The use of browser tricks in an effort to keep a visitor captive at a site, often by disabling the "Back" button or generated repeated pop-up windows.

Source: Emarketer

E-mail is our generation's approach to communication. It's a great way to be assertive, aggressive, and creative without actually having to speak to someone. It's a way to keep in touch with your family, your friends from around the world, or your classmates from a time long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away. E-mail has become a part of us--a part of our everyday life. It's rare to stumble across a contact without an email address. Heaven forbid it goes away. What did we do before email? Talk? Eek! The mere idea of actually calling that client or that friend from long ago is all but seen as archaic. Why do that when we can email first and break the ice? No rejection. No problem.

In our business, e-mail is also a way to be a powerful marketing tool. Sure, at first it was all the rage, and then SPAM hit the industry big time and took the marketing factor down a couple of notches. But e-mail is nothing to put on the back burner. It is still a medium that gets results and why shouldn't it? The e-mail audience is astounding and the places and times they check e-mail throughout a 24-hour period are just as amazing. According to America Online surveys, conducted in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation, as reported by Emarketer, users rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend about an hour a day on e-mail and that 77% of them have more than one e-mail account. That translates to an essential part of everyday life, concludes the report. Check these figures out:

• 41% of Americans check e-mail first thing in the morning
• 18% check e-mail right after dinner
• 14% check e-mail right when they get home from work
• 14% check e-mail right before they go to bed
• 40% of e-mail users have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night

More than one in four say they can't go more than two to three days without checking e-mail. And it's checked everywhere:

• In bed (23%)
• In class (12%)
• In a business meeting (8%)
• At a Wi-Fi hotspot (6%)
• At the beach or pool (6%)
• In the bathroom (4%)
• While driving (4%)
• In church (1%)

The survey found that 61% of e-mail users employed outside the home check their personal e-mail at work an average of three times a day.

• 47% check personal e-mail at work
• 47% check it sporadically throughout the day
• 25% check it first thing when they arrive at work
• 18% check it at lunchtime
• 8% during an afternoon break
• 2% right before heading home.

Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day, and 60% of all e-mail users check their e-mail while on vacation.

The market is still there for e-mail campaigns and as our creative industry grows more and more each day and comes up with fresher and more entertaining ways to capture the attention of a user, a more effective e-mail campaign can be presented and delivered that best suits the client.

MarketingVox.com
21 Jun 2005

In an effort to match Google and Yahoo offerings, MSN has launched a beta of its local-search function, integrating mapping and satellite image technology to help searchers pinpoint the locations they want to find, CNET writes. The new tools will offer up White Pages and Yellow Pages directory information from specific cities and regions. Each search result will come up as a numbered pin on a map from Microsoft MapPoint Web Service, and TerraServer-USA aerial images will also appear, if available.

Microsoft said its local search offering will eventually incorporate a technology called Virtual Earth that will allow results from multiple searches to be layered atop a single map, the AP reports. Localized information can make online search more practical for consumer and will therefore drive online ads from local smaller businesses - and larger ones, too, of course.

The local-search market is lucrative and relatively untapped. Sales of local online advertising is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2009, with $3.4 billion of that from search engines, the Kelsey Group has forecast. That compares with $670 million in 2004, with $162 million from search engines.



The Louvre's web site has long been a treasure trove for art lovers, but the site's recent relaunch has moved the museum's online presence into a class of its own.

Launched in 1995, the Louvre's web site was one of the first collections of artwork placed online by a major museum. Back in the mid-90s, most web sites were crude and relatively sparse compared to what we expect today. Ten years ago, the Louvre set a new standard by digitizing thousands of its famous paintings, drawings and other artwork and making it freely accessible online.

This summer, the Louvre's web site has been completely revamped, and it's nothing short of stunning in both design and scope. In addition to adding tens of thousands of additional artworks to an already vast online collection, the museum's web site has also added powerful search and browse tools as well as numerous interactive features.

Start by exploring the museum's permanent collection of over 35,000 works and 140,000 drawings. In the physical museum, this collection is displayed in over 60,000 square meters of exhibition space. On the web, you can access it all via your own computer.

The collection covers Western art from the medieval period to 1848, formative works from the civilizations of the ancient world and works of Islamic art. The collection is grouped into eight Departments, each offering information about the scope of a collection, its historical and geographical setting and how works are selected for inclusion.

More than 1,500 works are accompanied by expert commentaries accessible in progressive levels of depth and detail. Web pages are designed to expand with additional information when you click a link, a nice design touch.

Another cool view of the permanent collection is offered by the Kaleidoscope feature, which organizes your virtual tour by visual themes. This makes it easy to take in all works with historical scenes, flora and fauna or portraits-there are dozens of these kaleidoscopic themes to choose from.

Alternately, you can explore the museum via virtual tours, which offer 360 degree views of many of the museum's actual galleries. These require Quicktime, and once loaded you can use your mouse to rotate the view around a gallery. Be sure to click the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the view-this launches the view in a larger pop-up window.

Serious art researchers will want to check out the museum's online databases, which offer more detailed information as well as advanced search capabilities, although these databases are only available in French.

And of course, no visit to the Louvre would be complete without a look at the Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, aka The Mona Lisa.

There's a lot more available on the Louvre's new site-if you love art, be prepared to spend countless hours exploring this masterpiece of a web site. And for a fascinating look behind the scenes of the famous museum, visit the history of the Louvre section of the web site.

Want to explore other online museums? Check out Musee, a speciality search engine that has information about nearly 37,000 museums worldwide organized into over 100 different types of museum.