Chapter 2

The Internet, the Web, and

Electronic Commerce
Pengpeng Liang (梁鹏鹏)
[email protected]
What does this chapter cover?
§ Things you need to know to be prepared for this
ever-changing digital world
§ Impact – how internet technology is changing your world
§ Hardware – how to connect your life to the Internet
including Wi-Fi, smartphones, tablets
§ Applications – how to get ahead using social networking,
streaming technology and cloud computing
Learning objectives
§ Explain the origins of the Internet and the Web.
§ Explain how to access the Web using providers and browsers.
§ Compare different web utilities, including plug-ins, filters, file transfer utilities,
and Internet security suites
§ Discuss Internet communications, including e-mail, text messaging, instant
messaging, social networking, blogs, microblogs, Webcasts, podcasts, and
wikis.
§ Describe search tools, including search engines and specialized search
engines.
§ Evaluate the accuracy of information on the Web.
§ Discuss electronic commerce, including B2C, C2C, B2B, and security issues.
§ Describe cloud computing, including the three-way interaction of clients,
Internet, and service providers.
§ Describe the Internet of Things (IoT) and the continuing development of the
Internet to allow everyday objects to send and receive data
Introduction
§ The Internet is often referred to as the Information
Superhighway because it connects millions of people
across the world
§ Unlike a typical highway, the Internet moves ideas,
data, and information through networks
§ The Web provides an easy-to-use interface to Internet
resources that has become an everyday tool
§ Competent end users need to be aware of the resources
available on the Internet and the Web and how to access
them
The Internet

§ The Internet is a large global network that connects

together smaller networks all over the globe
§ The Internet was launched in 1969
§ US funded project to develop a national computer network
§ ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network)
§ Physical Network made up of wires , cables ,
satellites and rules
 Common Internet Uses

§ Communicating
§ e-mail, photos, videos
§ Discussions
§ Online Shopping
§ Searching
§ Virtual libraries
§ Education or e-learning
§ Entertainment
Subscription services
§ Provide access to their library of videos for a fee.
There are also some free service providers or free
for part of their programs. You can select and view
as many of these videos as you want
§ IQIY (爱奇艺) https://www.iqiyi.com/
Subscription services(cont’d)
§ Tencent Video (腾讯视频) https://v.qq.com/
Subscription services (cont’d)
§ Youku (优酷) http://www.youku.com/
 Subscription services
services (cont’d)
(cont’d)
§ CCTV
CCTV( (央视网)http://www.cctv.com/
)http://www.cctv.com/

Pengpeng Liang ( ) Chapter 2: The Internet, the Web, and Electronic Commerce 13
Subscription services(cont’d)
§ Music 163 (网易云音乐) https://music.163.com/
Subscription services(cont’d)
§ QQ Music (QQ音乐) https://y.qq.com/
Subscription services(cont’d)
§ Hulu
§ Amazon prime
§ CNN, CBS News and NBC
§ Spotify offer online access to large music libraries
Pay-as-you-go services
§ Provide online access to specific titles in their
libraries for a fee.
§ Amazon
§ iTunes
 The Web
§ The World Wide Web (Web)or WWW was introduced in
1991 at CERN(Center for European Nuclear
Research)
§ Prior to the web, the Internet was all text, no graphics,
animations, sound or video
§ It provided a multimedia interface to resource available
on the Internet
§ Web 1.0: linking existing information
§ Web 2.0: more dynamic content creation and social interaction
(Weibo, Moment(朋友圈), Facebook)
§ Web 3.0: it identifies relationship between data
§ Web3 is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates
concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based
economics. (Wikipedia)
 Internet & Web further clarified

§ Internet is the actual physical network comprised

of wires, cables, satellites, and rules
§ The Web is a multimedia interface to resources
available on the internet
 Internet Access

§ Common way to access the Internet is through a

Commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP)
§ Provide a connection for individuals to access the
Internet
§ Use telephone lines, cable, and wireless connections
§ Popular ISP in China
§ China Mobile (中国移动)
§ China Unicom (中国联通)
§ China Telecom (中国电信)
 Browsers

§ Programs that provide access to Web resources

§ Allow you to explore the web
§ Popular Web browsers include:
§ Mozilla Firefox
§ Google Chrome
§ Apple Safari
§ Microsoft Internet Explorer
§ Microsoft Edge
Browsers (cont’d)
§ 360 security browser https://browser.360.cn/se/
§ QQ browser https://browser.qq.com/
§ Baidu browser https://liulanqi.baidu.com/
 URLs
§ Address or location of the
resource must be specified
§ URL(uniform resource locator)
§ Uniform Resource Locators
§ Has at least two parts
§ Protocol
§ Domain name
§ Top-level domain (TLD)
§ Identifies the type of organization
 HTML and Hyperlinks

§ Browsers interpret HTML formatting instructions

§ Hypertext Markup Language
§ Display document as a Web page
§ Hyperlinks (links)
§ Connect to other web pages
§ Text files
§ Graphic images
§ Audio and Video Clips
 Interactive Web Sites

§ Technologies used to provide highly interactive

and animated websites
§ Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
§ JavaScript
§ AJAX
§ Applets
§ Mobile Browsers
 Technologies
§ Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - files inserted into an HTML
document that control the appearance of Web pages including
layout, colors, and fonts, helps to ensure that related Web
pages have a consistent presentation.
§ JavaScript - used within HTML documents to trigger interactive
features, such as opening new browser windows and checking
information entered in online forms.
§ AJAX (short for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML") -
advanced use of JavaScript used to create interactive
Web sites that respond quickly.
§ Applets - programs that can be downloaded quickly and run by
most browsers, used to present animation, display graphics,
provide interactive games.
Technologies (cont’d)
§ http://ml.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/~jun/index.shtml
§ CSS
§ https://mail.qq.com/cgi-bin/loginpage
§ JavaScript
§ AJAX
§ Interactive webpage games
§ Applet
Tips
§ Bookmarks
§ Shortcuts
§ Extensions/Add-Ons
§ Configure
Web Utilities

§ Utilities are programs that make computing

easier
§ Web utilities are specialized utility programs
that make using the Internet and the Web
easier and safer
§ Some utilities are browser-related programs that
either become part of the browser or are
executed from the browser
Plug-ins

Automatically start and operate as part of the browser

§ Many Web sites require plug-ins to experience their complete
content
§ Adobe’s Acrobat Reader
§ Flash Player from Adobe
§ QuickTime, from Apple
§ Windows Media Player
§ RealPlayer from RealNetworks
§ Some are included in today’s browsers and operating systems
§ Others must be installed before they can be used by the browser
Filters

§ Access to selected sites can be blocked

§ These programs can monitor use, and generate reports
detailing the total time spent on the Internet and the
time spent at individual Web sites, chat groups, and
newsgroups
§ Parents usually want them to keep their children
from roaming the Internet unrestricted
 File Transfer Utilities

§ Allow for the transferring of files across the Internet

§ Downloading
§ Uploading
§ Three popular types:
§ FTP
§ Web-based file transfer services
§ BitTorrent
FTP

§ File transfer protocol (FTP) and secure file

transfer protocol (SFTP)
§ Allow you to efficiently copy files to and from your
computer across the Internet
§ Frequently used for uploading changes to a
website hosted by an Internet service provider
 Web-based file transfer services

§ Make use of a Web browser to upload and

download files
§ Eliminates the need for any custom software to
be installed
 BitTorrent

§ Distributes file transfers across many different

computers
§ A single file might be located on dozens of
individual computers
§ Well suited for transferring very large files
§ Unfortunately, BitTorrent technology has often been
used for distributing unauthorized copies of
copyrighted music and video
Recap
§ The difference between the Internet and the web?
§ What are the three web generations?
§ List and describe five of the most common uses of
the Internet and the web.
§ What is the function of an ISP, a browser and
mobile browser?
§ What are URLs, HTML, hyperlinks?
§ What are web utilities?
§ What are plug-ins and filters used for?
§ What are file transfer utilities? Downloading?
Uploading?
 Internet Security Suites

§ Collection of utility programs designed to protect your

security and privacy while on the Internet
§ Protects your computer from viruses, controls
spam, and provides filters
§ Cost of purchasing a suite is typically less than
purchasing each of the functions separately
§ McAfee’s Internet Security
§ Symantec’s Norton Internet Security
Internet Security Suites (cont’d)
§ Two free China Internet security software
§ 360 https://www.360.cn/
§ Jinshan http://www.ijinshan.com/
 Communication

§ Communication is the most popular Internet

activity
§ Personal level
§ Friends and family can stay in contact with one another even
when separated by thousands of miles
§ Business level
§ A standard way to stay in touch with suppliers, employees
and customers
E-mail

§ The transmission of an electronic message over the

Internet
§ Can contain graphics, photos, and file attachments
§ To send and receive e-mail you need a computer
with an Internet connection and an e-mail account
 Basic elements of an e-mail
§ Header
§ Address – the address of the person receiving the message
§ Subject – one line description to present the topic of the message
§ Attachments – files that can be sent along with the e-mail but are
separate from the message
§ Message
§ Signature – provides additional information about the sender
 E-mail accounts

§ Client-based e-mail accounts

§ require a special program known as an e-mail client
to be installed on your computer
§ Microsoft’s Outlook , Apple’s Mail
§ Web-based e-mail accounts
§ do not require an e-mail program to be installed on
your computer. Most ISPs offer Webmail services
§ Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Hotmail, and Yahoo!s Yahoo!
Mail
 Spam

§ Unsolicited and unwanted e-mail

§ Computer viruses or destructive programs are often
attached to unsolicited email
§ CAN-SPAM (short for Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) requires
every marketing-related e-mail provide an opt-out
option
§ Spam blockers / spam filters use a variety of
approaches to identify and control spam
China Email service providers
§ QQ mail https://mail.qq.com/

§ 163 mail https://mail.163.com/

Tips to reduce spam
§ Keep a low profile
§ Many spammers collect e-mail addresses from personal
web pages, social networking sites, and message boards
§ Use caution when giving out address
§ Many companies collect and sell e-mail addresses to
spammers
§ Do not ever respond to spam
§ Many are a trick to validate active e-mail address
§ Use antispam and filter options
 Messaging

§ Text messaging / texting

§ sending short electronic messages between mobile devices
§ Instant messaging (IM)
§ Extension of email that provides direct, live communication
between two or more people
§ To use, register with an instant messaging service provider
§ Specify a list of friends
§ Special software notifies you when your friends are online
§ Includes video conferencing, file sharing, and remote assistance
§ Popular instant messaging services
§ Facebook Messenger
§ WeChat
 Social Networking

§ Most significant Web 2.0 applications

§ Connecting people and organizations that share a
common interest or activity
§ Fastest-growing use of the Internet
§ Typically provide a wide array of tools that
facilitate meeting, communicating, and sharing
Facebook
§ Initially launched by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard
University in 2004
§ Three basic categories of users
§ Individuals
§ Create Facebook Profiles including photos, lists of personal
interests, contact information and other personal information
§ Businesses
§ Create Facebook Pages to promote products and services
§ Communities
§ Individuals who share a common interest often crate Facebook
Groups. Typically, groups are organized around topics, events
or ideas.
Facebook (cont’d)
WeChat (微信)
§ Multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile
payment app developed by Tencent
§ First released in 2011, it became the world's largest
standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion
monthly active users
§ Text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging,
broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video
conferencing, sharing of photographs and videos,
and location sharing
Google+ & LinkedIn
§ Google+
§ Launched in 2011
§ Circles for grouping individuals according to common
interests or other criteria
§ Hangouts for communicating with up to 10 people at a
time
§ Offers integration with other Google services including
Google Docs, Chat and Calendar
§ Shut down for business and personal use on April 2,
2019
§ LinkedIn
§ Launched in 2003 and has become the premier business-
oriented social networking site
China Social Networking
Services
§ QQ Zone (QQ空间) https://qzone.qq.com/
China Social Networking
Services (cont’d)
§ Renren (人人网) http://browse.renren.com/index.jsp
Blogs
§ Blog postings are time-stamped and arranged with
the newest item first
§ Readers of these sites are allowed to comment
§ Some blogs are like online diaries with personal
information, others focus on information about a
hobby or theme
§ Two of the most widely used are Blogger and
WordPress
§ The most popular China blog site is Sina Blog (新
浪博客)
§ http://blog.sina.com.cn/
Blogs (cont’d)
Microblogs
§ Publishes short sentences that take only a few
seconds to write rather than long stories or posts
like a traditional blog
§ Designed to keep friends and other contacts up to
date on your interests and activities
§ The most popular microblogging site is Twitter
(now X)
§ The most popular China microblogging site is
Weibo https://www.weibo.com/
Microblogs (cont’d)
 Webcasts and Podcasts
• deliver media content such as music and movies
over the Internet to your computer
• Webcasts
• Use streaming technology
• After a Webcast has been completed there are no files
remaining on your computer
• Can broadcast live events
• Youtube, Bilibili, Douyin (TikTok)
• Podcast
• Audio programs delivered over the internet
• Apple Podcast, Spotify, 喜⻢拉雅（Himalaya）

64
 Wikis
• Wiki – a website specially designed to allow
visitors to use their browser to add, edit or
delete the site’s contents
• Supports collaborative writing
• Wikipedia

65
 Search Tools

§ Over twenty billion pages and more are being added to

the Internet daily
§ A number of search services or search providers
help users locate the needed information
§ Maintain huge databases of the pages on the Internet and
Web
§ Search tools use special programs called spiders to
continually look for new information and update
databases
 Search Engines
§ Search engines
§ specialized programs that help locate information on the
Web and the Internet
§ Searches for information based on keywords and phrases
§ Hits : return of sites that contain keyword or phrases
§ China Search engines
§ Baidu www.baidu.com
§ Sogou www.sogou.com

§ Specialized search engines

§ Focus on subject-specific Web sites
 Content evaluation

§ Not all information found on the Web is accurate

§ Authority – is the author an expert?
§ Accuracy – was the information critically reviewed?
§ Objectivity – does the author have a personal bias?
§ Currency – is the information up to date? Are the site's
links operational? If not, the site is most likely not being
actively maintained
Electronic Commerce
§ Also known as e-commerce
§ Buying and selling over the Internet
§ Provides incentives for both buyers and sellers
§ Buyers can purchase goods and services at any time and
any location when connected to the Internet
§ Sellers can eliminate the costs associated with owning
and operating a retail outlet
§ No in-store inventory and products are shipped directly
from warehouse
Electronic Commerce (cont’d)
§ Disadvantages
§ The inability to provide immediate delivery of goods
§ The inability to “try on” prospective purchases
§ Questions related with the security of online payments
B2C

§ Business-to-Consumer E-commerce
§ Sale of products and services to the general public or
end users
§ Fastest growing type of e-commerce
§ Three most widely used B2C applications
§ Online Banking (e-banking)
§ Online stock trading (e-trading)
§ Online shopping (e-retailing)
§ Amazon
§ Jingdong (京东)
§ Tmall (天猫)
§ Taobao (淘宝)
Recap
• Communication
• E-mail (Client-based, Web-based), Messaging, Social
network, Webcasts, Podcast, Wiki
• Search tools
• Spider
• Content evaluation
• Electronic Commerce

74
C2C and B2B
§ Consumer-to-Consumer E-commerce (C2C)
§ Individuals selling to each other
§ Web auctions
§ Sellers post descriptions of products at a website and buyers submit
bids electronically
§ Ebay.com
§ Taobao (淘宝)

§ Business-to-business (B2B)
§ Sale of a product or service from one business to
another
§ a manufacturer -supplier relationship
§ For example, a furniture manufacturer requires raw materials such as
wood, paint and varnish
Amazon
§ An American multinational technology company
based in Seattle, Washington
§ Founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, on
July 5, 1994
§ Started as an online marketplace for books but
expanded to sell electronics, software, video games,
apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelery
§ Two-day delivery service, Amazon Prime, had
surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide
Taobao (淘宝)
§ A Chinese online shopping website, headquartered
in Hangzhou, and owned by Alibaba
§ The world's biggest e-commerce website
§ Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-
consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for
small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to
open online stores
JD (京东)
§ A Chinese e-commerce company headquartered in
Beijing
§ One of the two massive B2C online retailers in
China by transaction volume and revenue, a
member of the Fortune Global 500 and a major
competitor to Alibaba-run Tmall
§ JD.com has invested in high tech and AI delivery
through drones, autonomous technology and robots,
and possesses the largest drone delivery system,
infrastructure and capability in the world
Pinduoduo (拼多多)
§ The largest interactive e-commerce platform in
China and in the world
§ It has pioneered several new trends including social
e-commerce, team purchase
§ Have close to 600 million users and recorded 1
trillion yuan in gross merchandise volume (GMV)
in under five years.
§ Getting to the same scale took Alibaba 10 years
Security

§ Fast, secure, and reliable payment methods for

purchased goods
§ Providing convenient ways to provide required
information such as mailing addresses and credit
card information
§ Two options
§ Credit card
§ Credit card fraud is a major concern for both buyers and sellers
§ Digital cash
§ Not as convenient as credit card purchases
§ But is more secure
PayPal
§ An American company operating a worldwide
online payments system that supports online money
transfers and serves as an electronic alternative to
traditional paper methods like checks and money
orders
Alipay (支付宝)
§ A third-party mobile and online payment platform,
established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004
by Alibaba Group
§ Alipay overtook PayPal as the world's largest
mobile payment platform in 2013
§ The world's number one mobile payment service
organization
 Cloud Computing
§ Uses the Internet and the Web to Shifts computing
activities from users’ desktops to other computers on the
Internet
§ Frees end-users from owning, maintaining, and
storing software programs and data
§ Three basic components:
§ Clients (end-users)
§ Service providers
§ The Internet
Clients (end-users)

§ Corporations and end users who want access to

data, programs, and storage
§ Access available anywhere and anytime that a
connection to the Internet is available
§ End users do not need to buy, install, and maintain
application programs and data
 Service providers

• Organizations with computers connected to the

Internet that is willing to provide access to software,
data, and storage.
• Providers may charge a fee or it may be free
• Google Apps
 The Internet

§ Provides the connection between the clients and the

providers
§ Two most critical factors determining the efficiency of
cloud computing are:
§ Speed and reliability of the user’s access to the Internet
§ Internet’s capability to provide safe and reliable
transmission of data and programs
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
§ A subsidiary of Amazon providing on-demand
cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals,
companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-
you-go basis
§ As of 2020, AWS comprises more than 175
products and services including computing, storage,
networking, database, analytics, application services,
deployment, management, mobile, developer tools,
and tools for the Internet of Things
 Alibaba Cloud
544,000 orders per second during peak
periods, and 970 petabytes of data
processing volume within the 24-hour
span of the major online shopping event
in 2019
Alibaba Cloud (cont’d)
§ X-Dragon servers can keep producing output that is
linear with the workload despite extremely high
workloads
§ Two proprietary database system, POLARDB and
OceanBase
§ PolarDB uses an architecture that allows you to decouple
and separate computing and storage
§ RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) network
allows remote storage to read and write faster than
local disks
The Internet of Things (IoT)
§ The continuing development of the Internet that
allows everyday objects to send and receive data
over the Internet
§ Example
§ Fitbit is a bracelet that monitors health data and sends
that data to your smartphone or personal webpage
§ A web 3.0 application can
§ Access the Fitbit data
§ Combine that data with other data on the web
§ Process the data
§ Send information back to another device
§ Apple’s Health App
Thank you!