Beyond email: a new way to get your message out

Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 February 2007 08:36

Your IT - Home IT

Elertz says the system does not interfere with normal Internet usage, including accessing secure sites and claims that "Some major banks are looking at using elertz to stop phishing scams. There is also claimed to be no impact on the time taken to load web pages.

Elertz believes that the growth of spam and phishing will begin to seriously compromise the use of email for information distribution to a wide audience, opening up a market for its technology.

It cites statistics showing that almost 93 per cent of email messages are classified as spam, a rise of 147 per cent in the last 12 months. Steve Morris, CEO of elertz said: "We've almost reached a stage of communication gridlock. Businesses as so focused on 'pushing' information to their customers that often the key messages about the product or service are lost. When too much information is pushed out this can lead to information overload. Customers using the Internet for example should be allowed to 'pull' information themselves.

"Businesses using elertz will allow their customers to set up a quick and reliable alerting system which provides up-to-the-minute information as and when it is updated. End users who are able to stay in control and manage information are more likely to respond positively to businesses providing important services or innovative new products."

Elertz is claimed to me "more precise and quicker than other broadcast communication channels such as email or RSS feeds," because email newsletter are often sent out in batches, and customers located towards the end of a batch may experience delayed deliveries. RSS feeds are only refreshed, on average, every 30 minutes, whereas business websites using elertz are updated every 30 seconds.

Suggested applications include banks wishing to alert customers to changes in their account such as withdrawals, statements or going into debit. "Customers wanting to purchase a new house could be alerted as soon as a suitable property comes to market via an estate agent's website; dating websites could alert users when their ideal partner registers; or customers could 'jump the queue' when tickets for that all-important concert go on sale and an alert is received from an online ticketing website."

However at present Mac users are unable to use the service: the toolbar runs only under Windows (Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3). The company says it is "considering Mac support."