1 Register the domain name as early as possible. This is necessary since the precedent in
the emerging law is that the first company to register the name is the one that takes
ownership if it has a valid claim to ownership.
2 Register multiple domain namesif this helps the potential audience to find the site. For
example, British Midland may register its name as http://www.britishmidland.comand
http://www.britishmidland.co.uk.
3 Use the potential of non-company brand namesto help promote a product. For example, a
1998 traditional media campaign for British Midland used http://www.iflybritishmidland.com
as a memorable address to help users find its site.Selecting an Internet service provider (ISP)
Selecting the right partner to host a web site is an important decision since the quality of
service provided will directly impact on the quality of service delivered to a company’s
customers. The partner that hosts the content will usually be an Internet service provider
(or ISP) for the majority of small and medium companies, but for larger companies the
web server used to host the content may be inside the company and managed by the
company’s IT department.
The quality of service of hosted content is essentially dependent on two factors: the
performance of the web site and its availability.The performance of the web site
The important measure in relation to performance is the speed with which a web page is
delivered to users from the time when it is requested by clicking on a hyperlink (see
Table 7.2 for examples). The length of time is dependent on a number of factors, some of
which cannot be controlled (such as the number of users accessing the Internet), but pri-
marily depends on the bandwidthof the ISP’s connection to the Internet and the
performance of the web server hardware and software. It also depends on the ‘page
weight’ of the site’s pages measured in kilobytes (which is dependent on the number
and complexity of images and animations). Table 7.2 shows that the top 5 sites with the
lowest download speeds tend to have a much smaller page size compared with the
slower sites from 95 to 100. However, viewing these slower sites over a broadband con-
nection shows that this is perhaps less of an issue than in the days when the majority,
rather than the minority, were dial-up Internet users.CHAPTER 7· DELIVERING THE ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEInternet service
provider (ISP)
Company that provides
home or business
users with a connection
to access the Internet.
It can also host web
sites or provide a link
from web servers to
allow other companies
and consumers access
to a corporate web site.Bandwidth
Indicates the speed at
which data are
transferred using a
particular network
medium. It is measured
in bits per second (bps).Table 7.2Variation in download speed (across a 56.6 kbps modem) and page size for the
top 5 and bottom 6 UK sites week starting 6 October 2005Web site Avg. download speed Page size
1 Thomas Cook 4.65 sec 18.46 kb
2 British Airways 5.15 sec 23.46 kb
3 Next On-Line Shopping 5.64 sec 26.90 kb
4EasyJet 6.09 sec 27.88 kb
5 NTL 6.66 sec 29.77 kb
95 Nokia UK 37.60 sec 180.98 kb
96 The Salvation Army 37.68 sec 171.07 kb
97 Rail Track 38.14 sec 111.00 kb
98 workthing.com 38.77 sec 187.35 kb
99 Orange 40.01 sec 194.16 kb
100 FT.com 44.39 sec 211.55 kb
Source: Site Confidence (www.siteconfidence.co.uk)INMA_C07.QXD 17/5/06 4:23 pm Page 310