Datasheet

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Part I Laying the Foundation
engage in some kind of fund-raising activity that is secondary to their main purpose. With purely
commercial sites, there is never any doubt — the main thrust is simply ‘‘Buy our product or
service’’ or ‘‘Support our sponsors.’’
The Barnes & Noble Web site (
www.bn.com), shown in Figure 1-10, goes straight to the point.
It’s there for one thing and one thing only — to enable you to find and buy books and music.
Simply accepting advertising or tossing in a few links to a bookstore doesn’t magically transform
another kind of site into a commercial Web site. There are few sites in any category that do not
attempt to raise some money (often unsuccessfully) by a half-hearted foray into banner ads.
Sometimes, especially for sponsored sites or those which are participants in an affiliates program,
the ‘‘buy’’ message is so subtle that the commercial nature of the site isn’t obvious to the casual
visitor. Many times, there is no mention at all of any sales intent, but the site’s links lead to
sponsored pages.
See Chapter 24 for more information on affiliates programs and advertising.
FIGURE 1-8
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Web site has a full explanation of the structure, goals,
and functions of the organization.
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