E-greeting cards are simply the cards that are used for the web instead of being printed. These are now widely available online and can 
be sent to the recipients through e-mail messages. Since papers and other materials are not used in the production of these types of cards, these are considered as more environment-friendly. These are also known as digital content and can be used as highly flexible greeting solutions that can be customized to send the appropriate messages, depending on what the sender would like to say.
Since these are digital contents, these e-greeting cards can be saved in storage devices and can be accessed using television. These types of greeting cards are easy to use and this can be seen in some of the leading providers of these cards including OhMyGoodness.com and American Greetings. The first thing that the user should do is to select the card that will suit his taste. Once the card from the 123 Greetings and Greeting-Cards.com has been selected then that’s the time that the message or the design can be personalized. Once ready, the e-greeting cards are ready for shipping.
The technology for these products was popularized by Judith Donath and was started in 1994. Though it has been a few years since the introduction of the technology, still there are some aspects of the technology that remains the same and one example is how the card is delivered to the client.
When delivering the e-greeting cards, the recipient will not actually get the cards from Amazon.com E-Cards and MoMA rather the recipient will only get the code and the link going back to the homepage of E-Greetings or Retro Cards.
There are now different kinds of e-cards offered in the market depending on the top features included in the designs. There are cards that make use of Flash animation.
The animated greeting cards are highly popular and used by many publishers including Blue Mountain Arts and Hallmark. Also, video e-greeting cards are now popular where the sender can personalized the message of the cards by adding videos aside from the textual contents.
Top 10 eCard Websites:
- eCardica.com : At eCardica.com, some of the cards are Flash-based while others are just photos with a message attached. eCardica.com is easy to use and advertisement free. The detailed holiday categories are the best part of the site.
- Virtual Florist : There are over 1000 free ecards at Virtual Florist. Most of the free ecards feature flowers but there are also some that don’t. The Virtual Florist website is very easy to use and doesn’t have any advertisements getting in the way.
- Care2 : All of the ecards at Care2 support environmental causes. They have a huge selection of beautiful ecards for lots of different occasions. The site is easy to use and they even have ecards that let you add your own photo. For every ecard you send from Care2 a donation is made to save the rainforest.
- Hipster Cards : These aren’t your mother’s greeting cards. Hipster Cards has a bunch of free ecards that are full of attitude and wit. Categories like “Retro & Vintage” and “Strange Clowns” are what make this site unique.
- Rattlebox : Rattlebox features free video ecards for a ton of different occasions. The site is fun and easy to use. You do have to register to be able to send a video ecard, but it’s completely free to do so.
- Someecards : Someecards offers a unique selection of free ecards which feature sassy pencil drawn characters.You can choose from a large group of premade ecards or create your own card by entering text and choosing a background color and image to go with it.
- eCardster : There aren’t any frills at eCardster but that’s one reason it’s such a great site. You simply upload your own photo or choose one from the gallery, add your message and send it off.
- Imaginaryecards : Imaginaryecards features over 900 free ecards that have stunning nature inspired designs. The site is so easy to use that you can have an ecard picked out and sent in just a few minute’s time.
- HDgreetings : HDgreetings is in a class of its own with hi-def video ecards. You can even add a photo that appears with your message at the end of the video. The ecards here are a mixture of ones you have to pay for and ones that are free. The free ecards won’t have a green star underneath them.
- Hallmark : While Hallmark has a lot of ecards you have to pay for, you can find plenty of cute ecards here that are free. To find the free ecards, just choose an occasion and look for the ones that say “FREE” underneath them.