E-business Technology evolution

Describe the importance of understanding the technology roots of e-Business. Every e-Business we see today has technological roots and business roots. Look at Amazon.com.
Question: Did the founders come up with the idea of selling books?
Answer:NO!
Question: Did they invent the Web browser?
Answer: NO!
What they did was capitalize on the Web and say, "Hey, how can I utilize these new technologies to make money?"
Actually, a better statement might be, "How do I get the money to incorporate existing technologies to create a place where people will go to spend money?"
Taking a closer look at Amazon.com
Almost every customer benefit/functionality you find on Amazon's Web site existed before the day Amazon.com was even conceived, and there are metaphors for each.

Question: Before Amazon came along, how did we know a book was good?
Answer: Word of mouth, formal book reviews in newspapers or magazines, and browsing our favorite bookstore sections for enticing covers.

Business Metaphors

Amazon instantiates these business functions through browser functionality such as the reader reviewer, author review, and "Featured in Media" sections of its portal site. This is the business/customer metaphor, but what is the technology metaphor of Amazon.com?

For book reviews in particular, technology metaphor is based on the electronic bulletin boards/newsgroups developed in the early days of the Internet. Prior to the electronic bulletin board, we used physical bulletin board, magnets on a fridge, and the famous sticky note.

This module is about both technology-oriented metaphors and business-oriented metaphors. Business metaphors are relatively straightforward, as it is simply taking business practices and putting them on the Web. Technology metaphors and their relationship to business requires an understanding of Internet technology evolution. Note, technology metaphors push technology forward and support an evolution. Technologies emerge, merge, get thrown out, acquired, etc. Understanding the evolution and relationships between technologies and business models should help you better understand not only what is possible, but how the possible can be achieved.