Trying Out Form and Poll Makers

Hardly a day passes without someone announcing the results of some kind of poll: “Thirty-two percent of city residents prefer smog.” “The For Dummies nerd’s approval rating climbed by 4 percent in the past week.” “Quantum physics confuses nine people out of five.” For whatever reason, people are fascinated by other people’s feelings about different subjects. And people love to toss in their two bits’ worth whenever they see a survey form. Here are a few common uses for Web site survey forms:

Feedback on product quality: “How do you rate our new release?”
Opinions on social issues: “Should we pay more attention to threatened species?”
Preferences between political candidates: “Do you plan to vote Democrat, Republican, or Independent?”
Requests for new site features: “Check the services you want us to add.”

It’s not just polls, though. The amount and variety of information gathered via forms on the Web are staggering. Visitor information, prospect inquiries, and product orders are only a few uses of forms. If the idea of using forms interests you, but you’re not comfortable with CGI, or Common Gateway Interface (see Chapter 8), you may want to try out some of the form makers and processing services that are described in this section.

A tremendous amount of overlap exists between the folks who offer free forms and those who offer form-processing services. Many of the form makers also provide CGI services, although they usually limit them to servicing ...

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