The hottest thing in computing right now is the Internet. Over the past couple of years, millions of people have begun using the Internet on a regular basis, making it an important part of their lives. While traditional uses of the Internet (E-mail, for instance) continue to be popular, more and more people are discovering the allure of the Internet's most rapidly growing component, the World Wide Web. The Web's appeal comes from two major characteristics: the interactive nature of the information presented, and the sheer amount of information that is available. It's nearly impossible to not find something of interest on any subject you can think of. Businesses have also taken note of the Web's success, and are rapidly moving to the Web in an attempt to get their cut of the pie in what promises to be a highly lucrative market in the near future (it's predicted that Internet commerce will reach levels of $1.5 billion or more per year by the end of the decade!).

While many individuals are promoting the Internet/Web as the next major marketing environment, a lot of other people are still skeptical. One major area of concern is a seeming lack of security on the Internet. These people are still afraid of sending credit card numbers and other sensitive information across the network, fearing that this data might be intercepted or copied by others. While this is a valid concern, Internet commerce has become much more safer recently due to two key developments. The first one is the rise in usage of secure Internet servers, which encrypt information being sent from your Web browser to the server. Netscape was the first company to develop and market such a protocol (called the Secure Socket Layer, or SSL). The development of protocols such as SSL have made it much safer to buy goods directly from the Internet. The second major development is the creation of the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) specification. Jointly developed by Visa and MasterCard (after first trying to promote their own incompatible standards), SET uses such security measures as public key encryption and digital certificates. This new specification enjoys industry wide support, and will shortly be integrated into actual products. Soon, buying products and services from the Internet may actually be safer than other methods of making purchases. After all, when you give your credit card number to someone over the phone, you really don't know who that person is (or who else might be listening in, for that matter!).

While the buying and selling of products on the Internet may be the most common way of doing business, there are other ways of making money as well. For example, many vendors are making a lot of money selling ads to other companies. These ads are placed on sites that receive a lot of Internet traffic, in the hopes that you'll follow these ads to their companies' respective home pages. Some good examples of these sites include Web index sites such as Yahoo! and online sources of news and information such as Pathfinder. Other companies are hoping to make money by actually selling the information they place on the Web. In this scenario, you'll pay for access to information such as news articles and stock quotes. Although the prices for these services are very inexpensive (often only a fraction of a cent per unit of information), the costs quickly add up if you use them a lot. The push to make you pay for more of your Web access is also being driven by companies such as Digicash, who are developing ways of using strings of encrypted data to represent money. Whether or not this form of marketing will be successful remains to be seen (I personally doubt many people will want to start paying for something they now get for free, unless it's proprietary information they can't obtain elsewhere).

Other companies are using the Internet/Web to make their businesses more efficient, thereby saving on overhead and other expenses. It's much cheaper to advertise on the Web, for example, than to buy ads on television or in print. They can also leverage their other ads to point to their Web sites, where consumers can get more information and compare prices and features (if you have any doubts about this trend, just notice all the http:\\ addresses you see on TV these days!). The Web can also be used as an interactive store front between companies and their customers to make such services as technical support easier to access and use (Microsoft's Web site is an excellent example of this!). In conclusion, the Internet and World Wide Web are definitely here to stay, and will become more and more important to both businesses and their customers in the future. Just think - in a few years, shopping on the Internet will be as commonplace as going to the mall!

Gateway offers this column to its readership as a service, but please note that it is not responsible for the accuracy or opinions of the author and offers no warranty either expressed or implied that the information will produce the desired result.

The information provided in this article is based upon the writers particular experience with certain equipment. Familiarize yourself with the requirements of your local and state electrical code and insure yourself that the work you plan to do does not require a licensed professional. If you decide to attempt to do the work yourself, always exercise extreme caution when working on electrical systems because accidents may cause serious injury including death and damage your computer. If you experience difficulty or do not understand the instructions, please consult a professional in your area.

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