Seeking to improve the commonly used online survey sampling approaches.
Thomas F. Stafford
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Anyone who has ever dealt with spyware knows the irritation of lost bandwidth, the frustration of commandeered machine processor cycles, the innumerable pop-up ads and spam trails that result from an infestation. It is indeed a threat to computer security, and yet the sort of maladaptive software application spyware represents is supported by just the sort of wink-and-a-nod online barter economy that seems to nourish the emerging business functions of the Internet worldwide. You "pay for free" by sacrificing (knowingly or not) some personal information or some loss of personal privacy in exchange for great "free" features in software functionality that you can download without paying for or as a "piggybacked" part of some other free applications you might wish to use.
Spyware: A View from the (Online) Street
There are indications of late that the use of anti-spyware software is on the rise, with more than 100 million Internet users downloading Lavasoft's free anti-spyware software [2]. Some big-name companies are also beginning to address the spyware issue, including Microsoft, which currently has a beta version of its own anti-spyware available to Microsoft Windows users for download. However, a Gartner survey finds only 10% of respondents were taking sufficiently aggressive steps to minimize spyware infestations [5] and a Forrester survey found that even though 55% of consumers knew what spyware was, only 40% were running anti-spyware programs routinely [7].
What Americans Like About Being Online
A study of AOL users finds they are particularly gratified using the Net as a source of information, communication, and socializing---results that may be helpful to ISPs in their efforts to attract and retain users.
Mobile Commerce: What It Is and What It Could Be
Just a few years ago, many pundits proclaimed that m-commerce had arrived, and would shortly provide unprecedented commercial functionality to the masses [2, 5]. Cell phone users were expected to be routinely accessing data online [5], and speedy third-generation cellular standards would soon solve associated bandwidth difficulties [2]. It hasn’t quite worked out that way—it […]
As I sit here considering how to introduce this special section on e-services, I'm reminded of a superb experience I recently had filing my U.S. federal income tax return. In lieu of a $400 fee for paying someone to prepare my modestly complex 2002 financial circumstances, and having moved to a new state far from my long-time accountant, I decided to take a chance on one of the new tax filing services available online. This would be, in fact, my first substantial e-services experience as a consumer. Given I was dealing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the fact that thousands of dollars were at stake, it was no mere exercise to me.
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