Search engines, such as Lycos and Yahoo, are pages on the Internet where one can enter a word and the engine will retrieve sites that contain the keyword. Often confused with search engines are portals. The difference between portals and search engines is that portals contain information on the home page along with search engines. In some instances, for example with portals such as AOL or Yahoo, it is possible to find the information needed on the home page without performing a search. Also, shopping carts are now utilized when a consumer is shopping online.
Shopping carts track what a customer is adding to a list of items to purchase.
Another term common in the e-business is a cookie. A cookie is a code that a web server adds to your computer to track when your computer has visited a site. Ms. Jagoda discussed some methods that e-businesses are currently using in online advertising. Two popular ways that customers are targeting consumers are by using banners on web sites and sending email ads. In her presentation, Ms. Jagoda revealed some of the current trends in the e-commerce arena.