Guardian eCommerce - Key E-Commerce News & Tips

The recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston served as a coming-out party, if you will, for all things Web 2.0. For many attendees, however, as well as those who followed the event on the countless blogs covering the conference, the term Web 2.0 has created as much confusion as hype. Still, the ideas and concepts that make up Web 2.0 offer enterprises real opportunities to improve collaboration and communication.

Before delving too much into the "whys" of Web 2.0, it's worth spending a few minutes discussing the "what." The basic concept of Web 2.0 is one of end-user empowerment; replacing a rigid set of standalone applications with a Web-based framework allowing end users to self-organize as they create, control and share content using the Web as the medium for communication. In effect, Web 2.0 brings the "Internet" architecture based on dumb network and smart endpoints to the application layer.

A key characteristic of Web 2.0 is leveraging social networks to aid in problem-solving and information management. Some of the more popular Web 2.0 applications include:

-Blogs, which allow individuals to easily post to an online journal, with comment systems as well as links between posts on different forums.
-Wikis, user-editable Web pages that came to prominence through sites such as Wikipedia , and which offer anyone the ability to easily create and edit a Web page.
-RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which takes information from sites such as wikis and blogs and pushes it out to end-users or other Web sites.
-Community tools such as social bookmarking and tagging, which let users quickly mark or find items of interest based on how others tag content.

We've all seen the hype around Web 2.0 in the past year, with "You" as Time magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year." We've seen the rise of end user-powered Web sites such as YouTube , MySpace , Del.ico.us, Digg, and Craigslist. Web sites such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and most other retailers have aggressively moved to add social networking capabilities, enabling users to form their own communities, share feedback and comment on products and services. These social networks allow individuals to quickly tap the collective wisdom of groups for everything from picking the best TV to finding entertainment.

We've had the opportunity to interview approximately 100 end-user organizations for our most recent benchmark study on the subject. We found it difficult to ascertain any enterprise-wide consensus on attitudes toward Web 2.0, but we did uncover a few general trends:

Fear: Enterprise GG executives expressed strong concern over end users run amok as Web 2.0 culture permeates the enterprise. Many enterprise managers are concerned about the potential risks to the organization from bad publicity or data loss as a result of employees sharing information on blogs or other social networking sites. Enterprises also fear that their employees are using these sites for group collaboration and are operating outside the approved IT applications, meaning they aren't subject to enterprise policies governing compliance and information protection.

In some cases, enterprise IT managers simply don't understand Web 2.0 and fear its impact. News stories touting problems with sites such as MySpace contribute to the fear, uncertainty and doubt that often permeate discussions of Web 2.0.

Confusion: Marketers have caught on to the Web 2.0 phenomenon, in some cases branding all of their collaboration and communications tools part of Web 2.0, even though such tools may not be Web-based or even anything new. (Is Web conferencing or videoconferencing really Web 2.0?) Confusion spills into discussions of unified communications, which in turn is frequently confused with unified messaging. Often when we asked IT executives about their Web 2.0 applications, we heard about thin client services, Software as a Service products such as Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) , or Web-based application access powered by development frameworks such as Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML).

Organizational Obstacles: Web 2.0 shatters traditional IT boundaries around collaboration, communications, network infrastructure and applications. One company I interviewed has more than two dozen silos of IT departments, each charged with managing their own application or network service independent of one another.

More than half of the enterprises we interviewed are still struggling with integrating voice and data architecture and operations functions. Now along comes a completely new approach to application delivery, one that crosses most existing boundaries such as voice, messaging and collaboration, while also requiring integration with security and compliance plans.

I just rely on vendor XXX: About half the enterprises we interviewed had settled on a strategic vendor for communication and collaboration (mostly Cisco), IBM, Lotus, or Microsoft). As a result, their approach to adopting Web 2.0 applications is to deliver whatever platform their strategic vendor offered-e.g. Microsoft SharePoint, Lotus Domino/Notes/Quickr/Connections, or Cisco collaboration tools such as MeetingPlace. This approach is simple, and the enterprise can be assured that they are buying products which integrate into a unified framework, but it limits choice, blocking enterprises from evaluating best-of-breed products.

As a result of these challenges, enterprise IT shops are often reacting rather than leading on Web 2.0, trying to get a grip on applications and services brought into the enterprise by end users and business groups, rather than crafting an enterprise-wide strategy for Web 2.0 adoption.

We've been here before. Long before there was Web 2.0, employees introduced IM through public services such as AOL Instant Messenger, forcing companies to react to an application that end users wanted, but that the organization didn't provide. End users went out and got their own e-mail-enabled mobile devices before the BlackBerry became standard, and in some cases, individuals or workgroups bought their own PCs back when mainframes were still the norm.

We're seeing this same phenomenon again as individual workgroups bring blogs and wikis into the enterprise, in some cases subscribing on their own to Web-based services, since enterprise-provided options simply don't exist. Once again, IT shops are straggling to play catch-up.

So where do we stand today? In our benchmark, we found that about 18 percent of enterprises were using blogs, 32 percent used wikis and 23 percent had begun to deploy RSS as a way of managing information flows throughout the organization.

These numbers are impressive for new technology, but they don't tell the whole story. When we dug deeper, we found adoption wasn't widespread throughout the organization; rather, in most cases individual workgroups were using these tools for both internal and external collaboration. In some cases, IT had little knowledge or control. Business units were taking it upon themselves to obtain the tools they needed to solve their communications and collaboration challenges, without waiting for IT to create a strategy.

This creates a recipe for chaos. The vision of end users freed from the shackles of corporate IT control, able to use whatever tools they like in whatever fashion they want may sound like nirvana to some Web 2.0 evangelizers. However, enterprises face very real security and compliance requirements. Mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA require careful management and control throughout the organization.

More importantly, IT departments that fail to adequately address Web 2.0 are at the mercy of their users. Workgroups with technically savvy individuals will benefit, but workgroups or business units without a grasp of Web 2.0 will never know what they are missing, and will suffer against competitors who are able to leverage Web 2.0 tools to improve business processes, thus reducing costs and adding to the bottom line.

IT shops owe it to their corporations to get up to speed on the concepts, tools and opportunities of Web 2.0. The first step is establishing the right IT organization; we recommend, at minimum, a high-level collaboration and communication architecture team to coordinate silos, to work toward a common set of interoperable applications.

Beyond organizational considerations, enterprises should look for specific processes that can benefit from Web 2.0. These typically involve functions that require close coordination between distributed workers, within the enterprise as well as with external partners. Look for ways to shorten project times, improve project efficiency and limit roadblocks to communications.

Finally, organizations should broaden their product horizons beyond a small set of vendors. Pay attention to the start-ups that are often the thought leaders in the Web 2.0 space: companies such as Attensa, NewsGator, KnowNow, SixApart, SocialText and Traction Software. You owe it to yourself and your organization to position your IT shop to be a proactive partner in taking advantage of Web 2.0 to improve your organization.

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An organization that certifies computer software as consumer-friendly and noninvasive has suspended comScore and one of its programs used to track Internet usage. TRUSTe, whose Trusted Download Program is designed to help potential advertisers and partners steer clear of unwanted spyware and adware, said an outside distributor had failed to obtain the proper consent for installing comScore's RelevantKnowledge software.

Under the program's rules, certified adware and other software must obtain consent before downloading, be easy to uninstall and cannot modify computer settings to cause damage or harm.

Although comScore acted promptly when informed of a rogue distributor, TRUSTe said, RelevantKnowledge was removed last month from a Trusted Download safe list, effective until at least early October. TRUSTe said the distributor took advantage of unspecified security flaws to automatically download and install RelevantKnowledge without consent. Distributors are often paid per copy installed.

ComScore uses distributors to help extend the reach of its software, which can come bundled with free products and services like screensavers, games and online backup.

TRUSTe said comScore would have to implement several changes to regain trusted status, including placing comScore in greater control of obtaining consent and improving auditing. Tom Cushing, a privacy officer at comScore, said the company has agreed to such measures and was able to disable installations made by the distributor in question.

"We have since come up with some new methodologies we can use to make sure this type of thing can't happen," Cushing said. ComScore uses RelevantKnowledge to track users' online browsing activities and purchasing behaviors as part of reports the Reston, Va., company provides on where and when people surf and for how long. The company's other tracking software, PermissionResearch and OpinionSquare, are not part of TRUSTe's program and are thus unaffected, Cushing said.

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A survey done by the U.S. Commerce Department stated that of every 10 small businesses, seven will survive their first year, three will still be going after three years and only two will remain after five years. These are quite startling numbers and really beg the question: "Why do startups fail?"

The answer is amazingly simple and can be reduced to three main causes: lack of working capital, a poorly conceived business model and a poorly constructed business plan.

Lack of working capital is usually the "last straw" that sinks the already troubled ship. One might argue that it is not really a cause but the effect of another cause -- poor planning. Philosophically, I can't take exception to that argument, but list it as a separate cause anyway, due to its critical importance in the planning process.

As an entrepreneur, I can certainly understand the enthusiasm and aggressiveness that are needed elements to starting a new business. However, my experience tells me that this enthusiasm and aggressiveness must be tempered with a large dose of realism.

We should always be asking ourselves "what-if" questions. What if our business model takes longer to execute than we planned? What if our bank or other finance source were to cut off our funding? What if we are sued and need a large amount of capital to defend that suit?

What I have done with working capital intensive businesses over the years was to prepare a "rolling" cash flow budget. This budget is projected over a one-year period and should be updated on a weekly basis or, at the minimum, on a semi-monthly basis.

One of my businesses had a payroll of over US$100,000 per week, not including fringe benefits. You can rest assured that I had a detailed cash flow budget that predicted where I would be on a weekly basis. At the end of each week, we would record our cash receipts and our cash disbursements and take those actual numbers into consideration in order to update our annual, rolling cash flow budget.

How is a business model defined? Simply stated, it is a relatively short document that describes who a company is and how it will distinguish itself from its competitors by offering unique value in its goods or services.

The term business model, though coined in the 1950s, really didn't achieve mainstream usage and acceptance until the 1990s. Some businesspeople still, believe it or not, aren't sure of its exact meaning. This is somewhat discouraging because the business model, in my opinion, is the critical starting point to the serious consideration of starting a new business.

You must be absolutely certain that what you offer is unique and will be readily accepted in the marketplace. Or you must be certain that there is ample "room" for your new company if there already exists a robust market for its intended product or service.

To make my point, I note that at this writing, SunRocket has shut down VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service to thousands of their customers, leaving them stranded for phone service. Other customers were apparently given notice that their phone service could be disconnected at any time -- not a pretty scene.

What happened? I'm really not sure. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if SunRocket's business model didn't work out as planned, leading to a severe shortage of working capital -- thus the discontinuance of service.

In SunRocket's case, there already existed a VoIP market. This is a difficult market to profit in. In fact, I wrote an article. In that article, I talk about an upstart phone company called "Vonage" that had as one of its chief competitors AT&T. Today, it appears that Vonage is struggling.

Though a business model is certainly one key element for the survival of a company, even with a well-thought-out business plan, business models are no guarantees. I have no doubt that the people at Vonage gave a great deal of thought to its business model because of the experienced principals involved in the company, yet it appears that they are really struggling.

The business plan is your business' guidebook. If it is properly written, it will contain all of the key elements that will guide you in the formation and running of your business. A great business plan is the key to raising capital.

Simply described, a business plan should start with a business model, then go on to describe how you are going to execute that model. It must have a good amount of financial information, including current financial statements and a budget that is projected over at least a three-year period.

Additionally, it should have a detailed description of how you will market your product and include therein a description of your competition and how you intend to not only survive, but also actually thrive, given the competition that exists in your field.

Certainly, there should be some mention of personnel: how you will attract and retain the necessary individuals for your company to succeed in executing its business plan.

Being in business can be both exciting and scary. The fear factor can be greatly reduced by adequate, detailed planning. There is no substitute for it.

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Google continues to win the battle for Internet search dominance, according to the latest findings of Web traffic measurement firm comScore. The Reston, Va.-based Internet metrics company said its July numbers show Google leading the field of what it considers the top five search engines. According to comScore, Google snagged a 55.2 percent share of searches conducted with all five engines. Coming in a distant second was Yahoo with 23.5 percent, followed by Microsoft at 12.3 percent, Ask.com at 4.7 percent, and Time Warner Network (AOL) with 4.4 percent, said comScore.

The fact that Google is at the top of the search engine list is nothing new. ComScore's figures show Google gained significant share during the year, moving from 46.2 percent in July 2006 to this year's 55.2 percent. Yahoo had the opposite luck. Its July share of the search pie represented a decrease of more than 6 percent from its score of 29.8 percent a year ago. Google handled nearly 5.5 billion search queries in July, while Yahoo fielded about 2.3 billion and Microsoft responded to about 1.2 billion, said comScore. In July 2006, Google handled about 3.3 billion searches, meaning its total number of monthly searches grew 64 percent.

Of all the search engines, the only one to experience a decrease in year-to-year numbers was Time Warner (AOL), which, according to comScore, had 0.9 percent fewer searches this July than it did in July 2006.

comScore also announced it has a new way of measuring search. The new system , called qSearch 2.0, takes into account the fact that searches are now often conducted from within Web sites instead of just through search engines. "Previously, the search universe was defined as searches occurring at the major Web search engines," explained comScore. "With search becoming a more ubiquitous activity across the Web, comScore is expanding the market view of the search universe to encompass other searches that occur on the Internet."

The company's metrics still will include the five major U.S. search engines, but also will include the top 50 sites worldwide where search activity is taking place. The list includes sites such as MySpace, Baidu and Naver, noted comScore.

The new qSearch 2.0 also takes into account major "vertical" search sites, such as eBay, Amazon and Expedia. Additionally, so-called "partner search," defined by comScore as "searches initiated at partner sites that redirect the visitor to a search engine site," are being measured. So are "cross-channel" searches, where searchers use more than one search tab, including Web, images and news, for a single search term.

The company said it is also including local searches -- of maps, directions and local directory listings -- and will include in its reports worldwide search results that take into account activity in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, China and Korea, with additional countries to follow.

In announcing qSearch 2.0, comScore's Senior Vice President of Search Solutions James Lamberti said the change is a reaction to "the continued evolution of the search market," noting it became clear to comScore that "there is a need to expand the way we think about search ... by including all forms of search that are being monetized currently or could be monetized in the future."

comScore did a smart thing in revising its measurement methods, said search expert Kevin Lee, executive chairman and cofounder of Didit, a search marketing company. The days of using only search engines to find material on the Web are long gone, he noted.

"ComScore's expansion of the definition of search makes sense," Lee said. "Search doesn't just occur in the major search engines and the new qSearch product takes a broader view." Even with that broader view, Google dominates, a fact not missed by Lee. "Google continues to leverage their brand which has become synonymous with search," he commented. "They continue to be the engine to beat."

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For mobile advertising to truly work, the mobile Web must work. The promise of mobile advertising is obvious and immediate. We have all heard the mouthwatering stats by now:

More folks around the world access the Web via the phone than they do from the PC.
There are 2 billion interactive devices sitting in the pockets of subscribers from all corners of the globe and all walks of life at this very moment. The mobile phone is the most personal, most interactive and most frequently used device of all-time.

It's no wonder that industry analysts predict the mobile advertising market will reach US$10 billion in just a few short years. The scenario is a marketer's dream: an always on, always with you, two-way device that provides an unprecedented level of user information for the delivery of a device-specific, targeted message. Where do I sign up?

Not so fast. We still need to build an audience to provide those marketers with the reach they need to justify devoting a significant portion of their spend to mobile Internet advertising. The mobile Internet is growing every day. More and more people around the world turn to the mobile Web for "save time or waste time" activities. The mobile Web is familiar to them.

The sites they search for and choose to interact with are most likely the same sites they search for and interact with on the wired Web. So what is the rub? The rub is that the vast majority of the sites that subscribers are dialing up on these wonder devices are not properly adapted for the mobile environment. The result can be a very poor user experience. Sometimes it is just a plain mess. It's kind of hard to build an audience for those drooling marketers to exploit on the back of a mess.

There is an army of folks out there who believe that attempting to squeeze a Web site designed for a 1024 x 768 computer screen down onto the tiny "third screen" of a mobile handset will not yield the optimal user experience.

Wired Web sites need to be adapted for the mobile environment. Adaptation covers all aspects of the wired-to-mobile experience: proper content selection, content sizing, introduction of mobile-only content, navigation flow, URL (uniform resource locator), etc. There are a lot of decisions to be made, and no shortage of opinions. There are also no absolutes. This is a fantastic time for experimentation.

As handsets are now shipped chock full of audio and video capabilities, as network speeds improve almost quarterly, as mobile search becomes more accessible and as new business models and near-ubiquitous reach attract top-tier creative talent to mobile content development, the opportunity to establish a brand identity in mobile has never been more compelling.

To that end, here are the five golden rules of attracting and maintaining a mobile web audience:


Your mobile Web site must load quickly. Get that site under 8k. It is the key size to assure a positive user experience on all major carriers in North America.
Your site must be engaging. Just because you have built a "lite site," it doesn't mean it needs to be a long scroll of just plain text. Size your photos, paginate your articles and rotate your content. Make your site dynamic. As your wired site content updates, so should your mobile site. There is a lot that can be done to assure that the positive experience your visitors have on the wired Web will carry over to the mobile Web.

The site must be easy to find. The concept of .mobi is a strong one, but not a compelling one. Sure, having every one of those 2 billion mobile phone owners get the memo to type .mobi at the end of their favorite URL would do the trick, but it is not going to happen. Publishers want to use their wired URL -- end of story. They have zero interest in developing and marketing a new URL to attach to their brand. They also don't want to lose the years of SEO (search engine optimization) credit they have built up in their wired URL. An intelligent re-director that identifies the incoming visitor query as mobile and presents the adapted version of the wired site will do the trick.

Buy your keywords now. The keyword game is surprisingly untapped in mobile. Register with the usual suspects' search engines for cross-carrier representation as well as with the carrier white-label search providers and make sure they know to present your beautiful new adapted mobile Web site, not their poorly transcoded version of what they think your mobile site should look like! That is a big pitfall to avoid.
Integrate the ad units into the site build from the get-go. You got it. Those advertisers you just brought on-board to market to your visitors on your shiny new mobile Web site need to be properly mobilized as well. With a baked-in ad solution you will assure yourself that your ad partner will provide properly placed and formatted mobile advertisements for your site. Take advantage of integration opportunity to minimize key strokes and page loads to get to ad landing pages. Make sure all ads you run on your new site have a "back" button to give your visitors the option to return to where they came from.

The interaction with an advertisement on your site is as much a reflection of your brand as it is the advertiser's. Take pains to review the ads submitted for your approval. Make sure they have a compelling call-to-action and follow the Mobile Marketing Association's guidelines, as well as the previous mentioned rules in regards to a compelling and properly constructed landing page. Make sure key strokes are limited, field entries are minimized and that you have explored the new destination to which your visitors are being whisked away.

The results of properly formatted sites with adapted content and mobilized advertising are already being realized. Off-carrier deck site traffic is growing by leaps and bounds across all categories. Click-through rates are off the charts, hovering between 3 and 6 percent for premier advertiser campaigns (standard wired Web click-through rates hover between 0.1 and 0.2 percent).

Search accessibility will continue to improve and become front-and-center with this year's holiday season handset turnover. Of course, the level of awareness and conversation about the mobile Web has skyrocketed thanks to Mr. Jobs and our friends at Apple. It is an exciting cocktail of converging interests and approaches, and clearly an advertising medium worth exploring today.

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The online retail game has changed -- again. Your customers' expectations are increasing. Will you meet them? Or will you miss them?

A revolution is taking place online. New Web technologies are providing a better, more interactive shopping experience and putting the power of shared community in your customers' hands. A new era of competition has begun in which a rising tide will no longer lift all boats. Web 2.0, thought of mainly for its technological advancements, may be best remembered by retailers for the e-commerce ultimatum it provokes: Meet customers' growing expectations or lose them to another site.

Web 2.0 technologies provide for heightened levels of interaction on Web sites, and consumers expect that same level of interaction when shopping online. These new and better experiences encompass online collaboration, social networking and a closer simulation of an in-store shopping experience.

This shift is already being seen in measurement tactics, as metrics trackers start to take into account time spent on a Web site rather than just the traditional count of page views. Recently, Nielsen//NetRatings added both "total minutes" and "total sessions" metrics to its service because Web pages that rely on Ajax technology or present streaming media can serve new content without reloading individual pages.

This fundamental change in measuring Web sites signals that new technologies are not just a fad for Web sites to experiment with, but that they are behind a lasting transformation that is altering the way people shop online. With interactive tools such as Ajax and various forms of instant consumer feedback, shopping turns into a conversation, rather than a retailer-controlled monologue. Retailers should take advantage of these trends and technologies to improve their shopping and checkout experience.

Today's shoppers are too impatient to use a site where you click and wait for the next page to load. Ajax (which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) allows single-page browsing and checkout processes, which save time and reduce shopper frustration and shopping cart abandonment.

Ajax technology pulls relevant data forward seamlessly, providing shoppers with a smooth, consistent view and sense of interaction, rather than the experience of clicking on or through multiple pages to accomplish a task. It can be used for the basic shopping components of a site such as product pages, as well as for more engaging features of shopping online like recommended or recently viewed products, user-generated reviews, product demonstrations, assembling outfits and tagging products with additional keywords.

This nimble, data-driven user interface provides as-it-happens responsiveness to improve the user's experience. In a sense, it breaks the "grid" of the static Web site page by offering relevant suggestions and intuitive options based on the consumer's choices as expressed by their online actions. Ajax introduces a sense of play and personality and optimizes screen real estate without crowding the goods.

Shoppers can now look for ways to pair up similar items, even those that are from different brands or sites. Mashups, one of the newest incarnations of Web 2.0 technology, are created using an application programming interface (API) to access the functionality of one Web site to integrate it into the structure of another Web site while a customer is browsing.

For example, 6pm.com, which Zappos recently acquired, uses a mashup to pair shoes with handbags, providing consumers with the option to accessorize. Customer reviews and comments on the pairings appeal to the very human need to know "what everybody else is doing." Reviews can move your shoppers from consideration to purchase.

While mashups can pair similar items from different sites, smart retailers make it easy for consumers to compare and save items they are interested in while shopping on a single site.

Shopping carts are often used to store items for later consideration, but it's not always possible to retrieve the contents of a shopping cart on a follow up shopping visit, or to compare items being considered in a single visit. People shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, for example, wouldn't take each item they are considering to the counter one at a time and then go back for more merchandise, but rather would gather items together as they browse through the store.

By offering an online "thinking about" function, shoppers are able to consider products side by side just as they do in-store. With the contents of the "thinking about" area in plain view, shoppers can make an informed decision about which items make the final cut for purchase. Because the shopper doesn't leave the page, the items they're thinking about stay in clear view and top of mind. If the shopper leaves the site and returns at another time, any items that remain in the "thinking about" section will be there on the next visit.

Similarly, an "add to cart" function can be made available so that when shoppers are ready to purchase, they go to the shopping cart (or bag) and drag items into it from "thinking about." Then, the shopping cart can offer more detailed images of products, provide more product information, even stock and inventory details and let shoppers easily edit their order.

For years, retailers have ignored data that say user reviews are valuable because the content was difficult to manage and they feared the impact of unfavorable customer comments. Part of the Web 2.0 creed of meeting consumers' growing expectations is allowing their actions to have an impact on your site.

By granting some control to your customers through reviews and tagging, you're actually creating a focus group that shows what they care about and what features or products you may want to showcase to drive sales . While only about 1 percent of online shoppers create this original content, 90 percent of them read it. What you learn from the reviews, while sometimes painful, can be good for business in the long run. Two of retail's biggest players -- Staples and Wal-Mart -- recently announced they'll use customer reviews on their sites, validating the trend.

This growing social aspect of Web 2.0 will continue to influence the way people perceive your site. When walking down a busy city street looking for a place to eat, most people will gravitate to a location with customers already inside, rather than an empty restaurant. Again, "what is everyone else doing?" Similarly, Web sites with an absence of customer community activity may soon feel "empty" compared to those that feel "alive" with activity and communication.

Online retailers must continue to assess Web 2.0 technologies and incorporate the functionality that helps them deliver the experience sought by their customer base. These new technologies help create online brand immersion, increase customer loyalty and drive repeat sales. In the calmer waters of today's e-commerce marketplace, it will take effective use of these new technologies to stay afloat.

Gadget freaks can finally drop their US$500 to $600 on the long-awaited iPhone. One of the largest product launches in electronics history, the sleek device has stirred huge expectations among consumers -- higher, certainly, than for standard cell phones you get for free with a two-year agreement. After all, the iPhone is "the Internet in your pocket" combined with an iPod and, of course, a phone.

Notwithstanding the clever finger-flicked interface and general engineering triumph, the iPhone could turn out to be a colossal disappointment. The iPhone experience is a delicate one, hinging not only on the network the device is connected to at a given instant, but on the Web sites and applications the iPhone is hitting.

The network issues are well-documented. When the phones are using the EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) network, they're slow. On WiFi they crank. The dirty little secret, however, is on the interface side: Although the iPhone's "viewport" displays what appear to be regular Web sites -- not stripped-down wireless versions -- Web site owners need to optimize their sites for the iPhone so they deliver the same high-quality experiences that Mac and PC users enjoy. If this doesn't happen, the iPhone could be the next Newton.

Although the iPhone carries a Safari browser, there are a few things that are important to know. First, the fact that a Web site works in a popular browser such as Internet Explorer or even Apple's standard Safari browser is no guarantee that the site will work well on the iPhone. There's even a chance the site won't work at all. The iPhone's browser is a special version of Safari just for the iPhone. It lacks, for example, support for Flash and Java , technologies heavily used on business Web sites.

Second, it has portrait and landscape modes offering two very different experiences of the same Web site. Third, iPhone users are often looking at less of a Web page than they would on a desktop computer -- they will be doing a lot of zooming in and out. Fourth, the iPhone lacks the processing power of a desktop, meaning rich applications like those made in Ajax (which the iPhone does support) will challenge the device.

Fifth, users lack precision input control because their input tool is a finger, not a mouse. Sixth, the iPhone examines Web pages for carefully sized blocks that fill the screen when finger-tapped (that's the zooming effect). Seventh, forms are tricky because they don't always automatically summon the iPhone virtual keyboard.

Complicating matters is the fact that when the keyboard is summoned for forms, it consumes useful window real estate. Finally, traditional Web optimization techniques -- like "connection parallelism," or feigning multiple hosts to accelerate downloading over broadband connections -- would potentially degrade iPhone performance when connected via the EDGE network. (Fortunately, if you know which network they're using, you can divert users accordingly.)

As is becoming obvious, the iPhone experience will be a unique one from both the user and Web development perspectives. E-commerce executives will want to make their Web sites iPhone-friendly sooner rather than later, since people buying the iPhone -- well-heeled early adopters -- are by definition high-value potential customers for most businesses.

Organizations that want to sell to iPhone users will need to make a few obvious changes right off the bat. They'll need to design their sites in blocks, and keep them small enough to make zoomed text readable on the iPhone. They'll have to keep links far enough apart from one another to make them "clickable" with a fat finger. They'll have to deal with forms that aren't summoning the iPhone virtual keyboard or obscuring important content.

That's just for starters. To fully capitalize on the iPhone user base, e-commerce executives need a way to systematically evaluate the iPhone user experience on their sites and quickly identify areas that need to be fixed. Specifically, they need real-time data detailing:

-how many iPhones are hitting their sites;
-which are on EDGE and which are on WiFi;
-performance, including response time, site availability, transaction availability and consistency;
-perceived performance (Have objects in the visible portion of the page loaded at least?);
-the user experience for both landscape and portrait modes;
-pages/transactions most often abandoned;
-overall visitor satisfaction; and
-the business impact of any performance problems.

E-commerce executives need to track this information by user domain, customer segment (e.g., silver, gold and platinum), geography and connection type. They need to see which Web applications are working, which are not, what content is visible in real users' viewports and what is typically off-screen. They need to see how Ajax -- the Steve Jobs-mandated approach for third-party applications -- is performing for EDGE and WiFi users. They need to gauge the impact of factors like zoom settings and first-time/repeat visitor status.

When they have all this information, e-commerce executives need to go one important step further and analyze how these performance variables are affecting their business results through dashboards that track business processes like online sales conversion or shopping cart abandonment. Users need to be able to drill down for in-depth data on what may be responsible for a problem, and then quickly resolve it. Before deploying a revised or new page or transaction, developers need to see it work on the iPhone platform and load-test it.

Gomez, Mercury Interactive, CA and Coradiant are among the companies that offer variations of Web-application performance-monitoring capabilities.

Either way, with a comprehensive iPhone optimization strategy, e-commerce executives and Web developers can take control of the entire iPhone application experience and, for those who care, support the success of the device. Then e-commerce executives can sit back and -- like gadget freaks everywhere -- start anticipating the next generation of the iPhone.

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