PRIVA ANNOUNCES PRAXIS ONLINE RETAILER SOFTWARE

PRAXIS allows online marketers to create a catalog of items for sale, and then securely process the credit card purchase transaction for each buyer. It includes all the necessary user interfaces, including confirmations, and the necessary administrative functions, like adding/deleting/editing products and updating prices and terms.

Call us to see a complete demo.

Like all components within Priva's E-commerce suite, PRAXIS offers the flexibility of platform independence. This means it can run on any Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Apple or open source server.

Also like all Priva E-commerce components, PRAXIS is optimized for search engine indexing. This is a unique advantage that is critical to anyone entering the competitive arena of online retailing. The software operates through a secure codebase, with security a top priority throughout its development.

PRAXIS offers the competitive advantage of "persistent state". This means that someone can enter products into their shopping cart on one computer, and later access that shopping cart on another completely different computer.

Additional components being created for the E-commerce suite include PRIVA PRIZM, an advanced visitor and transaction tracking software. PRIZM allows online marketers to track visitors from any source - whatever their source - through to whatever transaction they undertake on your website. This extremely useful software will make it easy to tie together all the information you need to make highly informed decisions about where you should invest your online marketing dollars. Expected 4Q, 2002.

WHAT'S USABLE IN USABILITY TESTING

Jake Baillie just got back from the Search Engine Strategies 2002 conference in San Jose, CA. He files this report.

At the Usability Testing seminar, I was able to hear a presentation by and converse with Tom Wilde, General Manager of Search Services at Terra Lycos. He explained how their Lycos property (www.lycos.com) goes through rigorous user testing.

Among the most advanced methods they use: A special camera that records the movement of a user's eye on the screen. From this, they project what is successfully being emphasized on a page, and what sort of typeface, color, and size better attracts users. From this information, they get a precise handle on how to design a site for optimum information dissemination, while maximizing exposure to advertising. Additionally, they can monitor changes to the site and their effect on users.

Chances are you might not be able to use such an advanced form of testing, but there's a "poor man's version." Lycos will also ask users to use a site, then shut off the computers and then attempt to redraw the site. Yup, with a piece of paper and a pencil. Wilde claims that this technique also gives a good indication of what users are most attracted to on your site. Much like the camera idea, it can take some of the guesswork out of how a site should be designed.

Try it out sometime - perhaps on your own employees. You may be surprised what you find.

BACK TO THE FUTURE TO MAXIMIZE VISITATION

From the earliest days of the web, Webrings were set up to make it easier for surfers to reach multiple sites on the same subject. If you were interested in NASCAR racing, just find one site on NASCAR racing and at the bottom of the page you would find a link to a sequence of other sites on the same subject.

For whatever reason, Webrings have escaped the notice of most Search Engine Optimizers. But not us. We've become adroit at registering our clients on relevant Webrings to increase visitation. It's not idiot work, as you have to deal with cranky Webring masters who have to be convinced a client site deserves to be listed.

This technique works best for sites that belong to a tightly defined community of interests.

If properly applied, Webrings can result in a quantum leap in visitation. Not only does a site benefit from clicks on the Webring ring of sites, but also from additional linkage from other sites.

The Diecast Zone benefited from a 10% addition in site visitation when this technique was implemented.

USING NAPSTER TO FIGHT SPAM

There are two fundamental approaches to fight spam.

BLACKLIST: Identify all the offending email addresses or domains that send you spam and block all email originating from those sources.

WHITELIST: Identify just those email addresses on domains you'll accept email from.

The problem with Blacklisting is spammers continuously alter their addresses and domains. While you can thwart a certain percentage of spammers too lazy to get creative, you won't thwart those willing to mutate their email addresses.

Whitelisting will indeed block all email except those from people and domains you know. What happens, though, when someone you would like to hear from, but whom you don't know, tries to email you. Or even someone you do know who suddenly changes their email address?

Whitelisting seems like the more promising approach, if we can figure out a way of dramatically extending the amount of email addresses we include.

Here's where Napster might provide a brilliant solution. Napster is an example of a peer to peer network that allows access to selected files on others' personal computers on a massive scale. The original use, of course, was to share music, which ran afoul of copyright laws. But what if Napster software were configured to read email addresses?

See where we're going with this?

You could conceivably reach into the address books of anyone who also has the Napster software loaded on their machine, automatically delivering a huge universe of legitimate addresses. Your email reader would accept this universe of legitimate addresses, and block all those others.

Two objections:

What's to keep a spammer from downloading the Napster software and thus harvesting a bonanza of addresses? Answer: he never sees the addresses, nor accesses them. The program only checks an email address against the network, it never reveals the database itself. It only works on receiving email, not sending it.

What's to keep a spammer from filling his own address book filled with spurious email addresses? Thus the network would be corrupted by illegitimate addresses. This is tougher, but there is a reasonable workaround: Users would specify the other users that would participate in their "ring". While this would drastically cut down on the number of legitimate addresses you could refer to as acceptable, what some miscellaneous person in Lubbock, Texas has in their address book probably doesn't matter.

While this sounds whacky, it may sound less so tomorrow morning when you open your email reader and are confronted by a hundred spam headlines. And it's only getting worse.