When browsing the web becomes a conversation

Traditionally, browsing the web was a one-way communication process. Like television with millions of channels, the web surfer would point to a website to access the information published there. Occasionally, there would be an email link that allowed the visitor to get in touch with the organisation behind the website.

But beneath the surface, browsing the web has always been a bit of a trade. You, the web surfer, would get to see web pages; in exchange, rudimentary data about you was gathered and logged: your IP address, what browser you are using, what link you followed to get to a web page, what you searched for if you used a search engine. From the IP address, other characteristics can be established, such as geography and who owns the network you are logged into (in most cases the company you work for).

Some websites (Rackspace, a server hosting company, is one example) take the thought of the 'contact us' email link one step further by incorporating real-time instant messaging on their website. The visitor can instigate a dialogue with a customer rep with a single mouse click.

A friend of mine reverses the IM 'contact us' model by allowing a website administrator or a customer rep to initiate an IM dialogue with a visitor. IM capability is built into the real-time webstats package Revealsite. When I used Revealsite in a previous job, I used the metrics part of the package and chose not to use the IM functionality: I was concerned that it would be scary to potential clients to feel that a perceived private activity like web surfing was being monitored in real time. Revealsite founder Iain Maclean says that for some of his clients, IM and the capability to push specific pages to the visitor's browser fit with their business models.

Tags: webstats web browsing conversation Rackspace Revealsite privacy