Internet provides many effective communication tools, including e-mail, mailing lists, discussion groups, chat services, web conferencing, blogs, and RSS feeds. In recent years, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have also joined the mix look of e-communication. These various tools allow you to communicate one-to-one or one-to-many, depending on your communication needs. They also enable communication locally between people who know one another or worldwide with people who share common interests. There are several types of e-communication-
E-mail-E-mail is one of the most popular e-communication tools over the internet. E-mail allows you to send messages to one person or simultaneously to a group of people. E-mail is convenient and widespread to use. We can connect from anywhere and anytime with the help of internet service. Most people have at least one e-mail address.
In order to send e-mail, you must know the recipient's e-mail address. E-mail addresses consists of two parts: a username and a domain name. The username refers to the mailbox name or login name or user ID. The domain name is the internet address of the computer where the user's e-mail is stored (also called the mail server). The parts are separated by an @ symbol. For example, the e-mail address for the school of vocational studies is vocschool@uou.ac.in (this is an example only). There are many e-mail services available, which are free to use (partial free). you may create your own e-mail id from the following. e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail.
Mailing Lists-Mailing List is another form of e-mail, which can involve just a few people or thousands of people. Mailing lists distribute information to an e-mail subscription list. Many companies and professional organizations rely on mailing lists to distribute their information. Postings, in the form of e-mail messages, are automatically delivered to your e-mail. You can simply read the contents of the messages. Subscribing to a mailing list involves sending a message to the list’s administrator.
Discussion Groups-Sites such as Yahoo! and Google allow users to create and join online discussion groups. Discussion groups are also referred to as forums or bulletin boards. These function very much like mailing lists except they are easier to create and maintain. They are also less invasive than mailing lists since you go to a website to view and post messages. Discussion groups work very well for communication among local interest groups and clubs. Within a discussion group, a discussion on a particular topic is often called a “thread.” To start looking for other discussion groups, try Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups.
Social Networking-As information technology expanded, new social networking sites have developed on the internet. Social networking sites allow users to share their information through various mediums, as- text, audio, video, pictures, animations and info graphics. Social networking is a way of communication by email or instant messages within the website, and develop networks of friends or associations. Popular social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. Nowadays, large corporations have become more attracted to social networking sites because of advertising revenue and the ease of marketing products and services.
Facebook- Facebook is the world’s largest social network, provides a place for social connection via sharing of photos, videos, and text updates. Users can create personal profiles and establish relationships with other people and companies. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates at Harvard University. The Facebook membership is free to anyone over the particular age.
Twitter- Twitter launched in 2006, is a “microblogging” platform that allows users to communicate through brief messages (known as “tweets”), limited to 140 characters. The original idea behind Twitter was for users to post messages in response to the question, “What are you doing?” The prompt has since been changed to the more generic “What’s happening?”, but users can post anything that’s on their minds, and often use Twitter as a way to share links to websites, photos, videos, and other web-based content.
Twitter employs a convention called a “hashtag,” which is a word or phrase immediately preceded by a # (Hash) symbol. By placing a # symbol in front of a word in a tweet, the word is automatically turned into a hotlink which, when clicked, will perform a search of recent tweets containing that word.
The ability to group together tweets containing a particular word or phrase has contributed to a phenomenon known as the “internet meme.” A meme can be a word, phrase, idea, image, video, or anything that spreads very rapidly via Twitter or any other means of internet communication.
Google+ (Google Plus)- Google Plus was launched by Google corporation in year 2011 as an attempt to compete with Facebook. Features of Google+ include “Circles” for sharing information with different groups of people (like Facebook Groups), and “Hangouts” for video chatting with a friend or groups of friends. Google Hangouts recently merged with Google’s Talk program, which created a single location for all text, video, and image sharing between a friend or a group of friends.
Tumblr- Tumblr launched in year 2007, is another “microblogging” platform that gives users a quick way to post text, images, audio, video, links, and quotes in a community setting. Unlike regular blogs, Tumblr blogs (also called “Tumblogs” or “Tumblelogs”) are frequently used to share the author’s creations, discoveries, or experiences while providing little or no commentary.
YouTube- YouTube began in year 2005 and has grown exponentially since then. It is another key product of Google corporation. Users may register with YouTube to upload videos, rate them and participate in different user groups, but it is not necessary to register in order to view video clips, send them to others, or embed them in other websites.
Instagram- Instagram is a photo sharing application launched in year 2010 that allows users of mobile devices to take a photo, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it on a variety of social networks. A distinctive feature confines photo to a square shape, similar to old-fashioned Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram and independently managed.
Pinterest- Pinterest launched in the year 2010, is currently one of the fastest growing social networks on the web. Pinterest allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections by uploading their own photos, or by importing (also known as “pinning”) images from elsewhere on the web. Users can browse and/or “follow” other pinboards for inspiration, and can “like” and/or “re-pin” images to their own collections. Users can also share their “pins” on both Twitter and Facebook.
Flickr- Flickr is an image and video hosting website and online community launched in year 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in year 2005. The service is widely used by bloggers to host images they embed in blogs and other forms of social media.
LinkedIn- LinkedIn launched in the year 2003 as a social networking tool for work professionals, has become the standard for employers looking for new talent. Through LinkedIn, users can search for jobs, submit applications, and join work-related groups.
Foursquare- Foursquare is a location-based mobile application that combines aspects of social networking and gaming.
MySpace- MySpace launched in the year 2003, was the most popular social networking site in the world around the year.
Social Bookmarking-Social bookmarking is a method for internet users to organize, store, and share links to online resources. Prior to the proliferation of social bookmarking services, the only way for internet users to save (or “bookmark”) links to web content that interested them was to add them to a list of favorite links stored on their computers. If they typically use more than one computer (one at home and one at work, for example), they had to go through the inconvenience of saving their favorite links on both machines. Social bookmarking sites now enable users to gain access to their favorite links from any device with an internet connection, and to share links with other users.
Internet Chat-In Internet chat, people view and respond to messages from one another instantaneously, much like a telephone conversation. Although some chat software includes audio and/or video aspects, most chat and instant messaging programs are text-based. One person types a message on the screen, and the other person sees the message either as it is being typed or immediately after it has been typed.
There are two forms of internet chat frequently found on the web: chat rooms and instant messaging. Chat rooms tend to be open forums where a number of people chat with one another simultaneously. Often the people who meet in a chat room are people that have not met each other in the "real world." Instant messaging (IM), on the other hand, is a one-on-one form of internet chat. Although you can choose to instant messaging with strangers, often it is used to communicate with friends and family. Examples of instant message services include AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook instant messaging service, etc.
Web Conferencing-Web conferencing is currently being used by businesses for employee training, meetings, and general communication. Educational institutions use web conferencing to enhance onsite classes or distance education classes. Popular conferencing programs include AnyMeeting (a free service for hosting meetings of up to 200 participants), and fee-based services Elluminate and GoToMeeting, which provide programs specifically designed for businesses and educational institutions.
Blogs-A blog is a kind of website that allows a web author to simply and easily share thoughts and ideas with other web users. The word blog comes from weblog, which refers to a log of dated postings by a particular author or group of authors. Blogs can cover any topic or can just be someone’s daily, weekly, or occasional diary of thoughts and opinions. Blogs can be interactive when readers add comments and a discussion is created. You can also, create your own blog. There are many software programs and web-based blog hosting services, some of which are free, such as Blogger and WordPress. Blogs are created using a simple-to-use content management system.