Tuesday, December 24, 2002




Web Services and eCommerce

Web service foreplay reveals that most web services are created with eCommerce (electric commerce) related thoughts. Simplifying technologies so that it may be offered as web service or to potential web service hosts. Further these offerings may likewise be sold on line via eCommerce. Beyond this arrangement a business that sells a service and/or product may continue these sales online by implementing eCommerce from an online eCommerce host

This makes sense, more and more as the web allows businesses to successfully sell items and services to a new genre of customer, the busiest people, relating to either services that need to be had today or items that aren’t needed for a week or more.

Many frequent web users still relate to the Internet as a tool to simplify ordinary tasks and to this they aren’t approaching the web with thoughts of revenue they are merely privileged to be among those utilizing new technologies to maintain order and expedience in their original endeavors.

This brings about two questions (or one huge one depending on the role of analytics), for those that are eager to establish eCommerce based revenue, how do you persuade this new breed of business to be successful?

To those who do not consider eCommerce as being relevant to web based offerings how do you encourage broader understanding its relevancy?

This brings to mind the analogy for the economic dilemma recognized in earlier times.

The honey analogy
The queen bee gets the male bees to create the hive, once done the worker bees go about their other job of pollination, returning to the hives and thereby producing the final result of honey.

A bear sees the hive full of honey and immediately desires it for himself. He didn’t work to produce this honey yet sheer desire and clever thinking will make the honey his.

Theories are endless as to what is appropriate and what is fair, the bottom line is the bear now has his honey and the bees must start over hopefully wiser but elsewhere.

It is like wise important to consider the relevancy of eCommerce not only as a tool for web services to thrive but also as inspiration for web service customers to utilize for their own need to profit. The more this idea sinks into to the common netizens thinking, the more likely eCommerce is to flourish in the manner that was initially predicted.


Companies who are currently offering web services, for example: eCriteria.net (www.eCriteria.net) are implementing new initiatives to encourage their web service customers to embark on eCommerce missions of their own.

What is eCriteria.net

So what is eCriteria.net? A self funded web service project created and launched by software development firm AMULET Development Corp. In mid 1999, database publisher, developer, and how to author of database design, CEO Dan Gutierrez, created eCriteria based on the concern of supplying customers with quality database programming services more readily for smaller applications.

Currently, eCriteria.net is a steadily thriving database creation and publishing web service for individuals, small businesses, and enterprises.

How does eCommerce tie in exactly?

The tie between eCriteria and eCommerce works like this, a person visits eCriteria.net because the have information (data) regarding a personal or professional interest. They register to become a member and create a database in 3 minutes to encompass and organize their data. They add or upload their data into their new eCriteria database and link it to their web page or web site so that their visitors may add and search this database and extract specific data.

Being a web service itself, eCriteria.net charges a modest fee for this service in order to afford itself, likewise it becomes clear to this eCriteria Member that their data must be important enough to purchase tools to publish it. By setting up and eCommerce account like the ones offered at iBill.com and Paypal.com this eCriteria member is now able to receive payment for the downloading of this data to those that need it, and thereby allowing the database owner a means to afford publishing this information!

Analogy Realized

Back to the analogy, eCriteria is the hive producing databases, an eCriteria members’ data is the honey which is stored in the database (or hive), the eCriteria member is the bee producing and storing the honey, and the visitor interested in this data (or honey) is the bear.

Unlike the story however, the database owner (bee) eventually realizes that the honey is not only desirable to one visitor (bear), but to many visitors (bears). So instead of changing the location of his hive the bee may instead utilize another means of securing the product of his labor the data or (honey), while dispensing it on demand and repeat these actions without having to start over with the same end result. Likewise, other visitors (bears) will find a way to utilize this information in order to create a functioning flowing business (existence) between the hive, the honey, the bees and his fellow bears.

The Moral of the Story

By creating a web service to produce a needed tool like eCriteria, an eCriteria member may likewise save time and money getting this needed tool and enable this tool to make valuable information available to others who need it as well, eCommerce provides the means for this important and relevant database of information to be sold and the cycle is able to thrive and flow continuously.

Http://www.ecriteria.net is excited to not only be a front-runner in web service design, but also in the web service / eCommerce compliant initiative, a movement not to be denied. "Where do we go from here?"

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