Online services

Online services are a combination of a lot of different things some of these things are communication, E.commerce, education, entertainment, real-time information, downloading and E-Government.

Communication:

Communication involves a lot of things seeing as there has been many developments in communicating.  We use email to communicate with other people this is simple because you only need a computer/laptop that is connected to the internet to send and receive emails. Social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular. Social networking site are growing exponentially for example the social network site called Facebook has over 995 million active users as of June 2012, that’s approximately one in every 7 people around the world on Facebook and half of them are logged into Facebook by using a mobile phone. Twitter is another social networking site that is also growing in numbers. Social networking sites have made talking to friends online really easy. Mobile phones are using the internet for communication on a daily bases. From your mobile phone you can access Facebook or twitter and you can also use ‘facetime’ which is a type of video call. You can make video calls by using Skype or a video conference this allows you to have a direct convocation with something face to face well, face to screen to screen to face.

E.commerce:

E.commerce consists of buying and selling products or services via the internet. This includes online shopping, banking and bill paying and transactional websites. Online shopping is become a big thing almost all of the high-street shops have an inline website where you can purchase products and either pick them up in store or get them delivered an address of your choosing . you can now send money by from one account to another just by using a mobile phone this is called Barclays ‘ping it’ all you need is a smart phone and the Barclays ‘ping It’ app.

Education:

Education is now being offered via the internet there are some websites that are specific to learning certain subjects and others that are focused to help children and young adults through school. An example of this is BBC bitesize this is a great website for education it has different sections dedicated to different school years and intense sections for GCSE’s and A level’s. My maths and Sam learning are also used for educational purposes.

Entertainment:

Entertainment via the internet has become a big hit in recent years. More and more people are looking to the internet for entertainment and it comes in many forms.  Online gaming is a new development. Not only can you play games on the internet but you can also hook up a games console and play against people from all over the world. There are some people who can get addicted to online gaming and spend most of their time playing it. You tube is another source of entertainment that has become available to the public. You tube is a website where you can upload and download videos; you can also watch anybody’s videos. you tube is great if you want to waste hours of your time looking and random garbage that other people have uploaded, you tube can also be really useful for example you can learn simple martial art moves from it just as long as someone has uploaded that video clip. Similar to you tube website like ‘BBC iplayer’ and ‘4OD’ have been created. These websites have been made so that if you miss something on T.V. you can easily watch it, whether you want to catch up on your favourite T.V. series or you just want to watch a one off documentary.

Real-time information:

From the internet you can find out quite a lot of things that are happing at the same time you are on the internet. From the comfort of your computer you can look up the weather forecast, to see if you need to take an umbrella or sun cream with you when you go out later on in the day. You can also look up the news and find out global events. You can get traffic updates to help you decide what root you are going to take to work. All of these things have been made available right at your fingertips.

Downloading:

From your computer you can download a variety of things. ITunes is one such example. ITunes first started out as an online shop where you could buy the newest music or some of the classics that never get old. It has developed from there; you can now buy music, music videos, films, TV programmes, apps for your iPods/ mobile phones and games. New services such as ‘LOVEFILM’ and ‘NETFLEX’ have the purpose of being able to download films and TV programmes right to your living room.

E-government

You can now use the internet for paying taxes, buying car insurance and finding out local housing prices. In my opinion it will not be long until the national census will be done via the internet because so many people have access to the internet and it will be less expensive and more environmentally friendly.