Introduction to E-Commerce Agents: Marketplace Marketplace Solutions, Security Issues, and Supply and Demand

The Internet has swept over the computing world like a hurricane. The scope and rate of change of WWW are stunning and are influencing almost every aspect of human society. Among the many changes brought by the Internet is the emergence of electronic commerce over the Web. Electronic commerce activities, such as on-line exchange of information, services, and products etc., are bringing business to a whole new level of productivity and profitability. In parallel with the emergence of electronic commerce, there have been interesting developments in the area of intelligent software agents, or software entities that are capable of independent action in open, unpredictable environments. The Internet will never reach its full potential as an electronic marketplace unless e-commerce agents, or proactive Web Programs, are used to (semi) autonomously perform tasks such as:

mediating among various heterogeneous Web sites,
monitoring contents and notify customers,
performing precision information filtering and comparison,
providing tailored services according to the specialized needs of customers,
assisting customers in making decisions, and
acting on behalf of customers in matchmaking, server monitoring, negotiation, bidding, auction, transaction, transfer of goods, and follow-up support.