This article is about a term used in economics. For other uses, see service (disambiguation).

In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership, and this is what differentiates it from providing physical goods. It is claimed to be a process that creates benefits by facilitating either a change in customers, a change in their physical possessions, or a change in their intangible assets.

By supplying some level of skill, ingenuity, and experience, providers of a service participate in an economy without the restrictions of carrying stock (inventory) or the need to concern themselves with bulky raw materials. On the other hand, their investment in expertise does require marketing and upgrading in the face of competition which has equally few physical restrictions.

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July 4th, 2008: A trip down memory lane
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:29:59 -0700
A 1 question civics quiz Today American's celebrate the Declaration of Independence, the legal foundation of the USA and, after the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States. I revere the Constitution as a magnificent piece of political engineering. But it...
Say it ain't so AVG, say it ain't so: AVG LinkScanner = Badware?
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:11:01 -0700
The Register covered a very interesting story about AVG.  Apparently AVG is spamming the Internet with traffic that looks to be coming from Internet Explorer.  AVG software pre-crawls search results to try to protect users, but uses a user agent that makes the software appear to be Internet Explorer.  This pre-crawling is flooding websites with...
Beaches and BBQs vs. Blackberrys: Holiday weekends of the IT set
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:48 -0700
"Weekend? What's a weekend?" While the rest of the country is escaping their offices for a leisurely weekend, many in IT could end up back at theirs at the beep of a Blackberry. by Deb Perelman
Airport security part 4: Attack of the body scanners!
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:52:00 -0700
If you read my blog postings semi-often, you know that I'm very, very critical of problems with airport security.  Nicole Wong of the Boston Globe reported that Boston's Logan International Airport will become the next airport to implement full-body scanners (thanks for the link from the LiquidMatrix guys!) that can see...
First look at Ubuntu 8.10 - Intrepid Ibex
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:01:09 -0700
On Saturday the first alpha release of Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" was made available for download. So what's new on the horizon for Ubuntu users? by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Getaway day: How to secure your laptop for holiday travel
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:24:20 -0700
It's getaway day and as we prepare to hit the road, trudge through airport security and snag that car rental, spare a thought for the valuable data that travels with you on that trusty old laptop. According to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, more than...

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