Sandor Panton of Top5Jamaica.Com, in association with The Gleaner Online, guides you through what's new, cool and interesting on the Internet. From Jamaica to the wider Caribbean and the rest of the World, this is the 'Week on the Web'. It's more than just having a website.
AS MORE Jamaican companies establish an online presence in the form of an official website, I fully expect 'teething pains' as they learn how to properly integrate these new Internet-related business activities with their typical or traditional activities. It won't be an overnight process, but hopefully they will learn from the mistakes of their First World peers.
The United States, for example, still seems to have companies in the 'learning stages'. A recent study of the 100 largest companies there found that many of them aren't very good at managing any customer interactions at their websites. From the study, 28 of the top 100 companies (including big names such as Morgan Stanley, Viacom and Merck) got a rating of "very poor" in their dealing with online inquiries. Overall, 15 per cent of all online inquiries sent to these companies were ignored.
From my own personal experience, some Jamaican companies, but especially government agencies, would fail this test quite easily. Why do so many of these websites have an email address link for you to contact them, yet it seems no one checks or bothers to respond to these emails? Companies that are serious about business will respond to your email within one, or at most, two working days.
NIGERIAN 4-1-9 SCAMS
For many years now, the popular Nigerian 4-1-9 scam emails have floated around the Internet. You've probably received several of these emails in the past, where, for example, 'the brother of a dead general' wants you to assist him in secretly moving millions of dollars (or gold bars even) out of his country, but using a bank account of yours to do this. There are seemingly endless variations of these emails and methods, and they range from really creative to outright ridiculous. Most people are smart enough to recognise the scam immediately, however many people still end up being tricked and some believe these scams are one of Nigeria's main source of foreign exchange earnings (after oil, natural gas and cocoa).
The big news about these 4-1-9 scams is that the courts in Nigeria recently sentenced a woman to 2 years in jail, after she pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a US$242 million fraud involving a Brazilian bank.
More about the Nigerian scams - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
http://www.dancehall reggae.com - online since
all the way back in 1995, DancehallReggae.Com is undoubtedly the most popular Jamaican music portal online. Upcoming event listings, artiste biographies and an extremely popular and active message board are a few of the more popular sections at DancehallReggae Online.
http://www.sportsjamaica.com - easily the most comprehensive sporting related portal in Jamaican cyberspace.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Mp3 audio file format is now ten years old. On July 14, 1995, researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute voted unanimously to use .MP3 as the file extension for the then new MPEG Audio Layer 3 format. This compressed audio format is now the most popular of its kind in the world.
TOP VIEWS FOR THE JAMAICA GLEANER WEEK ENDING JULY 23, 2005
1. Flooding kills five - St. Bess feels 'Emily's' wrath
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050718/lead/lead1.html - 10,195 views
2. Spared Again
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050717/lead/lead1.html - 7,437 views
3. Seven-year-old girl shot dead by gunman
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050719/lead/lead2.html - 7,393 views
4. Kraal cop cover-up? Two cops charged with planting evidence
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050722/lead/lead1.html - 7,248 views
5. UK bomber's mom defends character
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050722/lead/lead2.html - 6,598 views
TOP VIEWS FOR THE JAMAICA STAR WEEK ENDING JULY 23, 2005
1. Poster Girl
http://www.jamaica-star.com/poster_girl/pg_77.html - 17,008 views
2. Hottie Hottie Girl
http://www.jamaica-star.com/hottie-girls/625.html - 10,837 views
3. Afraid of the beast - Mystery surrounds strange creature in Cedar Valley
http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20050721/news/news1.html - 4,257 views
