The business Web: does your business really need a Web site? Here are some things to consider before you get online.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa

Robby MacDonell and Brian Dixon are among the generation of people who have spent much of their lives online. Today's children don't flip through an encyclopedia to look up the history of Silicon Valley; they do a Google search. They can find more information, that is updated to the minute, faster than flipping through the pages of a book.

The same can be said for many of us when we are looking for some service or a specific business operation. Research is a couple of clicks away.

MacDonell and Dixon, of the multimedia company Pacific Rim Graphics, have seen in their lifetimes the growing trend toward the need for businesses to get online, and have watched as their industry has designed fascinating applications to help businesses thrive.

Less than a decade ago, businesses began to recognize the need to jump on the bandwidth bandwagon as a way to keep up with the competition. The results often were unsightly.

"Businesses said, 'We need a Web site, but we're not sure why,'" said MacDonell, a multimedia specialist at Pacific Rim. "As a result, you saw a lot of useless, not terribly useful designs. That was partly because of the technology available.

"And five years ago, it was a good thing to have a Web site just to have it," he added. "But we've seen a general shift toward functionality centered Web sites. Things need to do more now, to pull their own weight. Nowadays, it's more of a question of what kind of services you have to offer and how can you use this as a tool."

A couple of examples:

Davis Constructors and Engineers posts live Web cams at its construction sites so that customers can see real-time progress on work. "People can click in and see an active image to see what's happening on a project," Dixon said.

Five offices of the state Department of Motor Vehicles have Web cams that show images of their lobbies so that people can get an idea of wait times.

Then think of everything else you can do online today: all your banking, shop for a home, do all your Christmas shopping, even play backgammon with a man from Morocco.

But perhaps more importantly, Web sites save businesses time; it's easier to direct people to your site than to explain some subject matter over the phone. And people all over the world can become business contacts.

"The functionality of sites has gone beyond what people ever expected it to," Dixon said.

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