There is absolutely no argument on the point that technology has strode to great lengths to make life easier for us. One such advancement has been in the world of communication, specially with the advancement of the computer technology. The Internet has formed a major parcel of any Internet savvy individual's life, or for the matter even non-savvy ones. One of them is the electronic greeting e cards or Ecards as they are popularly known as. A bridge that takes a few seconds to cross, the Ecards along with the Emails have made sure that we stay in touch without fail, without any hassles.

What is an Ecard and what does it do exactly ? Are they just fun ways to communicate and connect with people on the net, or simply send greetings to ? No... an Ecard is much more than that. It is a digital greeting card or post card that is created on the web and sent to an individual via the web. In it , the user usually chooses a pre-written card style with an image or images, message and add their personal message to it, to make it more personalized. Once the recipient's e-mail address is provided, the recipient receives a mail with a link to the Ecard provider's web page, and this link would go to the Ecard as a web page. There are usually five common types of visual Ecards found. Flash cards, Postcards (usually static), Animated cards, which are similar to postcards but have some repeated movements, Java Script cards and Talking cards. Flash cards are the most advanced and the most popular ones as they create an entire animated effect, can be interactive and hence offer lot of variations to the user.

The popularization of Ecards begun back in 1996. They became a popular and easy feature for the web masters to offer at a low cost. It was also around this time that the Ecard sites emerged. These Ecards were added to large portals and many corporate websites as part of friendly public relations, branding and community relations, and hence emerged as a lead generation tool. But all is not easy for these electronic greeting cards. They come under serious virus attacks, Spam attacks and a whole lot of problems related to the web. Yet, they are very popular amongst all age groups and are not only restricted to the young as in the previous years.

There are some who believe that the medium of Ecards have destroyed the personal effects that paper greetings used to offer. Though this argument cannot be totally denied, there is also some truth in the fact that Ecards do offer personalization to a large extent, just minus the handwritten words. You definitely don't get the chance to write in them with pen and pencil but it more than makes up for this disability by making sure the card is sent to the receiver in few seconds flat ! Apart from this, the Ecards also makes sure that the receiver gets to hear your voice when they open the card, it more than makes up for the lack of written personalization by giving the effect of your voice. There are also lot of other options such as animations and visual effects, making it visually very appealing.

Ultimately, the argument will continue. Neither of the believers of modernity and traditionalism will be happy with their verdict. But it is seen that in this modern world, technology happens to make things faster and easier. So Ecards too are here to stay and it all depends on us how we manage to add that extra touch to these electronic greeting cards and make them more personal and closer to the ones we send too.