Wise Buys Product reviews of American Express' Private Payments credit card security program and The Image Factory New York's AtomicLog site traffic monitoring software
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Private eyes:AmericanExpress now offers cardholders unique credit card numbers goodfor a one-time use. The Private Payments program, which aims tostrengthen security for online shoppers, allows Net shoppers to geta user name and password when they register-for free-for thePrivate Payments program via the company's Web site. Whenthey're ready to buy, shoppers return to the Private Paymentshome page, where they receive a unique, randomly created cardnumber and expiration date. They then simply transfer the number tothe order form to make the purchase-without having to share theirAmerican Express card number with you or any other merchantthey'd like to buy from.
Popularity contest:TIFNY (The Image Factory New York), a producer of Web applicationsin New York City, has released AtomicLog, a software program thatlets you monitor your site's traffic in real time. AtomicLogexamines the huge log files produced by your Web server and allowsyou to see the top-referring sites, the most popular domains andcountries from which visitors come, the documents and files yourvisitors are downloading and traffic levels-all by the hour, day ormonth. You can sort AtomicLog's charts by unique page-viewhits, unique host or amount of data downloaded. AtomicLog runs forfree on your PC. For details, visit www.atomiclog.com.
Melissa Campanelli is a technology writer in Brooklyn, NewYork, who has covered technology for Mobile Computing &Communications and Sales & Marketing Managementmagazines. You can reach her at mcampanelli@earthlink.net.
