A method of sending messages in the form of electronic text files from one person to another through a communications network.

Any kind of transaction that occurs in an online or telephonic environment. And we use this term to include information transactions, as when someone checks a bank balance by Web, or gets stock quotes by phone.

This is an offshoot of CRM, or customer relationship management. In this case, it extends the idea of the customer interaction past the phone call, to incorporate information gathered from emails, website visits, live-chat sessions, and any other non-traditional non-telephony channels.

Electronic commerce refers to any form of fulfilled transaction that occurs in a "virtual" environment everything from over the phone to via the internet. There seems to be some disagreement over whether the term refers to actual transactions that occur, where money changes hands, or whether it can be taken to mean a more all-encompassing information exchange, as when a Web surfer shops for something by Internet, and then performs the actual purchase through more traditional means. E-tailing, by contrast, is a subset of this that refers to actual on-line selling of goods, along the lines of an Amazon.Com or CD-Now. The thing that bugs us about it is that the "e" in e-tailing doesn't stand for anything, as it does in e-commerce or e-mail. It's there just to make you think of retailing. Is there anything more infuriating than...