Rabu, 14 Januari 2009

infomediary

Formed from a combination of the words information and intermediary, an infomediary is a Web site that gathers and organizes large amounts of data and acts as an intermediary between those who want the information and those who supply the information.

There are two types of infomediaries. Some infomediaries, such as Autobytel.com and BizRate.com, offer consumers a place to gather information about specific products and companies before they make purchasing decisions. The infomediary is a neutral entity, a third-party provider of unbiased information; it does not promote or try to sell specific products in preference over other products. It does not act on behalf of any vendors. The second type of infomediary, and one that is not necessarily Web-based, is one that provides vendors with consumer information that will help the vendor develop and market products. The infomediary collects the personal information from the buyers and markets that data to businesses. The advantage of this approach is that consumer privacy is protected and some infomediaries even offer consumers a percentage of the brokerage deals.

The term infomediary was coined by John Hagel in his 1996 article entitled "The Coming Battle for Customer Information" in the Harvard Business Review.

Definition: Infomediary
A business which earns money from capturing consumer information and developing detailed profiles of individual customers for use by selected third-party vendors.

infomediary
- An infomediary is a Web site that provides specialized information on behalf of producers of goods and services and their potential customers. The term is a composite of information and intermediary. The advent of the Web has made possible quick 24-hour access to information databases that previously were not available. Gathering these information aggregates and adding services to them is now the business of companies like the Thomas Register of Manufacturers that can bring a base of information from the print medium to the Web. Perhaps more importantly as infomediaries are Web sites that are gathering, organizing, and linking to the new information and services that is being added to the Web.

Infomediaries can be divided into those intended for consumers and those intended for businesses. Any consumer e-commerce site that provides information as well as an order form could be classed as an infomediary. However, the term is more frequently used to refer to sites that offer information for businesses about suppliers and other businesses. According to International Data Corporation, a leading market researcher, business-to-business sales are forecast to reach $330.6 billion worldwide by 2002. Infomediaries are expected to facilitate this business-to-business traffic. Many infomediary sites intended for businesses require users to register and log in in order to access information.

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