Chapter 1

Introduction to the Internet and the Web-An Executive Summary

The World Wide Web is the most important invention since Velcro.
   --Business Week (February 27, 1995)

The power of real-time interaction with prospects and customers has created not just a whole new way to communicate, but a multi-billion dollar business in hardware, software, and services. And that's just the industry feeding fuel into the Internet engine.

The Internet has even been credited with being a major cause of the United States' economic strength of the late 1990's. Low unemployment, high profits, increased business and housing are laid at the feet of technology. Silicon Valley experienced a slump in the late 80's and early 90's that threatened the best and the brightest of the technology industry. But even the Asian economic crisis couldn't put a damper on the continued growth of the U.S. economy spawned by a whole new marketplace called the Web.

It is a rush unlike the Oklahoma Land Rush or the California Gold Rush. It is far beyond those and it is global. People, companies, and governments are jumping on the Internet faster than they have acquired any other new communications medium. Clearly, being connected is better than being disconnected. It is better to communicate than to stay isolated. There are dozens of reasons to be on the Internet today, and those reasons will increase tomorrow. For now, it's enough for today's business to want:

• A leading-edge corporate image
• Improved service for current customers
• Increased visibility
• Market expansion
• Online transactions
• Global information distribution
• Lower communication costs

"Be on the Web or be out of business" would have been an over the top statement in 1995, even for me. Today, it's right on the mark. Think about how well you could compete today without a fax machine or voice mail. Your company would be hurting.

The Internet was enjoying the spotlight in 1995 and not participating was to hide one's head in the sand. It would be like having a booth at a major trade show in your industry -- you may not receive millions of leads or made thousands of sales, but not participating would make your company conspicuous by its absence. Yesterday, we began to see changes in the landscape.

"No Web site, huh?"

"What? You mean your information is not available electronically?"

"I've already downloaded product information from your competitor."

Today, it's hard to justify doing business with a company that isn't aggressively using the Web to recreate itself.

When National Semiconductor says it's saving its customers $100 million a year because of new buying techniques its Web site has made possible, it means the competition has heated to the boiling point. There's no time to decide if the Web site you put up a couple of years ago might be worth serious investment. We're past that.

With its multimedia capabilities, the World Wide Web captured the imagination of computer users everywhere, and corporate marketers rose to the challenge. Today, the marketing department is teaming with the information systems people and together they are leading the company into a whole new era.

Sound trite? Maybe a little.

But realize that with the wholesale reduction in the cost of communication and the speed at which global commerce is creating new ways of doing business, the word revolution isn't hype anymore.

Who Is This Book For?

If you are like thousands of others who are looking for ways to improve the electronic presence for your company, you will find advanced techniques and philosophical perspectives in this book that will vastly improve your chances for success. There is a healthy amount of how-to, what to avoid, and, above all, how to think about electronic marketing on the World Wide Web.

Enough smart people have spent enough time making mistakes, it is no longer necessary to re-invent the wheel. Whether you are putting up a Web site for your fledgling company, responsible for a specific content area on your company's Web site, or are in charge of a multi-national Web effort that crosses all of your corporate divisions, you will benefit by learning from the successes and failures of others.

Students, managers, Web development firms, and those who are merely curious, will find straight, business-oriented descriptions, advice and examples of what's happening on the World Wide Web.

This is not a book about tools. It's not a step-by-step, how-to manual for building your own Web server. It's about technique. How you implement these techniques will change as the pace of new technology continues speed up.

This book isn't for programmers, unless, of course, you are interested in using the World Wide Web to market your software. This book is not for dummies.

Continuing Education

There are various ways the Internet can be put to use in a business environment. As wonderful as the prospect of global communication may be, and as exciting as this technology appears from the gee-whiz perspective, its value to business is measured strictly by its impact on the bottom line.

That impact will depend on the goals of the organization that plans to make use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Some firms will benefit more by using this new communication tool for direct sales. Others will see an immediate improvement in the cost of customer service. Still others will view the Web as an opportunity to create and sell new services altogether.

Businesses will find many uses for electronic communication over the Internet, from lowering the cost of sending faxes and overnight packages to superior internal communications. Improved internal communications will lead to faster time-to-market. Improved customer service will engender higher client satisfaction and better feedback to product managers.

You must understand the Internet before using it. This is not to say you need a deep technical understanding, but rather, an understanding of its capabilities and, most important, its limitations. It's not necessary to know the intricacies of an internal combustion engine. It is enough to know that it requires oil at specific intervals.

It is critical, however, to understand the rules of the road. It doesn't hurt to have a feel for navigation and the ability to read a map. You must know how fast your car can accelerate, or you'll never get on a freeway without a panic attack or, an accident. You must know how long it takes to stop your car in the rain and how long the needle can point to Empty before you need to get gas.

Understanding the Internet from a bits and bytes perspective may be fascinating, but only a handful of technical details are required to avoid the pitfalls. These are presented in plain terms in Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Internet.

Introduction to the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a software application that runs on the Internet. If the Internet were the IBM PC DOS operating system, then the World Wide Web would be Windows. It is the graphical interface that incorporates underlying functions in an easier-to-use manner.

The Web's technical capabilities are changing at a phenomenal rate. New features are proposed and implemented with breakneck speed. Your technical team will have to work overtime just to stay current and they will keep you apprised of the latest and greatest to ensure that your corporate Web site doesn't get stodgy and boring.

A quick word to the wise: a technically boring Web site might be just the thing you need. I think it was the April, 1998 issue of Wired that showed, in their monthly table, "Tired: more bandwidth, Wired: skinny Web sites."

Yes, some changes will be required to keep you from technical stagnation. You will install seat belts. You will switch to unleaded gasoline. You will install air bags. You will have to keep up to date. But don't let the techno-maniacs get the better of you. It may embarrass them to look a little behind the times in front of their peers. But you can lose the potential return on your Web investment if you get too far out in front of your customers.

The Web has caught on so quickly because it enables you to present information in a myriad of media: hypertext, graphics, video, sound, and so on. Chapter 3: Welcome to the World Wide Web explains the Web and how it is changing our perception of computer communications from Figure 1.1 to Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.1  A standard file transfer protocol (ftp) session for grabbing files from a remote computer.

Figure 1.2  Intel shows the wide range of possibilities on today's Web.

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