Your website

In this section I am going to tell you a little about what the internet industry is up to, concerning your web site. some may see these as a good thing, some bad, I am going to tell you what "they" plan and let you make your own mind up about it.

let us start with Microsoft. MS came up with an idea called smart tags ( I understand the idea is rather old, but microsoft planned to run with it ). In future releases of internet explorer, windows XP and possibly more applications, Microsoft planned to display your page on their browsers with "selected" words being underlined with wavy lines. These wavy lines are actually hyperlinks to Microsofts own websites. 

Effectively, microsoft would be adding links to your pages that point away from your site and onto their own and presumably to their sponsors web pages. As an e-business entity you may quite rightly have an issue with your prospects clicking away to your competitors.

However Microsoft have shelved the idea due to increasing pressure from the general public. Do not under-estimate the powerful marketing team at MS.

TopText
TopText have a similar plan with their little program that is downloaded via stealth, instead of underlining the keywords on your pages, they highlight the words instead. If the word is already a hyperlink, then the user gets to choose from a pop-up menu whether he would like to follow the link or proceed to an external destination. Perhaps the worse thing about it is the "follow link" is via a single line in the pop-up and the external link is a short sales pitch. TopText are currently active with this program.

Gator
This is my favourite. Gator is downloaded by most people who regularly download MP3 software. Gator software will display a banner of their choice over any banners on your page. This should bring a quick end to the information portals on the internet that rely on advertisers to place banners within their pages.