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domain must be renewed every two years. Companies that don’t manage this process poten-
tially risk losing their domain name since another company could potentially register it if
the domain name lapsed. A further option with domain registration is to purchase generic
domain names of established sites which may perform well in the search engines.
The mini case study shows one example of the value of domains and the need to protect
them which we examine in more detail in Chapter 4.

Mini Case Study 3.2 How much is a domain worth?

One of the highest values attached to a domain in Europe was paid in 2008 when the web site cruise.co.uk
paid the German travel company Nees Reisen £560,000 for the rival name cruises.co.uk. Guardian (2008a)
reported the new owner of cruises.co.uk as saying that he hopes to use the new domain differently – by
turning the site into an online intermediary or community for cruising enthusiasts while its existing
cruise.co.uk will concentrate on offering the best deals for voyages. Explaining the valuation cruise.co.uk’s
managing director, Seamus Conlon: ‘“Cruises” is consistently ranked first on Google, with “cruise” just
behind. We wanted the top positions so that when internet users are searching for cruise deals, reviews or
news we are the first port of call. The cruise market is one of the fastest and most consistently growing
sectors in the travel industry.’
In the US, the record domain values are higher from when they were exchanged in the late 1990s, including
Sex.com for $12m
Business.com for $7.5m
Beer.com for $7m in 1999.

Web presentation and data exchange standards

Content The information, graphics and interactive elements that make up the web pages of a site are
The design, text and collectively referred to as content. Different standards exist for text, graphics and multi-
graphical information that
forms a web page. Good media. The saying ‘content is king’ is often applied to the World Wide Web, since the content
content is the key to will determine the experience of the customer and whether he or she will return to a web
attracting customers to a site in future.
web site and retaining
their interest or achieving

repeat visits. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – display of unstructured text content
HTML (Hypertext Web-page text has many of the formatting options available in a word processor. These
Markup Language)
include applying fonts, emphasis (bold, italic, underline) and placing information in tables.
A standard web-page
presentation format used Formatting is possible since the web browser applies these formats according to instructions
to define the text and that are contained in the file that makes up the web page. This is usually written in HTML or
layout of web pages.
HTML files usually have Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is an international standard established by the World
the extension .HTML or Wide Web Consortium (and published at www.w3.org) intended to ensure that any web page
.HTM.
authored according to the definitions in the standard will appear the same in any web browser.
Content management systems (CMS, Chapter 12) are used to shield business content edi-
tors from the complexity of HTML.
A brief example of HTML is given for a simplified home page for an example B2B com-
pany in Figure 3.14. The HTML code used to construct pages has codes or instruction tags
such as <TITLE>. to indicate to the browser what is displayed. The <TITLE>. tag indicates
what appears at the top of the web browser window. Each starting tag has a corresponding
end tag usually marked by a ‘/’, for example, <B>plastics</B> to embolden ‘plastics’.
The simplicity of HTML compared to traditional programming languages makes it poss-
ible for simple web pages to be developed by non-specialists such as marketing assistants,