1. Electronic Commerce Searching for information

2. Information on the web Visibility Accessibility Transparency Tradability Maintenance

3. Incentive for searching information Marginal profit > marginal searching cost, More suppliers  Potential dispersion  higher price/value diversity

4. Information economics Stigler: 1982 Nobel prize winner in economics Higher priced durable goods Price variety in the common marketplace < stores in the disperse locations Is the price always lower in the mall of many stores? Does the price dispersion disappear in the mall? More experienced buyers  lower price dispersion More mobility of buyer  higher price dispersion Does advertising remove the price dispersion?

5. Searching modes

6. An efficient Internet search market Feasibility of digital transformation Completeness of digitalized information Clearness of information classification Accessibility of wanted information

7. An inefficient search market

8. Info-mediator (-mediary)

9. Various information sources File transfer: WWW, FTP, Gopher, Telnet Broadcasting and exchange: Usenet, mailing lists, messaging, P2P, FAQ Real-time interactions: talk, IRC, RSS

10. Various functions of Filtering agent

11. Factors impacted on searching efficiency Product description standards meta-information, digital catalog, header, micro-products, micro-bundles Advertising-supported searching service URL, keyword, image, sponsorship, subscribing Auto pushing vs. pulling on demand Web-based recommendation system Searching or surfing? Always positive searching cost? Pricing for sharing of searched information Relevance, vitality, criticality, accuracy, and timeliness of searched information