Online services
The Internet
The Internet has become a part of our every day lives. Practically everybody has at least once come
across it. It is especially popular with younger people, but many older people enjoys surfing the net,
too. Here are the main internet services people use.
E-mail
E-mail was one of the first services that normal users could use. Compared with classical letters, it
has got a lot of advantages. It is much faster and much cheaper (you only pay for Internet access and
the electricity) than sending a classical letter via post office. Creating an e-mail account is very easy
and the user can start using the account immediately. Of course, e-mails also have some
disadvantages. Everybody knows the word spam. It is unrequested post. It is often sent from Russia
or China. In those unrequested e-mails, the users can e.g. find Viagra offers or Russian ladies
declaring them true love. It is dangerous answering such mails or even opening them, the users can
lose their money or even have their computer inficated by a virus. Fortunately, all the major email
providers have developed spam filters, so the spam is filtered and the user does not have to go
through hundreds of spam e-mails to find one that is not spam.
Another advantage of the e-mails are attachments. The users can send and receive pictures, songs,
even short video sequences. Of course, the capacity of attachments in one message is limited, but
compared with the classical e-mails where the attachment has to be either printed on paper or burnt
on a data recording medium, sending e-mails with attachments appears advantegous and
convenient.
The major e-mail providers include gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, and many others. As for the
Czech Republic, seznam.cz and centrum.cz are popular.
The news
While many people still only watch the news on TV, the number of people who prefer reading or
watching the news online increases. Watching the news on TV has one substantial disadvantage –
the user has to find time to watch the news, which is not always possible. Reading the news on the
Internet is faster. The user can choose the articles he or she actually wants to read. If he or she is not
interested in foreign affairs, he can concentrate on economy or local affairs. Of course, major TV
channels had to react. Nowadays every important TV channel enables the reader to access their
news online. The user can watch the whole news online or later in the archive section. Moreover,
they offer their own TV programms for watching online. This is very convenient. The user does not
have to change plans to watch the programme, he or she can watch it later when it is convenint for
him or her.
Although many online newspapers are free of charge and the user does not have to pay for the news,
some have decided to let the user pay for the news. Others divided the contents into what is free of
charge and has to be paid for. Only time will tell if there strategies have a chance to succeed.
Information
Internet is a very valuable source of information covering practically all parts of human activity. All
towns have their own web pages where they inform the locals what is going on in the town, tourists
find there turist information. Many internet pages are devoted to people's hobbies. There are pages
specializing in cooking, basic drawing tricks, fishing, online language courses, etc. All important
institutions use web pages to inform about cultural events, exhibitons, and so on.
Shopping
Many people have come to like online shopping, as it is very convenient for the user to choose the
goods from the comfort of his or her home. There are many reasons for shopping online, especially
when the user lives somewhere there the choice of shops and goods is limited. The range of goods is
much higher on the Internet and when shopping online, the user does not have to stand in a queue.
The price is usually lower than in traditional shops. However, online shopping also has some
disadvantages. The user usually has to pay the postage cost. Some online shops are owned by
dishonest owners who, instead of goods paid, only send something like a brick wrapped up in the
wrapping paper.
Internet banking
This is a very useful thing. Many people dislike going to banks and paying high fees for meeting with
the bank clerk. They find internet banking fast, comfortable and even cheaper. They also have more
control over the account. They can set the payments alone, without anybody’s help – and it is not as
difficult as it may sound. Of course, Internet banking has some atvantages, too. There is so-called
phishing, which is sending spam e-mails asking the user for the password to the account. Fortunately
for the Czech users, such messages contain a lot of mistakes, so it is not too difficult to discover
phishing. Moreover, the common sense should tell us the bank does not need the password.
What online services do you personally use? Why?
What other services can people use?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping online?
What is spam? It it a proplem nowadays?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Internet banking?
What is phishing?
Do you prefer watching the news on TV or reading articles on the Internet? Why?