The rapid growth of the Internet is taking place in the whole world. According the analysts, by 2003 the number of Internet users will reach 500 million. Co-founder and director of Media Laboratory of Massachusets Institute of Technology, the leading organisation working in the field of multimedia software design Mr. N. Negroponte estimated the number at 1 billion. In his opinion, the growth will take place due to the potential users in developing countries, which are not taken into consideration in other prognoses. The same estimations are being made for the "jewellery" Internet. Broader speaking, for the Internet of the precious metal and stone market.

The virtual world of the Internet is divided into smaller islands brought together by the integrated world wide web. The islands are called web sites (web servers) and they develop by laws, established by the author of an island (web designer). Any user can create his/her own site and their total number exceeds 1 billion. However, it is not all that simple in the Internet reality for it has its own global marketing laws.

Web sites can be divided into three main categories: information, representative and personal. Russian "jewellery" Internet is represented by all three. Representative and personal sites carry the same meaning. The former is an electronic office of a company and the latter present a person. The two types share the same problem: it is easy to get lost among all other sites, it is of great importance that you become known to and visited by a good number of people. Presently there are approximately 200 we sites and pages on jewellery. In case you want to find any of them you have to be acquainted with the laws of the Internet. The half of the sites that you will be able to find, is likely to be found on the pages of various information sites.

One of the most well-known information sites of Russian "jewellery" Internet is the web server "Russian Jewellery Network". Registered at its pages are over 60 Russian "jewellery" sites, and its database contains information on 60 thousand companies located all over the world. A remarkable feature of the site is not only its presenting general information and information on other sites, but also maintaining of an interactive forum on its pages. As a rule, participating in the site increases the rating of a participant. To give an example of a web site: Lithica - Historical Gemmology Society, GREY STONE and Dolphin Ore companies, specializing in costume jewellery. According to the rating of Top-100 (Rambler), the number of Lithica visitors is at least 30 people a month. The site is not a member of Russian Jewellery Network. The number of visitors of the other two sites, members of Russian Jewellery Network, is much higher and reaches 500 visitors a month. The sites are , of no doubt, interesting by themselves, but without due advertizing no one would know that they exist. The number of visitors of the server Russian Jewellery Network itself is approximately 5 thousand a month and keeps growing.

Besides making your site known to other Internet inhabitants, it is important to make it well-structured and appealing, which is again impossible without knowing of the Internet rules. There is a number of points that can seriously influence the attendance of your site and, therefore, the success of your whole enterprise. One of the most typical mistakes of a number of web sites is the incompatibility of images in different Internet systems (Netscape and Explorer). Thus, some personal web pages have incompatible image systems and so not many people would be willing to visit the page again. In this case the best thing to do is to use the services of the Internet experts and ask them to design your electronic ofiice.

Another problem existing in the real and interactive community is the security of your island - state. Your site may not an electronic bank operating millions of dollars through the Internet. Therefore, you are not an object for "bloodthirsty" hackers. But no one can guarantee that your site will not be invaded by more experienced user wishing to make fun of a newcomer. To prevent this from happening it is best to turn to those specializing in the area. There is quite a number of web studios professionally designing web sites. However, there is only one studio specializing in web design of "jewellery" sites - Russian Jewellery Network. At the pages of the server you can find many examples of what an electronic office should look like. In particular, web server of the Assay Office of Russia was designed by the Network professionals.