In today’s society the internet is huge part of everyone’s lives. People do everything on the internet from looking up fun facts to buying presents and paying bills. Creators of e-commerce websites are continually looking for ways to make their websites more user-friendly and easier to navigate. They want consumers and business afflitiates to be able to quickly locate the information or products that they are looking for. This section of the report will focus on the future trends in e-commerce services that will help to improve web surfing for everyone.
A recent trend in the internet world is the emergence of blogs. A blog is a website where individuals or companies may quickly post thoughts, interact with people, get feedback, and more. They are popping up all over the place and discuss a very wide range of topics. Microsoft has recently revealed a plan to create a new service that would allow people to quickly and easily create and maintain blogs. It would be online software that consumers would pay to use. The new technology, called MSN Spaces, would allow any person to create a blog and get linked to many other people and information. This will allow people to get product information from other consumers and bring to their attention new websites for purchasing products.
Another new development in e-commerce can be seen in the drug industry.
Currently pharmacies are forced to fill out a number of paper forms each time they want to order a controlled substance. This is very time consuming and slows the ordering process down. There are forms that have to be signed and mailed to different locations before the order can be placed. Also, the process of filling out these forms and sending them mailing them around is costly, almost $40 per transaction. Using the new electronic transactions would cost approximately $9. The new ordering system, once in place, will allow the agency to issue digital certificates to pharmacies and distributors who are authorized to order these drugs. The system will electronically review the orders and send the request to the agencies within 2 days.
This will be a major advance for the pharmaceutical industry and increase the importance of the internet and e-commerce.
Search engine giants Google and Yahoo are making strides in a new direction. Both giants have recently added new video searches on their websites. Googles new search finds excerpts from the closed caption content of television shows and brings up still photos from the shows. The Yahoo service brings back video clips but does not offer transcripts. This new technology is aimed at attracting new users and increasing advertising on the sites. The idea of video searches is not new but will help market the services and increase advertising revenues.
The amount of business being done over the internet is increasing everyday. It is important that players in the e-commerce market stay up-to-date on the latest technologies to keep their customers and partners happy. With new software and applications being available all the time, it is a continuous job for website creators to keep on top.
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