For some companies, web sites are a nicety—they exist as a brochure but don’t really drive business. Other companies depend upon their web sites for sales and new client generation to such a large degree that their livelihood is dependent upon their web site.

I wonder if you share an experience I have had—when I meet someone and the connection with them is so strong that I find myself wondering why it took me so long to come across them. Surely someone with whom I see so eye to eye should have been in my circle for decades. Of course, it occurs to me that “decades ago,” I may have not been fully baked and wouldn’t have been the person I would have to be to hit it off so well with the person in question…and the same probably goes for them as well.

I like to think that I am an informed consumer who balances budget and quality, trying to get the most “bang for my buck.” Recently, I came across the web site for an organization called Co-op America, that gave me pause. Now, I must start this writing with full disclosure that I am the driver of an SUV, I don’t do a good job of recycling, and it seems that with a family of four, we still have a bag of trash to discard at least every two days.

I find that spam—not the spiced ham in a can variant, but the deluge of unsolicited commercial e-mail—has become the topic of many of my conversations of late. It’s always evident when a new spamming tool becomes available that has been cleverly developed to foil even the best spam filters on the market. In fact, one of my clients estimates that 90% of the e-mails he receives fall into the category of spam, and I believe him.