E-comm picks and pans

Our annual look at what's right - and wrong - with e-commerce.

By Julie Bort
Network World, 02/26/01

Site that sells the most unusual wares: Stupid.com

For those yearning for truly unique purchases, no site surpasses Stupid.com. Its wares include The Pregnant Woman key chain (which depicts a baby in utero), pig measuring cups and underwear made out of bubble gum. Appropriately, it bills itself as "a complete waste of perfectly good technology."

Pets.com could be the poster child for the dot-com era. It banked $66 million in venture funding in 1999, went public in early 2000 and spent lavishly on TV ads like a $2 million Super Bowl spot. Its one, seemingly minor, hitch was that it had no market. People don't want to order dog food over the Web. Three months ago it earned the distinction of being the first publicly traded dot-com to close shop completely. The once-prized real estate, Pets.com, is now operated by brick-and-mortar retailer Petsmart.

This site lets subscribers download more than 10,000 medically accurate, full-color illustrations of the human body and, even more interesting, the human body after an injury. Pitched as a service to lawyers - the personal injury type, of course - it is also seemingly popular with criminal forensics folks. It's a site for sore eyes.

Godiva offers Wireless Application Protocol-enabled phone users a nifty store locator, a real problem solver when out and about and a chocolate attack hits. Equally handy is Edmunds, an auto shopping advice site. While cruising the car lot, who wouldn't rather punch dozens of cellphone keys for answers to questions than deal with a smirking salesperson?

As of November 2000, you can no longer buy postage over the Internet from E-stamp. It phased out its Internet postage operations after spending $20 million on a hokey ad campaign that featured home-office stamp buyers. It's not out of business entirely, though; the company still sells logistics software.

For less than $25 per month in most states, PrePaidLegal.com gives people access to a lawyer who can assist in common legal problems. The company uses its Web site to sign on new clients to this nationwide legal co-op of sorts and answer questions on items such as contracts or wills.

Know any scientists in need of a clone? Point them to this e-commerce site, from which they can order one. The site, based on the Genome Project, hosts a pay-on-demand database of 60,000 genes. The site identifies genes, offers data on their characteristics and models sequences. Likewise, Incyte.com also sells clone-making equipment, in the form of "proprietary cDNA and genomic clones."

This bartering hub lets businesses trade what they have for what they need. By paying Bigvine.com a 3% or 4% fee on the estimated value of the product or service, businesses can trade for hundreds of items. These range from industrial equipment to fax machines.

With night vision binoculars, wristwatch cameras, voice analyzers and lie detector software for sale, this site is a must for anyone planning intrigue of the James Bond variety. And if the spy gadgets aren't enough, you can hire a private investigator or sign up for a home-study spy course, too.

Network World Fusion Executive Editor Adam Gaffin contributed to this report. Contact Signature Series Senior Editor Julie Bort at jbort@nww.com.