The Internet is playing an important role in how the consumers receive information. It has become a very powerful tool for business enhancement and publicity. But the same characteristics of online media—speedy, easy and positive communications—are some of the ways of spreading negative and unwanted news or rumors for individuals and organizations. The `Word-of-Mouse' is becoming as important as `Word-of-Mouth'. This article discusses the role of Internet-triggered crises for individuals and organizations and the role of the Internet in defusing such crises. It also highlights the various media that generate online crises and suggests ways and means of avoiding them and the necessary tools for resolving them.

Resolving a crisis is not a new phenomenon, but monitoring new ways of Internet-triggered crisis and resolving them online are the new responsibilities for the marketing community and corporates. Horton (1998) states that the crisis may be offline or online in nature.

The dependency of consumers, journalists, research scholars and writers on Internet search engines has increased manifold and this dependency is forcing corporates to pay attention to their online reputation and crisis management. According to the Wirthlin Report of February, 2004 on the US and the UK online users, two out of five receive negative news and information from websites, on an average;those who forward negative e-mails send them to six people, about 10% of the online population influences other online users and the negative online publicity really hurts the corporate reputation.

No doubt, the Internet has changed people's lifestyles, behaviors and mode of communication and it is a blessing for human kind, but at the same time, it has also brought with it crisis potential, for individuals, governments, non-governmental organizations and business houses. According to Neil (2000), there are three ways in which the Internet can play an integral role in crisis management.

Advertising Express Magazine, Online Crisis Management, Marketing Community, Online Communication, Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, Universal Resource Locators, URLs, Copycat Websites, Counter Intelligence, Internet Media, Research Scholars, Crisis Management Team, Online Reputation Management, Web Search Engine Optimization, Industry-related Forums, Counter Intelligence.