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An E-card is a postcard, sent by means of the Internet, usually through e-mail.
A users sending an e-card to a person would select a pre-written card style with image and message, and would add their own personal message, and specify the recipient's e-mail address. On sending the card, the recipient would receive an e-mail with a link to the e-card provider's webpage, and this link would go to the e-card as a webpage, with the sender's personal message and card. Note that the actual card is not usually sent through the e-mail, but only a link to the card hosted as a website.
There are five common types of visual E-Cards. "Flash Animated" which use Macromedia's "Flash" software, "Postcards" which use static (non-moving) images, "Animated" cards which are similar to Postcards yet may have some minor repetative movement, JavaScript cards which typically combine Postcard images with some kind of JavaScript-based animation, and most recently Talking greeting cards.
Flash Animated cards are typically the most advanced and popular cards. Flash Animated cards are typically used to create a full animated effect, similar to an animated cartoon. They can also be interactive, asking the viewer to perform an action or press a button.
Postcards are the oldest form of E-Cards and are still popular. They typically show more artistic or nature images such as animals, mountains, sunsets, people, or other scenic scenes.
Since the e-card company knows the e-mail address of the recipient and often also the sender, and whether the recipient reads the card, spammers sometimes use E-Cards for finding active e-mail addresses.
Sending an e-card to a given recipient invariably involves giving that recipient's email address to the e-card service -- a third party. As with other third-party email services (such as mailing-list companies), the operator has the chance to misuse this address. One example of misuse is if the e-card service sends advertisements to the recipient's address. Under anti-spam rules used by major ISPs, such advertisements would be spam, since the recipient never asked ("opted in") to receive them. [1] The e-card sender as well as the service could be held responsible for the act of spamming, since while the service sent the spam, the e-card sender provided the address.
In some cases, it may be illegal for an organization or business to use an e-card service to send greetings to its customers. For instance, data privacy laws may forbid a business from disclosing information about customers to a third party -- including names and email addresses. |
