Online Commerce. The panacea for lowering business overhead. Basically, the buying and selling of goods over the internet. The implementation of this has been slow in coming as the issue of security has been in everyone's mind. This problem is being solved with the implementation of encryption, digital certificates, SET Protocol, and SSL. Examples of successful ventures so far include Amazon.Com, Cisco, and Dell Computers.

Since IRC is only text based, it is hard to tell when someone is joking or being sarcastic, verses when they are being serious. Emoticons developed to let the viewer know what is going on when they say something. The common ones are :-)  :-(  ;-(   ;-) but there are many others. You can tell that the ones listed are, happy, sad, very sad, and the last one means a joke or sarcasm.

To transform information into a sector code to prevent anyone except the intended party from reading the contents. Encrypted files, before being decrypted, appear as a string of babble.

This means a complete turn-key solution to creating a web presence. It would include the creation of the website, creating and hosting a domain, registering in search engines, hooking into any necessary back office solution, i.e. database, credit card verification, etc., maintenance of the website, and any other activities necessary for the web site.

An interim connection between the Internet and a companies Intranet. The best way to define this is to give an example of one. I am a company that sells widgets. I create an Extranet so that my clients can log in, through the Internet, and check on my supply of widgets, their account information, and any other data they might need access to. Basically, the clients get the data they need anytime without giving them complete access to my Intranet.