Hypertext Markup Language - Coursework Example

? and Section # of HTML HTML, Hyper text markup language is the most common web page formatting language. It is a generalized markup language that is considered a relatively easy to use language in web page design. HTML provides web page designers with a fixed set of mark up 'tags' that are used to format a web page. These tags, when inserted into a web page are interpreted by the browser and shown in the form of the page display. It is possible to see the source HTML code for any web page through the 'page source' command that can be found on all browsers. HTML functions to define the structure and style of a document including the headings, graphic positioning, tables and text formatting. Since the advent of HTML, there has been a continuous addition in the features of the language by the two major browsers, Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, in order to enhance and refine the page layouts. However, many of the improvements work on only one company's browser which is a threat to the achievement of a universal computer platform. Furthermore, the cost of building e-commerce sites is escalated by the addition of proprietary functionality while building browsers. There must be special care taken during the building of e-commerce sites to enable the page views by major browsers. Any text editor can be used to create HTML web pages. For example, notepad, WordPad, Microsoft word or any of the several web page editors. The advent of web page formatting languages was with the SGML-Standard Generalized Markup Language which was formulated in 1986. Along with HTML, Extensible markup language (XML) is also widely used. Online Auction Sites With the advancement of technology and the enablement of the use of digitally advanced mode of communication, the business market is becoming more virtual. Consumers tend to carry out transactions from their home through the internet or the telephone. More recently is the concept of online retailing or E-commerce which has taken the markets and shopping with a blaze. (Fryman, 2004) Consumers are now turning towards shopping online which seems to be more convenient and easy. This is increasing the competition makes businesses come up with innovative ideas to create a competitive advantage and become prominent in the market. One of the innovative concepts that has emerged is online auction for people who are interested in bidding and buying products through auctions. Online auction sites that offer penny auction are becoming increasingly popular as they benefit both the buyers and the sellers. EBay is one of the most famous online auction site that offers all kinds of products. Other websites like bid66 are also easy to use as being user friendly is one of the key requirements of an auction site. Consumers prefer online auctions as they believe that it offers products at the best prices. Some of the factors that characterize good online auction sites include a well-versed privacy policy of the company that shows the customer how the private information is being used and whether it is safe and confidential. Moreover, the guidelines of the transactions must be clear with the fees and commission, if any, be mentioned visibly. Also, information regarding the transfer of funds and the delivery of products should also be comprehensible and unambiguous. ASPs As the overall competition among businesses is increasing and most large scale businesses are getting larger and taking an even larger chunk of the market, it is getting harder for the medium and small scale businesses to cope up with the advancements and the changing business practices. Application service providers came into being with the advent of internet and the changes that it brought to the business models. As the demand for technology increases, there were not enough qualified IT professionals to serve the needs of the small and medium sized firms. Furthermore, it was extremely difficult for these businesses, which are already stretched in terms of their capital, to invest in the high costs of specialized software. Application service providers are businesses that lease access to software applications that can be utilized over the internet through a monthly fee. The maintenance of the software is carried out by the ASP and not by the clients IT staff. ASP services are becoming an imperative alternative not only for small business but also for large scale companies for outsourcing and for individual users as well. (Factor, 2001) One example of a leading ASP could be Worldlinc (www.worldlinc.net). Worldlinc is an ASP that is a web application service provider and offers a large range of applications including website design, search engine optimization, CRM (website content management), e-commerce online shopping, web application development and web-based business automation technologies. The ASP works over its own hardware, software and support personnel Add Site to Search Engine Although, major search engine are now moving towards a 'pay for inclusion/ranking' model, there is still stress over improving the visibility of a web site over search engines. Major search engines will accept non-paying sites, and still send crawler programs around the web to index and include pages in their databases free of charge. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) Adding a site to search engine has become imperative to businesses as many shoppers enter the name of vendors in search engines and this makes it an advantage for the businesses that have good ranking in the search engines in order to come up first. Search engines comprise of the number of hits which is the result of the search engines database of indexed web pages. When the search engine is searched for something, the web pages having the highest hits would appear on the first page and thereby these are the ones that are most likely to be visited rather than those that are shown on the subsequent pages of the search result. In order for a firm to improve its position on the search engine, the first step taken to optimize a company's ranking on the search engine is to register on to a large number of search engines in order to increase the probability of being exposed to users. The next step is to make sure that the key words that are used in the website description are same as those that would likely be used by a prospective customer when carrying out the search. Moreover, the last step is to link the site to as many other sites as possible. “Online marketing” companies Marketing is basically the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying the requirements of customers profitably with the help of the 4 Ps of the marketing mix, namely, product, price, promotion and place. (Baker, 2001) When internet and related technologies are used to communicate with the audience and the customers this becomes the process of electronic marketing. As the competition over the internet is increasing, there is more stress over providing the maximum value to the online customer. Customer value can be generated through providing them with a favourable experience. This experience can be enriched through the paradigms of internet accessibility, the depth and interactivity of the contents, faster access, convenience, speed of transactions and overall, a pleasant experience. All mass marketing comes down to offering customers with value for money. (Jones & George, 2007) Internet enables companies to produce customized products while maintaining a low unit cost for the products. Mass customization is a new phenomenon that is taking over the business strategic environment. It can be defined as the enablement of a company to provided products that are tailored to the specific needs and demands of a group or individual bearing similar interest. Moreover, with the help of personalization, companies can target their marketing messages to individuals by personalizing the messages by altering them in accordance with the persons name, their interest and their purchase history. Internet allows more flexibility and a more rapid response tome to the changing needs of the market. It allows the companies to reduce its distance from the end consumers and being close to the changing demands and trends. Off-line marketing Offline marketing can simply be referred to as going offline to grab the attention of the consumers. This could be through postcards, or through direct response letters. Online businesses also often go for offline marketing if they want to exert additional influence over the consumers. Offline marketing can take the form of print marketing whereby advertising can take place through brochures, handouts and magazines/journals. It can take place through live advertising through commercials over the radio or television. Moreover, personal selling and promotions can also be used to promote the products through offline sources. Online and offline marketing are used in conjunction to promote businesses. Recently, offline marketing is increasing as online businesses are using this medium to target that segment of the consumers who are not avid internet users and those people that may be more easily approached through offline sources. Offline marketing can encompass any medium that does not require the use of internet to promote a business that is based online. E-marketing is moving towards the integration of online and offline marketing as the main focus is to approach the target audience, whether they may be online or offline. Many companies are now bridging the gap between online and offline marketing. Bricks and mortar companies are using online mediums of marketing while internet based companies are implementing offline marketing. However, the marketing budgets are still more focused towards offline marketing when it comes to bricks and mortar companies while online companies are also shifting their attention towards offline marketing. Online Banking Online banking was pioneered in the United states by Netbank in 1996 (Laudon & Traver, 2007). Multichannel financial firms have over powered firms that only function through online presence as online consumers prefer to visit financial services sites that have physical presence as well as online. Having physical outlets or branches plus good online offerings allow multichannel financial services firms to assume market leadership above the firms that function over pure online presence and no physical branches. The three leading online banks include Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. These banks achieved their position through having a plethora of branches where customers can open accounts, deposit money, take out loans, find home mortgages and rent a safety deposit box while maintaining online presence for carrying out transactions. It is a drawback for pure online firms as they cannot provide those services that require physical interaction. Internet only banks lack physical client acquisition channels and therefore they must rely on their websites and advertising to acquire customers, whereas established multichannel institutions can convert existing branch customers to online customers at a far lower cost. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) In recent times, with the busy lifestyles and schedules of individuals, online banking is becoming increasingly pertinent. There are more and more banks that are moving their offerings online and allowing customers to carry out their transactions without having to visit the bank in person. Online banking has also revolutionized the international transactions as it makes it all the more easier to overcome national barriers and carry out transaction from one place to another over the internet. E-laws and Ethics The internet and its use in ecommerce have raised persistent ethical, social and political issues on a scale unparalleled for computer technology. Some of the ethical, social and political issues revolve around information rights, property rights, governance, public safety and welfare. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) The development of the internet and consequently ecommerce has harvested the sale of personal data, aggressive advertising, the creation of profiling databases and acts of unfair practices and infringement of privacy. These issues need to be taken care of by the companies that maintain their presence over the internet. The internet and the World Wide Web provide an ideal environment for invading the personal privacy of millions of users. Privacy protection is amongst the leading issues pertaining to the internet and e-commerce. Websites collect information regarding the visitors and use cookies to track the click stream behavior of the visitors. They collect information regarding the demographics and behavioral information of whether it is with a personal identifier or on an anonymous basis. Profiling is done on the basis of the activities that a visitor performs and according to the customer's purchases, preferences and personal information. Critics argue that profiling hinders the customers experience and invades their privacy. The concept of information consent plays an imperative role in protecting privacy. In the United States, companies and government can collect information regarding online purchases by a user and correlate it with personal information to for marketing activities, however, in Europe the collection of information with out a written consent from the customer is an illegal act. Data protection has become an important concept in this age of digitization. Data protection is basically the act of safeguarding the integrity, privacy and security of information. It is argued that the key to increasing the number of people using e-commerce is to gain and maintain trust. If online companies maintain the integrity and protection of the data concerning customers, the customers are more likely to trust them with their credit card and their private details thereby, an e-tailer that follows a strict data protection regime is more likely to increase its customer base while the contrary may bear losses. There are various laws and legislation regarding the protection of the personal information of the customers and the dissemination of this information. The laws control the use of the information and protect information. (Jhonson, 2001) Web server usage It is a requirement of all e-commerce websites to have basic web server software that would function to answer requests of customers for HTML and XML pages. There are many web servers but some of the leading choices include Apache HTTP, MS IIS and Netscape Enterprise. The operating system also plays a vital role in the choice of operating systems. Apache HTTP works with UNIX operating systems. UNIX is the original programming language for the internet and web. A worldwide community of internet innovators developed Apache. Apache web server is free of cost and is downloadable from many sites over the internet. The second major web server is the Microsoft internet information server. This web server is based on Windows 2000 operating system and has compatibility with Microsoft utility and support programs. There are plethoras of web server software providers that provide web servers over the internet, most of them are based on UNIX. Some of the basic functionalities provided by web servers include the receiving and responding to client requests for HTML pages, the verification of username and password along with the processing of certifications and key information required for credit card processing and other secure information. Web servers also control the file transfer protocol that permits transfer of large files from server to server. Webs servers set the search engine by indexing the site content and enabling keyword search capability. It captures data through maintaining log files of all visits, the time duration, and referral source. Moreover, web servers maintain site management tools that are essential to keep the site working. These site management tools help in the calculation of key site statistics and checks links on pages. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) FTP & Telnet FTP is a file transfer protocol which is part of the TCP/IP protocol. it is used to transfer files from one host to another and permits the user to transfer files from the server to client machines. It establishes control and data connection between client and servers. The files that would be transferred could comprise of documents, programs and also large database files. It is claimed that FTP is the fastest and the most convenient mode of transferring files that are larger that 1 megabyte in size. Large files are usually not accepted by most mail servers. Telnet is a network protocol and a terminal emulation program that runs in TCP/IP. Telnet runs from a client machine that can be connected to a server on the network. It acts as a server console and takes commands from the user. When the client machine is used to run Telnet, the client emulates a mainframe computer terminal which establishes an attachment to a computer on the internet that supports telnet and enables to run programs and download files from that computer. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) While FTP is a protocol that is used solely for file transfers and a few management capabilities, Telnet is more diverse in terms of functionality as it takes commands from the user and acts as a connection to the server. There is hence, a need to know the commands and parameters to be issued to the server. FTP is considered as more user friendly due to the simplification aided by GUIs. Moreover, it is argued that FTP can be used in a secure environment contrary to Telnet. ASP vs. JSP ASP and JSP both involve server side scripting languages and are web technologies. Although there are many similarities between the two languages, there are also some distinct factors that distinguish the two from one another. ASP stands for Application server pages, which is a server side scripting language based on Visual basic made by Microsoft. JSP on the other hand is Java scripting pages based on java and made by Sun. there are some basic aspects that are in common between ASP and JSP, such as the use of object oriented scripting and simple server side scripting for access to web server functionalities. However, while ASP supports two scripting languages, namely, Jscript and VBScript, JSP only supports real java code instead of a new scripting language. When it comes to web server support, the most popular web servers including Apache, Netscape and Microsoft IIS can be easily enabled with JSP while ASP supports only IIS servers or personal web servers. It is only available for windows and Microsoft web server. JSP is a platform independent language that can support all java enabled platforms while it is intricate to enable ASP over any platform other than that of Windows. The component platform used by ASP is Win32-based COM while JSP uses cross platforms such as JavaBeans. JSP works with java security model and ASP with Windows NT security architecture. XML Extensible markup language is a giant lead forward in terms of web page formatting. XML is a markup language specification that is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. XML is a markup language similar to HTML but the main purpose of the two languages is diverse. While the purpose of HTML is to take care of and control the 'live and feel' and the web page displays, the purpose of XML is describe data and information. XML is an extensible language which refers to the ability of the user to describe and display data through tags. This is unlike HTML as in HTML; the tags are predefined and limited to a certain number of times used. XML also works as the converter of information into new formats. The ability of XML to analyze and display information selectively makes it a better alternative as opposed to HTML. XML can be used extensively by businesses for describing all of their information including invoices, accounts payable, payroll and so on which could be stored on the intranet web server and be used anywhere in the organization. One of the limitations of XML is that it is only supported by Microsoft internet explorer and not by Netscape. This support is what stands between XML and HTML as when XML is able to move over this restriction it may become the most widely used web formatting language. However, XML is used along with HTML on the same web pages where HTML describes how the information would be formatted and XML is used to describe the data. (Laudon & Traver, 2007) BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Baker, M.J (2001). Marketing: critical perspective on business and management. Taylor and Francis 2. Factor, A. (2001) Analyzing Application Service Providers. Prentice Hall PTR 3. 4. Jones, G.R, & George, J.M. Contemporary management. McGraw-Hill companies. (2007) 5. Laudon, K.C. & Traver, C. G (2007) E-Commerce. Pearson Education. 6. Fryman, H (2004). The future of IT is automation. Retrieved 09/03/11, from www.cioupdate.com Web site: http://www.cioupdate.com/reports/article.php/3319601 7. Jhonson, A. (2001) Data Protection and E-commerce; The case for new law in the information age. 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