6. Virtual Market Research

Virtual market research which was offered by companies such as Affinnova, takes the traditional technique of market research of people sitting in a focus group and giving their opinions, and makes it virtual. You can test a new product packaging design, a logo and even specific wording in a marketing campaign, present the new ideas in a Web interface and then track preferences. Companies such as Nutrisystem and Ricola have tested new marketing concepts this way.

7. Open Database Connectivity

Many IT experts can't imagine how in-house applications could run without ODBC. Developed in the early 1990s, ODBC can connect to any other Database Management System (DBMS). The drivers can run on any platform and even connect from one platform to another. In that way, they pre-date the open standards used on the Web. The only issue is that many Web apps skip ODBC and connect to databases using PHP.