E-Business Models, HTML and E-Payment - Essay Example

? Portfolio Topics in E-Commerce: E-Business Models Word Count: 3,500 (14 pages) HTML HTML is the language of the Internet. Almost any web design software is now written with HTML. “Web design software (commonly referred to as ‘HTML editors’) provides you with the basic tools for designing a website” (Reynolds, 2004, pp. 143). HTML is known as Hypertext Markup Language, which is essentially a type of code used in order to design and develop websites. Of course, there are several different types of computer code out there, but HTML is the staple of the Internet, because without HTML there would be almost no web pages. HTML code is the underpinning of every button that one clicks, every link one sees, how every link works, how every link leads to other pages, and how graphics and text are displayed on a page. Using a complex structure based upon how a page is organized and read, HTML code basically has several different elements which make it a valuable and widely-read and widely-accessible computer language, even for people who are not advanced coders by any means. HTML helps one distinguish where the header of a page is, where the footer of a page is, and other elements such as where paragraphs, graphics, and any buttons should be put on the page. Any kind of features that would be displayed on a website’s pages must be written into the HTML code, otherwise they won’t show up on the pages themselves. HTML code, therefore, is the bread and butter with which the Internet is composed. For, if we didn’t have HTML, there would be no ways to code in and allow for certain new elements to be present on the web pages. Now, what if certain things had to be added onto the web page that had never been added before? In this case, we would have to build in some type of elements into the code that would allow for new features to be added onto the web pages. For example, if there is a widget of some sort that needs to be added onto a web page, but there is no language to describe what that widget is or what it does, it is necessary to put the website’s new feature in language that the computer will understand and for which it will be able to give a result (or output). HTML, therefore, is a language which is quite simply necessary for the Internet’s survival. ??? E-Payment ? -Online Credit Card Hosts Online credit card hosts basically take credit card numbers for clients or customers that are utilizing their services. “In general there is no obligation on hosts to take formal identification of their subscribers. Where the host charges for Internet access, it is probable that credit card details will have been taken and checked” (Reed, 2004, pp. 142). Basically, online credit card hosts have to have a number of detailed security checks that ensure that the people who are accessing these hosts are legitimate individuals and not people who have some type of skullduggery up their sleeves. Identity thieves will stop at nothing in order to fleece people of their hard-earned money, and, in short—separate them from it, ultimately. So, what online credit card hosts have to do is ensure that there are multiple security checks and code words entered—in some cases—in order to verify the identity of the person who is trying to access the account. Of course, it only makes sense that online credit card hosts with more prestige probably have access to more online resources in order to make their systems safer. Therefore, the highest-quality card will probably offer the best protection, without a doubt. - Debit Card Consumer Protection ? Debit card consumer protection—in the past—has not been very good, but it is slowly improving. “In spite of the fact that there are difficulties involved in the use of debit cards, it is heartening to note that two big institutions in the USA have voluntarily extended some amount of credit card protection to [debit card owners]” (Gurusamy, 2009, pp. 58). In fact, debit card fraud is prosecuted more harshly even than credit card debt that is accrued fraudulently. This is because, with a debit card, the money that has been lost can never be regained again. That money is gone forever. In point of fact, debit card consumer protection should be such that PIN numbers, or personal identification numbers, should be required at every turn of its usage. However, unfortunately, many businesses do not require a PIN number at all—all that is necessary is to swipe one’s card and then the transaction is over and done with, complete. This leaves no recourse for someone whose card is stolen and then summarily used to purchase items which are debited from the account of the card holder, a system which debits the card holder’s account directly taking the cash from it. This is opposed to a system where the order must be approved first. Debit card purchases are usually approved quickly, with no prior security checks necessary. This is problematic, and hopefully it will be changed, with time’s passage. Online Banking Online banking is such a hot ticket right now. Security is not as much of a problem with online banking as people might suspect. “While technical glitches can — and do — continue to happen with websites, security is much less of a problem than newcomers to online banking often fear” (Lodge, 2002, pp. 30). Online banking can be utilized for so many venues today. One can, with one’s iPhone, simply take pictures of checks and have them deposited into one’s bank account via the Internet. One might think—at first—that this would be some kind of a ruse, or a 21st-century joke. But indeed, it is not a farce. Now, checks can be deposited immediately into one’s bank account without even having to set foot in a bank. More and more people are doing their banking remotely, and this style of online banking is going to be the wave of the future. ?With online banking, people can do all sorts of things. They can make deposits now, as mentioned—or they can make withdrawals at ATMs. People can do all sorts of transactions at ATMs now, too, than they used to be able to perform in the past. The need for personal bankers and tellers has dropped dramatically in recent years, and, in the future, it is estimated that such services might no longer be needed, as everything will be done online. Without a doubt, online banking is going to be the new black of the 21st century. It is so important that with ever-changing regulations, one realises the importance of online banking in the context of the rapidly-changing technologies that are available today. In the future, it is possible that there will not be any bank buildings anymore. There will not be any physical buildings where people go in to do their transactions. Rather, in an ideal world of the future, all transactions may be completed online. Cash might be able to be disbursed in various other ways, potentially, in the future. Many things are possible, but not everything is advisable of course. The future of online banking really is in the hands of the customers, who create demand for services and therefore dictate how online banking will evolve in the future. Thusly, it remains to be seen what services will indeed be offered in the future, and what new elements of online banking lie on the horizon of the future. For now, the future of online banking looks very good. E-Security ?? - Back-Up Back-up of information is very important to the online world of e-commerce. “Users can back up data using several different approaches” (Schweitzer, 2002, pp. 59). It is of fundamental and primary importance that people who engage in e-commerce have some kind of plan in place in order to back up their data—just in case anything were to get lost or misplaced. Or, for example—let’s say one’s PC or laptop were to crash. All one’s documents would be gone. Or would they? If all of one’s documents were stored on a laptop somewhere, possibly these elements might not be able to be saved—unless they were saved in back-up somewhere else. Examples of back-ups for e-commerce might include anything from: an additional server; information stored on a cloud-sharing site; information stored on a USB flash drive; or information stored on an external hard drive. Of course, back-ups are important for numerous reasons, the main one being that one does not want to have all one’s information summarily erased without a trace. In the future, it is hoped that many other types of memory will be developed and brought to fruition. - Computer Security Companies Computer security companies like Symantec make millions every year by preying off of the fears that customers have about their accounts getting hacked. Of course, these fears are not totally unfounded. That is why these security companies exist—so that they can fill a pressing demand in the populace for computer security. Not only this, but the demand for professionals who are adept at navigating these systems are going to receive the best compensation. “According to the BLS, employment of computer systems analysts is expected to increase by 36 percent or more though 2012” (Echaore-McDavid, 2006, pp. 155). Analysts at these computer security companies are what keep these companies functioning. Without the expert opinions of computer systems analysts, these firms would not be worth their weight in gold. But, since they have very adept experts at their disposal, these computer security firms take in a lot of business every year, promoting the facts about their products and how much security that can be offered by each one in turn. Secure Shopping Really, we know in the online world, there are no such things as secure shopping. Risks are taken every time that one buys something online—no matter how trusted or respectable the company is with which one is dealing. “Risks when signing up for ‘special offers[,]’ another common type of scam that targets the online shopping crowd[,] is phishing” (Mitic, 2009, pp. 116). Phishing occurs when someone—whoever that is—obtains your email address and begins to get you to believe that a certain deal or offer is real, when indeed it is fake. For example, the Nigerian money order scam is very common. Someone asks you via email to deliver a money order and take a certain sum out of the money order for having completed a deal. Then, you are left giving a bank a false money order and could get in very bad trouble for having violated the terms of agreement that you have with your bank—which most likely prohibits false money order- and check-cashing schemes.??Secure shopping may be a thing of the past now that everyone is online these days. Phishing is common, and thieves may pose as legitimate companies—such as the postal service, or Paypal, and warn of an impending offer on an item being sold on eBay, for example. The catch is that these people will never pay anything, and are just trying to get any personal information about you that they possibly can, in order to steal your identity or your financial information, so—don’t be fooled. E-Law and Ethics ?? - Privacy-Regulating Bodies ? Privacy-regulating bodies have a lot to say when it comes to the Internet. “Internet privacy is a front-page topic. However, to understand what is transpiring in the Internet privacy debate, one must look at the historical perspective—at least a bit” (Frackman, Martin, and Ray, 2002, pp. 29). Historically speaking, people used to never be able to have total security in knowing that their private information would not go to a third party. We still do not have that kind of promise in place today. As long as it’s online or on a computer, one must assume that any such information can be read by anyone else via various means. Private PCs and laptops can be hacked. Since we’re living in a digital age, anyone who would think otherwise is simply not living in the real world. - Ethical Scenario A possible ethical scenario in which one might find oneself regarding e-commerce is the potential for people to commit identity theft and then blame it on yourself. In order to protect oneself from this type of crime, it’s important to take a number of steps to protect oneself. One should use LifeLock or some other service that will keep one’s personal information—as well as one’s financial information—free from being proffered should it be obtained in some manner. Additionally, another trick is to keep all private information hidden and to never allow this to be put on a computer, be it PC or laptop. That might be difficult to do in order to keep good records. However, one’s personal identity is worth giving up a few everyday niceties. - Online Legal News There is always new legal news coming up about the Internet and its far-reaching influence and effects. “The Internet is spawning many new legal issues and laws regarding free speech vs. pornography, libel, copyright and privacy” (Rich, 2009, pp. 301). Additionally, as we’ve seen with situations such as the Arab and Syrian Springs, people are starting to use the Internet as a tool for the democratization of information and spreading that information in a way that fosters people and not organizations and bureaucracies and corrupt political systems and their rulers. Online legal news is often bracketed in the context of what has been “trending” on any particular day of the news cycle. Since we live in a 24/7 news cycle now, it only makes sense that there is now little difference between what we see as popular topics and what we see as important news. In fact, this is true of Google and other sites which utilize SEO keywords as ways to prioritize which news is most important. “Because Google's search priorities are often based on the popularity of a site—statistics that accrue” are based on page hits and SEO keywords (Elias, 2009, pp. 38). E-Architecture ?? - Web Server Usage Web server usage and traffic has become a huge issue in the domain of groups like Wikileaks and Anonymous, which have waged wars of DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks on servers due to the fact that they disagreed with the vendors’ support of various organizations. Web servers should be used carefully, therefore. “[S]erver traffic and the access behaviour of each user can be displayed and rules concerning user interests can be derived based on his/her access display” (Leung, Chan, and Meng, 2000, pp. 377). IP Addresses & Host Names Most websites and online activity can still be tracked, even though it says that they are not tracked as much as they were before. “In the early days of the Internet, every known host computer name and address was collected” (Negus, 2009, pp. 691). When should I pay for a website? If I pay for a website, what’s a good rate? What basis should you get (i.e., if you pay for hosting, should you expect the registration for free)? Paying for your own website is optional. It can also end up being quite costly, depending on what your budget is and what your vision is for the site. Basically, expect to pay USD $10 for registration, whoever you have register your website. If you do decide to pay for a website, web design itself can also get very expensive quickly. That is why, if you are worried about fees, starting up a WordPress or Blogger blog might be more ideal for you, because then you don’t have to worry about the scary X-factors of how much registering a domain name is going to cost you, in addition to paying for a designer, as well as paying someone to host your site. So, you have to resolve in your own mind what you want to do first. For some people, going through the hassle of paying for a site is not what they really want to do. For some authors, just having a Blogspot blog is enough and they don’t want to even deal with WordPress. That is totally fine, but you have to realize what works for you. Don’t do it because so-and-so said to do it… you must be your own inner motivator. If you are paying for hosting, don’t expect the registration to necessarily be free, because you will still have to pay for registration. What the website might do is say, “Oh, look! Our fee total is $100 but we include registration in with the hosting!” So basically, your $10 fee is still in there somewhere, but the site just uses that fact to make it look like they are giving you a bundled deal. Obviously, if they do include registration fees, then you want to find the bundled fee that is going to be the lowest (for example, if a company offered $60 including the registration and the hosting, that would be the better deal than $100 for the bundled package). You want to be able to compare services well, so know what you’re getting before you type in your credit card numbers to “buy that site.” If you’re not that experienced in these matters, you may want to consult an expert on starting your own website. If you’re really lucky, your employer or clients might be interested in starting a website for you. That would probably help you immensely, and plus it’s one less thing you would have to worry about. Don’t lose sleep about registration and hosting anymore! If you’ve been wondering what to pay for a website, what is a good rate to buy a website, and what basis you should get—you now have the facts. When in doubt, consult the web developer of your choice. It never hurts asking for second opinions. E-Design ?? - Site-Specific Search Function Site-specific search functions are oftentimes utilized for really one purpose only: to help customers or clients find items on a site that they want which are specific in nature. “Usually, all tables of numerical data will be available through the links of the web page, and studies and reports which include secondary data will be found only through the search function” (Antonius, 2003, pp. 125). Sometimes, these search functions are not very helpful. Google is probably one of the best and most reliable search engines on the planet, but don’t let that deter you from utilizing site-specific searches. Those can be useful if you know what the site map looks like—or at least you have some idea about which topics might be easily searched on a site. This isn’t intrinsic knowledge here, therefore—it’s something which must be learned. Of course, site-specific searches definitely don’t work as well when the seeker is not completely sure about what he or she wants from that particular site. - Structures of Popular Sites There are several social networking sites which have made good use of the simple idea of the web page. “Social media-sharing websites, such as Flickr and YouTube, are becoming more and more popular. Their typical organization structure are through…[different types of web pages like list pages, detail pages, and profile pages]” (Zhang, 2008, pp. 47). More and more social media sites, especially—seem to want to have features called profile pages. People want to see a picture of the person, read their favorite quotes, know their favorite books, listen to the person’s favorite bands and share music or stories online. People want to read about the tidbits that are going on in everyone elses’ everyday lives, no matter how mundane—down to the very last detail about what someone had for breakfast, for example. Yes, these things do matter to some people. This is evidenced by the marked popularity of such sites as well like Facebook and, not to be outdone, Twitter. Social media sites as well as bookmarking sites and photo-sharing sites online have become the rule and not the exception. It is so common to see people posting pictures and status updates and check-ins about what restaurants they’re attending that we’ve become used to the madness—a sort of technologically-induced chaos—by having become “wired-in” to a 24/7 social media outlet that is online all day, every day of the week. The goal is to get people to become so ensconced online that they will forget about other, real-life priorities. This is both the gift and the curse of such sites, and which will have to be dealt with summarily in the future. - Exceptions to the Short Page Exceptions to the short page have to do with which pages in e-commerce that typically have to be shorter than others. “Obviously, the reading time of long pages should be longer than that of short pages…” (Jank and Schmueli, 2008, pp. 154). Short pages are mainly informational, and serve that purpose only. Or, it might be a login page for customers where they don’t want to have to read a lot of information all at once upfront. Usually, landing pages tend to be much, much shorter pages with less of an information overload at the beginning. These are the benefits of short pages. BIBLIOGRAPHY Echaore-McDavid, S. (2006). Career opportunities in law enforcement, security, and protective services. US: Infobase Publishing. Elias, S. (2009). Legal research: how to find and understand the law. US: Nolo. Frackman, A., Martin, R.C., & Ray, C. (2002). Internet and online privacy: a legal and business guide. US: ALM Publishing. Gurusamy, S. (2009). Indian financial system, 2nd ed. US: Tata McGraw Hill Education. Jank, W., & Schmueli, G. (2008). Statistical methods in e-commerce research. US: John Wiley & Sons. Leung, K.S., Chan, L., & Meng, H. (2000). Intelligent data engineering and automated learning. US: Springer. Lodge, S. (2002). Managing your money online: investing, saving, and borrowing on the Internet. US: Kogan Page Publishers. Mitic, S. (2009). Stopping identity theft: 10 easy steps to security. US: Nolo. Negus, C. (2009). Fedora 9 and red hat enterprise linux bible. US: John Wiley & Sons. Reed, C. (2004). Internet law: text and materials. UK: Cambridge University Press. Reynolds, J. (2004). The complete e-commerce book: design, build, and maintain a successful Web-based business. US: Focal Press. Rich, C. (2009). Writing and reporting news: a coaching method. US: Cengage Learning. Schweitzer, D. (2002). Internet security made easy: a plain-English guide to protecting yourself and your company online. US: AMACOM Division of the American Management Association. Zhang, Z. (2008). Focused image search in the social Web. US: ProQuest. Read More