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136 Part 1 Introduction

4 Social media widgets. These encourage site visitors to subscribe to RSS or to bookmark the
page on their favourite social media site like Delicious, Digg or Technorati.
5 Facebook applications. Facebook has opened up its API (application programming inter-
face) to enable developers to create small interactive programs that users can add to their
space to personalize it. Charitable giving site justgiving has a branded app with several
hundred users.
Atomization
Atomization Atomization is a way of summarizing a significant trend in Web 2.0 which incorporates
In a Web 2.0 context some of the marketing techniques we have reviewed such as posts on social networks, feeds
refers to a concept where
the content on a site is and widgets.
broken down into smaller Atomization traditionally refers to fine particles of powder or liquid, but in a Web 2.0
fundamental units which context it describes how the content on a web site can be broken down into smaller compo-
can then be distributed
via the web through links nents and then can be released onto the web where they can be aggregated together with
to other sites. Examples other content to provide content and services valuable for other site owners and visitors.
of atomization include the
stories and pages in For site owners, options to consider for the application of atomization include:
individual feeds being
syndicated to third-party 1 Providing content RSS feeds in different categories through their content management
sites and widgets. system, for example, the BBC effectively providing tens of thousands of newsletters or their
site at the level of detail or granularity to support the interest of their readers, i.e. separate
feeds at different levels of aggregation, e.g. sport, football, Premier League football or a
fan’s individual team.
2 Separate out content which should be provided as a data feed of news stories or statistics
into widgets on other sites. Example – the 2007 launched UK retail statistics widget dash-
board for iGoogle.
3 Develop web services which update widgets with data from their databases. A classic
example is the justgiving widget (www.justgiving.com) where money raised by a charity
donor is regularly updated.
4 Create badges which can be incorporated within blogs or social networks by their fans or
advocates. The membership body Chartered Institute of Personnel and Developments
(CIPD) does this well through its ‘link to us’ programme (www.cipd.co.uk/absite/
bannerselect.htm) which encourages partners to add banners or text links to their site to
link to the CIPD site. Similarly, Hitwise encourages retailers to link to it through its Top 10
Award programme (an award for the top 10 most popular web sites across each of the
160+ Hitwise industries by market share of visits.
5 Review whether widgets or feeds from other companies can be included within their content
to provide value for their users.

How does it work? Internet standards

We have introduced the general terms and concepts that describe the operation of the Inter-
net and the World Wide Web. In this section we look briefly at the standards that you may
encounter which have been adopted to enable information transfer. Knowledge of these
terms is useful for anyone involved in the management of e-commerce since discussion with
suppliers may involve them. The standards forming the technical infrastructure of the Inter-
net are controlled by several bodies which are reviewed at the end of this chapter.

Networking standards

Internet standards are important in that they are at the heart of definitions of the Internet.
According to Leiner et al. (2000), on 24 October 1995 the Federal Networking Council
unanimously passed a resolution defining the term ‘Internet’.