On the other hand, much of what the reader will encounter here is a solid
conception of how web advertising is different from anything that has come
before. Several chapters (see especially chaps. 2, 5, 8, 10, and the practitioner
conversation by Bruce Goerlich) focus on the idea of interactivity - where both
consumer and advertiser are active in the persuasive communication process.
Several chapters focus on how web advertising can be linked with other parts of
the complete or integrated campaign (e.g., chaps. 3 and 17). There are chapters
on the web's various audience segments, including "browsers and seekers"
(chap. 4), children (chap. 6), college students (chap. 7), those with a parasocial
response to media (chap. 10), and even those who thrive on hate and bigotry
(chap. 11).

Most of the chapters focus on independent commercial sites ("brand sites")
on the web, but three chapters consider how web advertising can occur in other
formats. Brill considers the role of advertising in online newspapers. Meyer
considers web sites serving as catalogs. Nowak and his colleagues examine
advertising banners and what factors create their impact.

The book is organized into five sections. Part 1 examines definitions of
basic terms like interactivity, icons, banners, hotlinks, hits, advertorials, editorial
environment, and shovelware. Part 1 also sets up important theoretical foun-
dations, asking what models of advertising are most appropriate for helping to
understand how web advertising works, and what needs to be added to these
theories to better account for web advertising. Part 1 also looks to the short, but
rapidly changing and controversial, history of web advertising.

Part 2 looks at the structure of web advertising, how it presumably
functions to sell products or services, and how well it works. Part 3 looks at four
specific applications of web advertising, including a measurement device for
ascertaining parasocial responses to sites, an examination of how cyberhate sites
look and operate, how advertising fits into online newspapers, and how catalog
marketers are moving onto a web format.

Part 4 examines in detail the legal state of Internet advertising, and also
looks at the issue of how cybercookies operate and what problems of privacy
and consent are involved with cookie-based marketing. Part 5 is the voice of
practitioners - those who have pioneered web advertising and promotion, and
report back from the front lines on what works and what fails.

Although there remain a few naysayers concerning the future of web
advertising, the reader of this volume will be able to see, we think, just how
incredibly high-impact this new medium has become and will continue to
become. The researcher will see how many fascinating and important questions
there are to ask. The historian will see lots of stumbles, but a new form of
advertising that is getting longer legs and picking up some serious speed.

The editors thank the authors for their contributions and patience. And
now, if you'll excuse us, we need to log on and go cybershopping.

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