Leveraging Technology for Efficient Web Design

1. Class Discussion Notes MKT 390 - 401 April 3, 2001

2. Leveraging Technology • Web site design basics • Web pages rely on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) • HTML uses tags to identify how words should be formatted • The browser reads the tags • IMG SRC is a reference to an image source file • HREF is a Hypertext Reference which tells the browser where to go when the user clicks on a link • Some design tools automatically write the HTML for you • MS Office • Front Page, Page Mill • Once web page is designed, it must be transferred to a Web server • FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the tool which publishes Web pages • Many tools can design simple Web pages, however, special applications are needed to design e-commerce sites

3. Leveraging Technology • Multimedia • Requires high bandwidth or broadband • Solutions • Speed up home connection • Compress content • Real audio • Real video • MP3 • Steaming • Distribute content around the Web • Database marketing • Relational databases that can be mined • Data can be gathered voluntarily from Web surveys • Data can be gathered without users knowledge from clickthrough behavior

4. Leveraging Technology • Computer viruses • Four common types of viruses • Macro • Attach to data files such as Excel or Word and infect system when user opens the file • Trojan horse • Usually activated by a date or event • Worm • Spread rapidly • Boot • Reside on floppy disks and activate when system is booted • Results • Data files erased • Hard drives destroyed • Replicated and sent to unwitting recipients via e-mail

5. Leveraging Technology • Computer viruses – cont’d • Remedy – antivirus protection • Norton • McAfee • Dr. Solomon • Installed on mail servers • Installed on desktop PCs • Denial of service attacks • Bogus requests by hackers which overwhelm a Web server • Results in shutdown • Remedy • Distribute multiple copies of Web site

6. Leveraging Technology • Shopping agents • Parallel pull • Multiple agents collecting data simultaneously and formatting it • Vendors may not participate • Forces competition on price • Puts downward pressure on prices • Represent buyer • Do not charge fee for listing • Earn revenue from advertising • Represent seller • Charge listing fee • User may not know that all relevant sites are not being listed

7. Leveraging Technology • Bandwidth • Carrying capacity of information channel • Higher bandwidth = faster speed • Measured in bits per second • Telephone modems • Work at max of 56,000 bits per second • Text transmits easily • Full motion video requires more bandwidth than phone lines can carry • Future Internet marketing opportunities • Personal selling • Phone calls • Music CDs • Movies • Virtual reality

8. Leveraging Technology • DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) • Transmit up to 8 Mbps over phone lines • 9 versions • ASDL (Asynchronous DSL) • Downstream faster than upstream • SDSL (Symmetric DSL) • Same speed upstream or downstream • RADSL (Rate Adaptive DSL) • Speed changes with weather and other conditions • Advantages • More secure than cable modem • Guaranteed bandwidth • Disadvantages • Infrastructure not in place everywhere • Must be within 3 miles of a phone switching station

9. Leveraging Technology • Cable modems • Transmit Internet traffic over cable TV lines • Speeds up to 2.5 Mbps • Advantages • Infrastructure already in place in most areas • Early to market • New value add offerings • Video on demand • CD quality audio • Internet games • Disadvantages • More subscribers in neighborhood slows down transmissions

10. Leveraging Technology • Cable modems – cont’d • Two consortiums • @ Home Network • Road Runner • Other broadband • Satellite (not TV) • Disadvantages • More subscribers in neighborhood slows down transmissions • Wireless • Advantages • PDAs and cell phones use this technology • On demand Internet access • Requires little infrastructure • Speeds up to 2.4 Mbps

11. Leveraging Technology • Content filtering • Concerns with children on the Internet • Education/legislation solutions • Teach children • Ban offensive material • Require warnings on sites • Require age verification • Require ratings • Technology solutions • Filtering by the ISP • AOL, Prodigy • Filtering by proxy server • Businesses • Filtering on individual computer • Content filtering software

12. Leveraging Technology • Transaction security • Typically more secure than offline • Three places credit card could be stolen • From the computer • Highly unlikely • In transit • Encryption algorithms • Industry standard RSA never broken outside a lab • Information encrypted in both directions • Information is decrypted using a key • From merchant site • Hackers penetrate Web servers • Software programs, consultants can detect flaws • Intrusion detection systems

13. Leveraging Technology • Site rating services • Is business legitimate? • How good is the business? • BizRate • TRUSTe • BBB online • Proxy servers and cache • Replicates Web sites and redistributes them • Results in undercounting of visitors to a Web site (impressions) • Lost of revenue for Internet advertisers

14. Leveraging Technology • How search engines work • Searching is done weeks in advance • Spiders crawl the web compiling and counting keywords • Data is stored in an indexed database • Queries returned in order of relevance • Spiders count appearance of keywords and their placement on the page • Google ranks sites based on their number of links from other sites • Direct Hit ranks sites based on the number of users who choose it • Tools available to assist in improving search engine rankings

15. Leveraging Technology • Privacy, log files and cookies • Log files • Data tables that record each visit to the site • Disadvantages • Does not track individual user behavior • Cookies • Files stored on the user’s computer every time they visit a Web site • Double Click • Uses cookies to generate targeted ads for other sites in its network • Closed loop marketing

16. Leveraging Technology • Cookies – cont’d • Options for users who don’t want to be tracked • Disable cookies in their browser • Delete cookies after every session • Purchase software to block all requests from ad servers • P3P • Predetermined amount of information is given about user when they visit a site