Monthly Archives: January 2011

eCommerce

Why the Smart Money is on Paypal

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Of all of the titans of the Web industry right now, few have put themselves in as enviable a position as PayPal.

Apple has skyrocketing stock values and two of the hottestselling products ever made. Google and Facebook have more website visitors than most countries have citizens — not to mention all of their personal data. And Amazon has set the bar so high in e-commerce that it controls much of the movement throughout the industry.

The same was true for e-commerce pioneer eBay just a few years back, but its auction marketplace has been gradually fading into the background of the company’s operations. Enter PayPal, the online payments service purchased by eBay in 2002 — and which is rapidly becoming its most lucrative property. In fact, each of the aforementioned companies are either forging new relationships with PayPal or sweating the possibility of competing with it in the future.

In the third quarter of 2010, PayPal accounted for 37 percent of eBay’s overall revenue, compared with 23 percent five years ago. PayPal’s revenues have increased 22 percent in the last year while the revenues from eBay’s retail operations have increased by just 3 percent. With mobile payments on the verge of erupting into a multibillion dollar industry in the next few years, analysts predict that PayPal’s revenues will overtake those from eBay’s marketplace by 2014.

The good news for the rest of the commercial Web is that PayPal is a highly accessible partner for anyone who operates an online business. The company recently announced a handful of new products in the mobile and payments spaces that opportunistic Web professionals should consider:

• PayPal for Digital Goods — a micropayments solution that lets consumers pay for digital goods such as games, music and videos in as little as two clicks, without ever having to leave a publisher’s site. The new solution will be integrated by Facebook to make PayPal the social network’s new digital goods payment method, offering users the fastest, safest and most cost-effective solution for sending and receiving micropayments of under $12. Other companies signed on to use PayPal to monetize the growing opportunity in digital goods include Justin.tv, Ustream, FT.com, Autosport.com, Ooyala, Plimus and Tagged.

• Mobile Express Checkout — A mobile payments system that will initially be available on Apple’s iPhone. Mobile Express Checkout will work across apps and eventually across platforms. Merchant partners such as Starbucks have reported doubledigit sales growth on their mobile stores since adding the feature in beta testing, and PayPal says the product is easy to use for existing merchants who currently use Express Checkout on their Web stores.

• Titanium+Commerce — In partnership with Appcelerator — the makers of the cross-platform mobile development tool, Titanium — Pay- Pal launched this mobile commerce product in the beta development stage at its PayPal X Conference in the fall. It is a developer toolkit that will allow merchants to build cross-platform apps with assorted mobile commerce features that can hook directly into PayPal for payment and processing.

• Mobile Payments Library — A new functionality targeting subscription businesses that will enable preapproved, chain and split mobile payments to be processed through PayPal accounts.

• Mobile Location for iOS — A mobile app that uses geo-location technology to help users find businesses that accept PayPal for payments. The participating merchants can send consumers daily deals, coupons and other promotions through their phones. Initially, the app will have support for the iPhone, but Android and Blackberry support is forthcoming.

• T-commerce—The “T” stands for television — that’s right, television commerce. This product is under development, but the idea is to give consumers access to their digital wallets through a Buy button on their TV remote controls so that they can buy product they see on Internet-connected television. Stay tuned. As some of the most influential companies on the Web are realizing, PayPal is a partner worth having right now.

About the Author: Linc Wonham

EMail / POP3 / IMAP Help

POP3 – Delivering E-mail to the Correct User

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If each user has a unique mailbox on the mail server, there is no problem. But if multiple users are accessing a single mailbox with multiple aliases, you will have to use message rules to ensure that each user downloads only the mail sent to their alias. This is because the first user (or the first Outlook Express mail account) that downloads mail will automatically download all mail in the mailbox. This is simply the way POP3 mail works.

For example, Frank Lee signed up with a local ISP, A. Datum Corporation, for an Internet account with one POP3 mailbox with three aliases, thus four e-mail addresses in total. Frank’s e-mail address is frank@adatum.com. His wife Andrea will be using the alias andrea@adatum.com, while son Mark will use mark@adatum.com and daughter Cristina will use cristina@adatum.com.

Let’s begin with ensuring that Cristina receives only e-mail sent to her. Frank, who is the computer administrator, logs on as Cristina and opens her Outlook Express. He then creates a message rule:

1. Click Message Rules on the Tools menu, then click Mail
2. Click New
3. In the Conditions box, check the box labeled where the TO or CC line contains specific words.
4. In the Action box, check Do not Download it from the server.
5. In the Description box, click the blue underlined specific words.
6. Type the e-mail address, e.g. cristina@adatum.com.
7. Click the Add button.
8. Click the Options button.
9. Select where it does not contain.
10. Click OK.
11. In the Name box, type a meaningful name for the rule.
12. Click OK to close the Message Rule dialog.

The Rule Condition Options lets you make a rule inclusive or exclusive.

Mail that is not addressed to Cristina will not be downloaded.

Frank will now have to log on as Mark and create a similar rule to exclude mail not addressed to him, and then as Andrea to exclude mail not addressed to her. The final step is for Frank to create his own rule in his own User account. Frank’s rule however must use a different Condition to ensure that no mail is left on the server. His condition must be:

Where the TO or CC line contains cristina@adatum.com, or mark@adatum.com, or andrea@adatum.com
Do not Download it from the server

Cristina, Mark and Andrea will now receive only mail that has their respective e-mail address in TO or CC. Frank will receive all other e-mail sent to the mailbox. It should be noted that any message sent to Cristina, Mark or Andrea with their e-mail address in the BCC (blind carbon copy) line will not be delivered correctly. It will then be up to Frank to forward such messages to the correct e-mail address.