Question: Discuss how marketers use the communication function of the Web as part of their online marketing strategies. Communication remains the most popular function of the Internet. Companies have long used e-mail to communicate with customers, suppliers, and other partners. Online communities are groups of people who share common interests. Companies use online communities, such as forums and electronic bulletin boards, and social networking sites to communicate with and obtain feedback from customers and other partners. Blogs are online journals that have gained popularity in recent years. Wikis are Web pages anyone can edit, and podcasts are audio and video fi les that can be downloaded from the Web to any digital device. Web-based promotions include advertising on other Web sites using banner ads and pop-up ads, preroll video ads, widgets, and search marketing. Banner ads are strip messages placed in high-visibility areas of frequently visited Web sites. A pop-up ad is a separate window that pops up with an advertising message. Preroll video ads appear before a selected video, and widgets are interactive applications users can add to their pages to play music, video, and slide shows. Search marketing is an arrangement by which a fi rm pays a search engine such as Google a fee to make sure the fi rm's listing appears toward the top of the search results.