By Alissa Arford-Leyl
Shop Site of the Month
Gustafson Brothers Automotive - Huntington Beach, Calif.
www.gustafsonbros.com
This site has a professional home page design with user-friendly
navigation. The In the News section is particularly interesting.
Web Wise
Secure Transactions
According to an August 1999 survey, The Gallop Organization found that 76 percent of adult Americans say they have access to a computer at either work or home and 59 percent have access to the Internet in at least one of the two locations. With so many people connected, online shopping is quickly becoming the preferred method of buying goods for many Internet-savvy Americans. However, some Internet users are still wary of typing in their credit card number at a Web site.
The April 1999 Internet Demographic Survey, conducted by CommerceNet and Nielsen Media Research, revealed that 55 million of the 92 million Internet users in North America shop online. In this study, the 60 percent of Internet users who said that they shopped online does not necessarily mean that they ordered online. They used the Internet to research and compare prices before making a purchase.
Internet security is always on the mind of an online shopper. If you submit personal information on a secure Web page you should be safe. A secure Web page address begins with the protocol https://, whereas a non-secure Web site displays http://. The https:// protocol means that Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is being used to encrypt data as it travels from your browser to the secure server. Depending on how you have your browser preferences set, a box may pop up telling you that you have entered a secure Web page and the padlock graphic on your browser will lock.
If you place an order on a Web page that is on a secure server, you should be protected from a third party intercepting the data. E-commerce Web sites must purchase certificates from trusted third parties, known as "Certification Authorities (CAs)," to provide secure transactions using SSL (Example: Verisign, http://www. verisign.com). SSL uses a patented algorithm involving public and private keys. The Web browser is given the public key to encrypt the data you have entered. When the data arrives at the secure server, a private key is used to decrypt the transmission.
With Christmas right around the corner, many people will be tempted to purchase gifts online. Try to shop from a recognized online retailer like the ones listed above. Look for secure Web pages (https://) and locked browser padlocks, and your online shopping experience should be completely enjoyable.
Net Numbers
Seventy-two million users access the Internet from home, 46 million from work, 28 million from school and 32 million from other locations.
Source: CommerceNet/Nielsen(http://www.commercenet.com)
ASA Web Ways
AutoInc. Web Site
The new AutoInc. Web site (http://www.autoinc.org) is now online! The new site will feature the current issue, previous issues back to December 1995, advertising details, contributor information, staff profiles, research, surveys, contests and a great new design. Next year we hope to conduct research on the site for use in upcoming AutoInc. articles. Check out the new site now and give us your thoughts in the Feedback section.
Note: Web sites listed in Net Worth do not serve as endorsements of the sites themselves or of any companies or products associated with these sites. In addition, ASA does not verify the factual accuracy and does not necessarily share the opinions expressed by those within these other sites.
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