portals, often provided by government agencies, as in the case of the Florida Electronic Library. The DELOS Digital Library Reference Model[4] defines a digital library as:
An organization, which might be virtual, that comprehensively collects, manages and preserves for the long term rich digital content, and offers to its user communities specialized functionality on that content, of measurable quality and according to codified policies.

SMART CARD
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. There are two broad categories of ICCs. Memory cards contain only non-volatile memory storage components, and perhaps some specific security logic. Microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally PVC, but sometimes ABS. The card may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting. Using smartcards also is a form of strong security authentication for single sign-on within large companies and organizations.
Benefits
Smart cards can be used for identification, authentication, and data storage.[1]
Smart cards provide a means of effecting business transactions in a flexible, secure, standard way with minimal human intervention.
Smart card can provide strong authentication[2] for single sign-on or enterprise single sign-on to computers, laptops, data with encryption, enterprise resource planning platforms such as SAP, etc.
















Lecture 8
Credit card and emerging financial instruments,B2B e-commerce
pp34 - – P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
10.3B – Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Credit card
A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user. A credit card is different from a charge card, where a charge card requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or credit unions, and are the same shape and size as specified by the ISO 7810 standard
How credit cards work
Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card.
When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction.
Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in the United Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMV card.
Other variations of verification systems are used by eCommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge. These will typically involve the cardholder providing additional information, such as the security code printed on the back of the card, or the address of the cardholder.
Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect (see Fair Credit Billing Act for details of the US regulations). Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed if the balance is not paid in full (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.


















Lecture 9
E-procurement & Supply-chain coordination
1.9.2,12.2.1,12.2.5
Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
pp231,pp233
P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
E-procurement
E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or Business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as Electronic Data Interchange and Enterprise Resource Planning. Typically, e-procurement Web sites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Depending on the approach, buyers or sellers may specify costs or invite bids. Transactions can be initiated and completed. Ongoing purchases may qualify customers for volume discounts or special offers. E-procurement software may make it possible to automate some buying and selling. Companies participating expect to be able to control parts inventories more effectively, reduce purchasing agent overhead, and improve manufacturing cycles. E-procurement is expected to be integrated with the trend toward computerized supply chain management.
E-procurement is done with a software application that includes features for supplier management and complex auctions. The new generation of E-Procurement is now on-demand or a software-as-a-service.
There are seven main types of e-procurement:
• Web-based ERP (Electronic Resource Planning): Creating and approving purchasing requisitions, placing purchase orders and receiving goods and services by using a software system based on Internet technology.
• e-MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul): The same as web-based ERP except that the goods and services ordered are non-product related MRO supplies.
• e-sourcing: Identifying new suppliers for a specific category of purchasing requirements using Internet technology.
• e-tendering: Sending requests for information and prices to suppliers and receiving the responses of suppliers using Internet technology.
• e-reverse auctioning: Using Internet technology to buy goods and services from a number of known or unknown suppliers.
• e-informing: Gathering and distributing purchasing information both from and to internal and external parties using Internet technology.
• e-marketsites: Expands on Web-based ERP to open up value chains. Buying communities can access preferred suppliers' products and services, add to shopping carts, create requisition, seek approval, receipt purchase orders and process electronic invoices with integration to suppliers' supply chains and buyers' financial systems.
The e-procurement value chain consists of Indent Management, eTendering, eAuctioning, Vendor Management, Catalogue Management, and Contract Management. Indent Management is the workflow involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual procuring departments defining their indenting process. In works procurement, administrative approval and technical sanction are obtained in electronic format. In goods procurement, indent generation activity is done online. The end result of the stage is taken as inputs for issuing the NIT.
Elements of e-procurement include Request For Information, Request For Proposal, Request for Quotation, RFx (the previous three together), and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects).
Advantages and disadvantages
Advantages include getting the right product, from the right supplier to the right buyer, at the right time, for the right price and the right quantity. In reality e-procurement has the advantage of taking supply chain management to the next level, providing real time information to the vendor as to the status of a customer's needs. For example, a vendor may have an agreement with a customer to automatically ship materials when the customer's stock level reaches a low point, thus bypassing the need for the customer to ask for it. A major disadvantage to this type of agreement could be that the vendor has the power to take advantage of the customer by knowing more information about the customer than they would have if the customer was in a normal supply chain management structure.
Supply Chain Coordination
A supply chain or logistics network is the system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains[1].
A typical supply chain begins with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material and includes several production links, for instance; component construction, assembly and merging before moving onto several layers of storage facilities of ever decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.
Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain will therefore be between different companies who will seek to maximize their revenue within their sphere of interest, but may have little or no knowledge or interest in the remaining players in the supply chain. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businesses that cooperates to provide product and service offerings has been called the Extended










Lecture 10
On-line research
Page 105 ---- -P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Lecture 11
Organizing for online marketing
Page 127 & page 129 ------ P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Lecture 12
Internet retailing
11.1,11. & ,B-11.3 – Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e











Lecture 13
Multi channel retailing & Channel design
B-11.5.7,B-11.5.8 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
B-11.7.1 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Multi channel retailing
A multichannel retailer is a company that sells directly to the public via more than one distribution channel. Most multichannel retailers sell through mail order catalogs and "brick & mortar" retail stores. Some multichannel retailers, sell online as well.
Typically, a multichannel retailer begins with a traditional retail storefront, then adds a mail order catalog and finally, once those two channels prove lucrative, expand to a third selling channel by establishing an online presence.
Although this is the normal sequence of events, there are other successful multichannel retailers, who have started with either a web channel or direct mail channel first and then expanded their marketing efforts into the "real world" of traditional retail storefront selling environments.
Establishing more than one way for their customers to shop for their products, is a method for retailers to attempt to grow their monthly revenues and gain new customers, who in turn can be marketed to via other channels not used during their initial purchase. For example shoppers at traditional retail storefronts may also be encouraged to join customer loyalty programs, which may allow further marketing to the customer via direct mail and / or online via E-mail.
From a demand management perspective, global organizations are focused on unifying the order process, enabling multi-tier distribution channels, extending product offerings with services, and dramatically improving customer response times. From a supply management perspective, they continue to outsource more of the fulfillment process to partners and suppliers for the design, manufacturing, distribution, and installation of the product. The rapid adoption of the internet has accelerated the trend towards multi-channel shopping and reinforced the importance of the direct-to-consumer channel. The next big challenge facing retailers and CPG companies is to facilitate a uniform and consistent customer experience through integrated and synchronized execution across a complex and fragmented web of business partners. Integration and coordination between supply chain partners is central to harnessing the benefits of a customer driven strategy. In addition to the challenge of integrating with partners outside the enterprise, integration within the enterprise is an equally daunting task. The unified order fulfillment challenge is compounded by organizations that have ageing legacy or divisional ERP applications with multiple instances that fail to provide a single view of inventory and customers orders. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, organizations have realized that the existing legacy order management and fulfillment systems were designed to support a monolithic order fulfillment process within the four walls of the business and not the multi-party, multi-tiered fulfillment process that exists in most supply chains. Companies must align processes and measures and rethink the architecture and applications that link key functions and external parties in this extended and increasingly distributed order fulfillment process.
















Lecture 14
Selling through online intermediaries
11.5.6--- Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e


















Lecture 15
Mobile commerce: Introduction to mobile commerce
B-9.2.1 Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Mobile Commerce (also known as M-Commerce, mCommerce or U-Commerce, owing to the ubiquitous nature of its services) is the ability to conduct commerce, using a mobile device e.g. a mobile phone (cell phone), a PDA, a smartphone and other emerging mobile equipment such as dashtop mobile devices. Mobile Commerce has been defined as follows:
"Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device."[1]
“The use of Mobile Devices, such as hand phones, PDA, in order to communicate, inform, transact using text and data via connections to public and private Networks”.




Lecture 16
Benefits of mobile commerce,Mobile commerce framework
9.1.1 B – Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
9.2.2 B – Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e

















Lecture 17
Internet advertising & Security
14.1,B-14.2 B – Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
pp147 P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
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 noncommunicating 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)[2][3]. 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)



Lecture 18
Advertising & marketing in the internet
Introduction to marketing & CRM
Pp130 & Pp-128-130 ------- P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
pp105,pp232 P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
Internet marketing
Internet marketing, also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, 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 comScore 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

Marketing
Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing or Emarketing, 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 ones' 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 pay 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.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tutorial
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 management
Contact management software stores, tracks and manages contacts, leads of an enterprise.
Lead management
Enterprise Lead management software enables an organization to manage, track and forecast sales leads. Also helps understand and improve conversion rates.
eCRM or Web based CRM
Self Service CRM
Self service CRM (eCRM) software Enables web based customer interaction, automation of email, call logs, web site analytics, campaign management.
Survey Management Software
Survey 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 Software
Contract 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
Lecture 19
Consumer search & resource discovery
13.2.3 --- Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Consumer Search
ConsumerSearch 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.) ConsumerSearch does not review products and services directly, nor does the site publish reviews from users. Rather, ConsumerSearch 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.
[edit] Scope and organization of content
The 235 ConsumerSearch 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.













Lecture 20
Computer based education & training,Digital copyrights
3.2.3 ------ Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
1.3 ------ Henry Chan & et al “E-Commerce” 2e
Electronic learning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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-counselling, 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 Macrovision built in, effectively giving Macrovision 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.













Lecture 21
Search engines
Pp-89 -- P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
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
1995 AltaVista
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
2004 Yahoo! 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
2007 wikiseek
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.
Lecture 22
Directory services & Agents in electronic commerce
Pp99 ----- P.T.JOSEPH “E-Commerce A Managerial Perspective” 4e
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.

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