The legally binding electronic autographs known as digital signatures were among the key technologies that made the Internet a forum for commerce in the early 2000s. They not only verify an individual's identity, but also guarantee the validity of the information attached to the signature, be it a credit card number, an order form, or a written document. Once they are widely used and suppor…
Legislators and business leaders long recognized that the passage of some kind of digital legislation was of central importance to the development of e-commerce. However, for several years Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress haggled over what should be included in such a bill. In the meantime, several states passed their own legislation allowing some forms of digital signatures to be le…
Digital wallets are small electronic packages that automatically supply information such as credit card numbers and shipping addresses for use in conducting Internet transactions. Also known more broadly as Internet payment services, they provide a means by which customers may order products and services online without ever entering sensitive information and submitting it via e-mail or the World W…
Online discussion forums, also known as World Wide Web forums, bulletin boards, or message boards, emerged in the mid-1990s and allowed Internet surfers to post and respond to messages on the Web. Since that time, discussion forums have become increasingly popular. They cover a wide variety of topics ranging from sports, health, and business, to current events, finance, and entertainment. The idea…
In the business world, third parties like distributors traditionally served as links between the consumers and manufacturers or providers of goods and services. Such middlemen also played important roles in the business-to-business sector, connecting companies with various suppliers of parts, components, and raw materials. Disintermediation occurs when third parties are eliminated from the supply …
As with any form of commerce, disputes between two parties engaged in e-commerce arise from time to time. As the number of online businesses grew throughout the 1990s, so did the need for online dispute resolution. As a result, several organizations began responding to this need, among them BBBOn-line, ICANN, eResolution.com, and the Online Om-buds Office. In some cases, a consumer may seek disput…
The Internet consists of an enormous number of smaller computer networks which are linked together across the globe. No one central computer is responsible for the Internet's performance, or for the sea of available information that people obtain from it every day. Rather, this performance and information is distributed among and affected by millions of individual entities (individuals, com…
The manner in which commercial goods are distributed has evolved throughout history. Long ago, consumers directly traded physical goods and services. Eventually, different forms of physical currency, such as coins and paper money, were added to the mix. Increasingly sophisticated methods of communication played an important role in the evolution of distribution. As Purchasing explained, "In…
One of the leading cable television talk show hosts, Lou Dobbs also has been a front-runner in the dot-com world. An executive vice president with CNN, Dobbs founded CNN's Financial News (CNNfn) and its Web affiliate, CNNfn.com, the first programming services that were launched simultaneously on television and the Internet. Dobbs also anchored CNN's show Moneyline News Hour. Dobbs wa…
A domain name identifies an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or series of addresses, on the Internet. Each site on the Internet is assigned a series of 11 or 12 numbers, known as an IP address. Addresses are translated via a Domain Name System (DNS) server into domain names, which simply are the names assigned to the numbers. The main reason for the DNS is to make Internet addresses easier to remem…
At the most basic level, "dot-com" is simply a colloquial term born of the suffix appended to Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), as in www.companyname.com. But the term has come to stand for a variety of phenomena. By the early 2000s it stood for Internet-based businesses, the business craze born of the outlandish stock boom these companies enjoyed and exacerbated, a certain type of u…
DoubleClick Inc. is a pioneer in providing Internet advertising services, both to those seeking to advertise on the World Wide Web and to Web publishers who want to attract advertisers. Founded in January 1996 in New York City, DoubleClick created the first Internet advertising network, a group of Web sites that the firm represented to advertisers. It was a model that other Internet advertising ag…
Since its inception in February of 1999, Dow Jones and Co.'s Dow Jones Internet Index has served as a benchmark for the stock performance of U.S.-based Internet companies. Companies listed on the index must use the Internet to garner at least 50 percent of their annual sales, must have operated as a public company for a minimum of three months, and must have a market capitalization (the ful…
In general business terms, due diligence refers to the scrutiny used by an individual or a group of individuals considering making a purchase of some sort. Those conducting due diligence do so to determine the degree of risk associated with a particular course of action, such as funding an initial public offering (IPO) or an investment. In the case of an acquisition or merger, the attorneys or acc…
As the second largest Internet Service Provider (ISP), behind America Online (AOL), Earthlink Inc. serves more than 4.8 million consumers and small businesses. The company offers its members dial-up services; broadband access such as digital subscriber line (DSL), cable, and wireless; domain registration; Web design; Web hosting; and various other services aimed at helping enterprises with their e…
eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, who wanted to set up an auction site for sellers of obscure and collectible items. After the site proved popular, eBay was incorporated in May 1996. All of the inventory, ordering, shipping, and payments were handled by sellers and buyers who registered on the eBay site. The company's revenue came from commissions on items that were sold and from …
An electronic book, or e-book, is a book that is accessed electronically via a personal computer (PC), a specially designed e-book reader, or a handheld device like a Palm Pilot. In most cases, users download the text from an Internet site after paying with a credit card. Depending on the technology used, e-book purchasers quite often have the capability to highlight, bookmark, and annotate specif…
E-business service providers (eBSPs) are companies that help other companies use e-business technology to improve operations. This might involve tasks like the design, construction, and operation of a company's Web site or the streamlining of procurement processes for a business. The original e-business service upstarts, including Scient Corp., emerged in the late 1990s, believing that comp…
Transforming a firm into a competitive e-business calls for meticulously planned and informed strategies. Understanding the e-marketplace and where one's firm can find its niche; implementing the right internal and external networks and acquiring the correct software and equipment; and developing an e-commerce strategy requires a holistic analysis of a business and its goals and practices. …
E-commerce solutions are the products and services that help a company conduct business electronically. The range of available e-commerce solutions is vast, including those that allow traditional businesses to design, create, and operate World Wide Web sites. Some solutions focus on a specific problem. For example, a company selling its wares via a World Wide Web site might purchase a bandwidth m…
Economies of scale refer to the reduction of average production costs over the long term as a result of boosted output. As production increases, either within a firm or within an industry, a comparatively lower level of investment is required for each individual unit. The utility of the production process is thereby rendered more efficient as its application is spread over a wider range. The comp…
By enabling global connectivity, the Internet made it possible for companies to reduce the number of steps involved in many business processes, prevent duplication of effort, and in some cases eliminate the need for manual human tasks. Because the efforts of staff then could be focused on improvements and developments versus repetitious tasks, the resulting "economies of time" led to…
Formerly a chain of retail software shops, Egghead Corp. shuttered its brick-and-mortar stores in favor of the Internet in 1997. The Menlo Park, California-based online merchant, renamed Egghead.com Corp., sells computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, and office products. The firm also offers closeout products in its online clearance center and via online auctions. Although Egghead&#…
Following the budget restrictions imposed by preparations for the Y2K bug, state and local governments were finally able to invest in e-government systems. Constituencies increasingly demanded that basic governmental information and citizenship services be made available over the Internet, as they were at the federal level, and thus vendors flocked to the booming market for state and local governm…
Electronic communications networks (ECNs), the headache of major stock exchanges in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are computerized trading systems through which buyers and sellers of stocks and other securities have their orders matched via instant digital transactions. Although electronic trading through ECNs takes a variety of forms, one thing they all have in common is that they undercut the …
