【正文】 ee access to the latest New York real estate information. By the summer of 1995, the site was receiving more than 100,000 inquiries a month. The real estate industry registered its entry on the Web in a dramatic way in 1995. By the end of that year there were close to 4,000 real estate Web sites. The content matter of the sites, as well as the mix of real estate related firms on the Web have changed over time. Initially, quite a few of the sites were residential real estate brokerages and listing guides, but fairly rapidly the list expanded to include mercial and retail listings, mortgage brokers, appraisers, architects, real estate attorneys, developers, construction firms, and suppliers. As investment vehicles for real estate expanded, REITs, publicly held firms, and investment advisors also added Web sites. The early real estate broker Web sites quickly took advantage of the unique features of the Web. Prospective customers could find out what properties were for sale or rent, look up detailed descriptions of each listing, view photographs and floor plans, and contact the broker by . Viewers could also look up statistical and data reports on conditions in various geographical areas and on emerging macroeconomic trends. Ever since then, the real estate industry has been among the most enthusiastic users of the Web, by some measures accounting for 4% to 6% of mercial Web sites. A survey conducted by Real Estate Broker39。 阿肖兊勞巳德漢 研 究員 辛西亞期貨交易 外文文獻譯文 ——英文 The Real Estate Industry and the World Wide Web: Changing Technology, Changing Location The Inter, in its Web based graphics version, has captured the imagination of both consumers and businesses. Its convenience, speed, low cost and versatility are being exploited on a daily basis in everchanging ways. Together with its capacity to transform existing businesses, promote new businesses and facilitate exchange of information and data, its other striking attribute has been the speed with which this new technology has spread throughout the global economy. The number of puter hosts grew by more than tenfold between 1995 and early 1999. The number of Web sites increased almost 100fold, to over two million, between 1995 and y the year 2020, there will be approximately 400500 million Inter users in the world, and the total number of Web sites will exceed five million. This new technology has the potential for affecting the real estate industry directly and indirectly. Directly, it may bee a tool that allows a real estate business to expand its information and sales work. Indirectly, it may change the location equation where and how firms do business which in turn will affect the role of firms involved in real estate development, investment and transactions. Measuring the Spread of the Web There are few reliable published statistics on Inter or Web use, and statistics reported by different analysts are often inconsistent. Our discussion of the Web and real estate is based on limited information from surveys and on examination of Web sites rather than on more prehensive data. We have built our overview of the role of the World Wide Web and real estate by examining a variety of sources(including trade publications, existing Web sites, and our own survey of selected real estate firms) From Email to Emerce Before the advent of the World Wide Web, the Inter existed mostly for the purposes of , data transfers, newsgroups and bulletin boards, and its reach was limited primarily to the academic and the defense munity. The technology itself was not particularly userfriendly, the work speed was not very high, the medium was limited to text and data, and accessing information was cumbersome and timeconsuming. The browser technology greatly simplified usage, enabled multimedia information, and created interactive possibilities. The technology brought together TV entertainment, library information, news bulletins, munication and data in one desktop machine. Although initially the greatest patrons of the Inter were the academic munity, the mercial sector quickly caught on to the potential of the Web. The private sector saw in the Web an opportunity to widen its marketing reach, lower costs of information dissemination, improve customer relations, and ultimately to conduct sales. Existing private sector Web sites can be roughly categorized into three types, as summarized. The most basic level is for simple information dissemination. The firm registers a Web site and develops a page giving basic pany information. The second stage is an expansion of information, marketing goods and services or providing other customer information. The third stage is the addition of transa