Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Internet Exercises

1.) Comparing Prices

Digital Camera --> On Amazon.com, I found a Nikon COOLPIX Digital Camera w/ 5x Optical Zoom for $105.00

On Overstock.com, I found the exact same camera for $96.49

Microwave Oven --> On Amazon.com, I found a Panasonic Genius "Prestiege" 1200 Watt for $148.98

On Overstock.com, i found a Panasonic Genius "Prestiege" 1250 Watt for $167.68

Mp3 Player --> On Amazon.com, I found a Coby 4GB Video Player w/ FM Radio for $19.35

On Overstock.com, I found the exact same mp3 player for $31.50


Clusty.com -->once you type in a certain item that you are looking for, it brings up a lot of websites for you to select to make a purchase.


2.) As a personal shopper on Amazon.com, I LOVE there website!! It's easy to use, everything can be found very quickly by using the 'search' box and its all neatly organized. 90% of the time, i use Amazon.com from my cellphone and it's exactly the same as if i was using it online ( just a smaller screen, of course). The website is clean, friendly, professionally organized and so easy to use. You can even create "wish lists" where you can save items that you like but want to but at a later time.

In reference to the books, when i typed in my favorite book, "Pride & Prejudice", 5,000+ results came up, which I think is excellent because it gives you a varitety to choose from. When i left the site and returned back to it entering in the exact same title, the exact same thing appeared on the screen....just this time, the 5,000+ items were in a different order as opposed to how they appeared the first time. I would definitely purchase a book from Amazon.com because i think that the website is great. I believe that there sales will increase by the fact that when you enter in an item, they give you a wide selection to choose from to make a purchase.


3.) I went to Land's End and "ordered" a customized process for, of course, a pair of shoes. I selected the Men's Mainstay Boat Shoes, size 10, for a purchase price of $94.00. After selecting the pair of shoes that I wanted, it then takes you to the shopping bag to make the purchase, you have to either enter your login account information or create a brand new account with the website. They even allow you to make a purchase without creating an account if you want to which i think is nifty. Not all the times do you want to create an account just to make one purchase. After selecting your option from above, you can go ahead and continue with your purchase. It has you set up shipping procedures and then you enter in your credit card account information and you are on your way. I personally like the wsy that they set there shopping acoount up. Like i said before, not all the time do you feel like putting in all that required information just to make a purchase so the fact they allow you the option of not doing it is great to me. It would definitely make me want to come back and shop and i think that it will all greatly increase there profits.

4.) N/A


5.)




6.) N/A ---> wants you to register for an Internet stock game that is overseas.

7.) I found the following on digital cameras

Shopping.com--> Nikon D5000 Digital Camera, $98
mySimon.com--> Canon S110 Digital Camera, $537
Bizrate.com--> Nixon D7000 Digital Camera, $749
Pricescan.com --> the website directs you to a email website

i think that Shopping.com offers the best quality for your money. Although, at $698, it's not the cheapest camera that I found BUT it comes with a lot of different accessories that the one cameras don't include or charge you extra for.


8.) Reviewing Xing.com, I assume that it is a form of a social networking website for professionals. Services that i found that they provide are easy seacrh for contacts, local events that are listed/posted in your viewing area, companies that are also apart and joined in with the website, jobs/careers incase you are looking for another employment opportunity, groups that you can join with people who have the same likes and interests as you and industry news.


9.) When viewing the bazaarvoice.com website, i found that consumers engage in dialog through conversations, connections and media through the various social outlets that they are hooked up to, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. I couldn't find the Ask & Aswner service feature.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Craig's List 24 hours

Craig's List is a website that allows common everyday people to see things that they have in there house to other people through the virtual web. Things like vehicles, dishware, clothes, entertainment items, shoes, etc have been sold on the website and made tremendous profits. They even have where you can meet people for going out to eat, the movies or just for having sex.


I think that Craig's List was a brilliant idea by it's creator. A lot of people need to find things for there lives but don't want to pay the full price for it so they go on Craig's List and can usually find it for a discount price. A few of my friends have bought a lot of good things off the website that they couldn't find in the store. It's also a way for people to get rid of that "junk" that just piles up in there house and make a profit off it it. People actually can get a size able income off of sailing there items....it just depends on how much junk you have in your house.


You can even find jobs and housing on Craig's List.  I actually found my current job on Craig's List. At first i didn't think that they were legit job postings but after going on numerous interviews for jobs that were posted, I become a believer. I love my job and I am so happy that i found it, thanks to Craig's List.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Questions For Discussions

1.) Amazon's Critical Success factors are the items that are displayed on the front page when you first enter the site. These are the products that they ASSUME interest you and the one that they want you to buy from the website.

I think that there markerting strategy is good. They offer a lot of products and items that the other websites don't even sale. They offer next day delivery at an inexpensive price to it's customers. They let the customers post comments on whether or not they liked or disliked the product/item that they bought. I believe that the company will broaden there horizons and expand to more products so that they can gain new customers and keep there current ones.


2.) Comparison tools allow you to compare and contrast the products on one site to the very same ones on another website. Basically to see on which website you can save the most money on.

Product reviews allow the future customer to read what another customer has wrote about the product/items. They can either post a good review (where they enjoyed the product) or a negative review (where the product didn't quite meet there standards). These allow you to see and review the products before you decide to buy it. Most of the time, customers base there opinion of the product on other customers reviews.

Customer ratings are basically the same thins as a customer review.


3.) I think that the advantages of a site like Dogtoys.com is that a dog lover can easily shop for all of there favorite dog toy items from the comfort of there home and have them shipped directly to there house for a small flat fee.

I really think that a store like this could survive in the physical world. Most online stores are already physical stores so i don't see why a store like this coulnd't make a sizeable profit.

4.) Build-to-order is special to you because you get to customize the order to your needs, wants and desires. I don't see there being any disadvantages because you, as the customer, are the one designing, customizing and selecting how you want the order to be layed and carried out.

5.) I think that online travel services a popular because everyone is going over to the virtual world to complete things. I think that a person finds better sales and has better customer service when they buy there tickets online. You can get the good seats before anyone else sees them or even sometimes before they are even available to the public.

By providing free travel information, you are gonna bring in more customers to your site. Let's be honest here: everyone loves free things. It draws your attention and keeps your attention.

6.) Online stock trading (advantages)-> it's online and no paperwork. You have easy access to your files and anything else that you need. (Disadvantages) I don't see where there would be any.

Offline stock trading (advantages)--> its done in person and all the paperwork is nearby. (disadvantages) it's a lot of paperwork!

7.) Reintermediation means the process whereby intermediaries (the third parties between the buyers and sellers) take on new intermediary roles. The website, Zuji.com, is an online travel agency speciallizing in the Asia Pacific area. I don't know whether or not the market that they sell to will lead to their reintermediation.

8.) Advantages of doing it electronically--> you can get the image quicker, especially if sent through the phone or email/computer.

Disadvantages of doing it electronically--> it is forever in the web atomsphere and can never be deleted.

Advantages of doing it physically--> the image quality is clearer and better than having it sent electronically.

Disadvantages of doing it physically--> it takes longer for you to get the picture to the person.

Terminiology Of E-Commerce

Auction: competitive process by which a seller solicits consecutive bids from the buyer or a buyer solicits bids from sellers.

Avatars: animated computer character that exhibit human like movements and behaviors.

Back End: the actives that support online order fulfillment, inventory management, purchasing from suppliers, payment processing, packaging, and delivery.

Bartering Exchange- a marketplace in which an intermediary arranges barter transaction.

Blog- a personal Web site that is open to the public to read and interacts with dedicated to specific topics or issues.

Buy-side e-marketplace - a private e-marketplace in which one company makes purchases from invited suppliers.

Desktop search- Search tools that search the contents of a user's or organizations computer files, rather than searching the Internet. The emphasis is on finding all the information that is available on the user's PC, including the Web browser histories-mail archives, and word processes documents, as well as in all internal files and database.

Digital Products- Goods that can be transformed to digital format and delivered over the Internet.

Disintermediation- Elimination of intermediaries between sellers and buyers.

Double Auction- an auction in which multiple buyer and their bidding price are matched with multiple sellers and their asking prices, considering the quantities on both sides.

Dynamic Pricing- Prices that change based on supply and demand relationships at any given time.

E-Batering (electronic bartering)- bartering conducted online, usually in bartering exchange.

E-Distributor- an e-commerce intermediary that connects manufactures with business buyers (customer) by aggregating the catalogs of many manufactures in one place the intermediary's Websites.

E-Auctions -- auctions conducted online.

E-catalogs-- the presentation of product information in an electronic form; the backbone of most e-selling sales.

electronic shopping cart -- an order-processing technology that allows customers to accumulate items they wish to buy while they continue to shop.

e-mail (online mail) - an online shopping center where many online stores are located.

folksonomy- the practice and method of collaboratively creating, classifying, and managing tag to annotate and categorize content. (Collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging).

enterprise search-  the practice of identifying and enabling specific content across the enterprise to be indexed, searched, and displayed to authorized users.


Forward Auction- an auction in which a seller entertains bids from buyers. Bidders increase price sequentially.

Inform diary--electronic intermediaries that provide and/or control information flow in cyberspace, often aggregating information through the website.

micro blogging- a form of blogging that allows users to write messages (usually up to 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by any or by restricted groups that can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, MP3 or just on the Web.

name your own price model- an auction in which a would-be-buyer specifies the price (and other terms) he or she is willing to pay and willing be sell. It is a Consumer-to-Business (C2B) model that was pioneered by Priceline.com

reverse auction- (bidding or tendering system) - Auction in which the buyer places an item for bid (tender) on a request for quote (Request for quote) system, potential suppliers bid on the job with the reducing sequentially, and the lowest bid wins.

sell-side-e-marketplace-- a web based marketplace in which one company sells to many business buyers from e-catalogs or auctions, frequently over an extranet.

search engine- a computer program that can access data-bases of Internet resources, search for specific information or key words, and report the results.

social bookmarking- web service for sharing Internet bookmarks. the sites are popular way to store, classify and search links through the practice of folksonomy techniques on the Internet and intranets.

tags- a nonhierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an Internet bookmark, digital image, video clip, or any computer document).

tweets- text based posts up to 140 characters in length posted to twitter.

twitter- a free micro blogging service that allows it's users to send and read others users updates.

vlog-- (video blog) a blog with video content.

voice portal- a website with an audio interface that can be accessed through a telephone call.

web portal- a single point of access through a web browser to critical business information located inside and outside an organization.

web stores- a single company's website where products or services are sold and usually has an online shopping cart associated with it. many web stores target a specific industry and find their own unique corner of the market.

wiki- a blog that allows everyone to participate as a peer: anyone may add, delete or change.

































Thursday, February 7, 2013

Google Introduction

Google is a company that was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as a research PhD project while they both attended Stanford University. It was started up as a brain-storming idea between the two college engineers. They both dropped out of there programs to focus entirely on the start of there new company. Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and had there first out case on August 19, 2004. The company's mission statement was to help organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and more useful all across the board. It was originally spelled as "Googol" but seeing as they wanted the site to be more user friendly, they re-named it how it is spelled today, "Google". It started out in a friend's garage who also was a fellow student and was also there first employee. Nobody really wanted to buy there new technology in the beginning because no one had ever heard of it and because it wasn't anything that anyone had ever seen before. They raised $1 million seeing as no one would help fund them. Google's name spread by word of mouth throughout the community. In June of 1999, Google released there first press release announcing the start of the company. They created a place of headquarters called, "The Google Place". Google's main philosophy was " don't be evil". In the beginning, it was very hard for the company to make any money. There original homepage was first created by Sergey Brin. Unlike there other competition, they refused to clutter there homepage with a whole lot of various advertisements. Yet no ads at all meant no revenue for them so they eventually gave in...somewhat. Google Search is the company's most important service. Less than 2 years after it's launch, it was the largest search engine in the country.  In addition to the many companies Google has purchased, the company has partnered with other organizations for everything from research to advertising.


With the tremendous growth, came some troubles. They begin to force the company to hire a professional CEO to head over the company. They recruited Steve Jobs (Apple creator) and many others. They wanted to bring in someone that had a more professional background and add insight to the growing company. They basically wanted someone that was a little older. Erin Schmidt was brought in and the company continued to grow even more, knocking out all the competition.


In addition to its standard web search services, Google has released over the years a number of online productivity tools. Gmail, a free webmail service provided by Google, was launched as a program in April 2004 and became available to the general public on February 2007. In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired the video-sharing site YouTube for $1.7 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 2006. In 2011, Google made its largest-ever acquisition to date when announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12 billion. There lastest invention is Google Tv, where you can stream live videos through the internet to your home tv. In just 10 years, the company has become one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

In the begining, God created online shopping

I never would have thought that someone like me would take so much excitement in online shopping. I am a person that, when i walk into a shoe store, it's like I am being reborn. The shoes are literally calling my name from off the shelves for me to go and buy them. It's something that seems to happen every single time that i go into the mall. "Eugene, come try me on!" "No, come and try me on!" So many shoes but only two feet! A never ending battle that seems to take over me whenever i decide to go shopping.

I really don't know where i get this shopping bug from because my Mom clearly does not like to go shopping. Whenever i take her shopping with me, she is the one that is always trying to rush me out of the stores, complaining that I am taking too long. I never really understand her predicament but then again i never really try to understand it either. I'm too busy trying to find the best deals or my size in the latest pair of shoes to hit the shelves.

On one particular shopping event, i was looking at this pair of Converse sneakers that I wanted. Thing is, they didn't have my size. Now normally, being the shoe addict that I am, i would have gotten them anyways and dealt with the pain later...but after putting my feet in them for a quick second, the pain was way beyond excruciating. Seeing as the store clerk said that they no longer carried the shoe in my size, I gave up hope on ever having that shoe. Believe me, that shoe was worth having. It was a Limited Edition Yellow & Black Bumblebee Converse shoe. It was amazing! Unlike any shoe that I had ever seen before. I was completely distraught about not being able to have the shoe.

On the drive home, my Mom (of all people) told me that she had started doing online shopping. First of all, i was shocked that my Mom had put the word "I" and "shopping" in the same sentence. Then i was shocked that she was the one mentioning this concept to me. I had heard a lot of my friends tell me the beneficial avenues that they had found in shopping online. No waiting in line. No dealing with rude sales clerks. No leaving the house. Being able to simply order whatever you wanted from the comfort of your very own home and having it shipped directly to your front door. It did sound like something that i could do but the idea of putting my credit card information on the world wide web was making me anxious. Seeing as i really wanted that particular pair of shoes, i finally gave in and made a online shopping account with Amazon.com. Within seconds of typing in the shoe description, i instantly found the shoes that i was looking for....and in my size too! Talk about excited! I put my credit card information in so fast, there was literally smoke blowing from my fingers. I was too geeked about my very first purchase as a new online shopper. So as i write to you, while wearing my Limited Edition Yellow & Black Bumblebee Converse shoes, i can proudly say that I am a very satisfied online shopper....so far.