Monday, December 25, 2000		Article

Greet the e-way
by Peeyush Agnihotri

IT'S Christmas today and the year 2K will be buried in the annals of history after the next weekend. The millennium’s first New Year is round the corner. Thanks to the just-concluded postal strike, most of the snail mail die-hards are discovering the Net. They are jumping onto the bandwagon to send e-cards. Dot.coms, too, have been quick to realise that more opportunities exist in the cyber world, giving us a plethora of sites to choose from.

E-cards are getting increasingly popular. No more serpentine queues for stick-and-paste stamps at post offices. What’s more, unlike postal employees, computers cannot hold the nation to ransom, so the delivery is prompt and assured. Further, they have a longer shelf (or desktop) life.

A site, www.egreetings.com, which believes in "spreading holiday cheer" from its portal, has a wide variety for surfers. The New Year section has been sub-divided into Business/Formal, Fun and Party Invitation sections. Quite a few of these are interactive and animated.

Another site, www.e-cards.com, which is working in close liaison with save-ecosystem organisations like the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy, has incorporated sections on Hannukah and Kwanzaa as well. "Every card sent helps generate a donation for Nature. Send cards to friends and family and help save wildlife!" the site announces. The site is currently focussing on the Christmas revelry and may put up a dedicated corner for New Year cards soon, though Netizens are currently accessing the Seasons’ Greeting section.

As the name suggests, www.teensmostwanted.com, is a portal catering mostly to teenagers. Besides New Year cards, the portal offers T-shirts, though the surfer will have to pay for it.

Here’s something for dog lovers. At www.bluemountain.com, there is a sub-section that deals exclusively in cards with dogs on them. This section has more than 130 dog-breed names to choose from — a surfer can select and personalise. The other six sub-sections are — Everyone, Friendship and Love, Poetry, Interactive, Funny and Composers.

Those who wish to use the desert landscape can surf the New Year section at www.arabia.com. This site gives the option of attaching music. Spiritual portals too have a lot to offer. At www.crossdaily.com, a portal on Christianity, there are "bubbly" e-card.

Women portals also have a few of them tucked into their sites. Visit www.familycorner.com, a partner of the womensforum.com network. In the holiday e-card section, the site has just four e-cards to offer for the New Year. After selecting a photograph, you can click to see a larger version. Text and background colours can be chosen and greetings can also be customised.

E-cards, along with bouquets, are haute. Many sites like Blossoms Inc deliver gifts, flowers and floral bouquets from offices in Delhi, Noida, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bhopal, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana. Another one is Diksha.com, which offers to deliver in three hours flat in a few select cities, including Chandigarh and Ludhiana.

Bouquets and e-cards — for Netizens, the party has already begun.