December Web Walk: Shop 'til you drop

Computer Life column for 12/06/97 by
Richard Gordon

Half the fun of going to the Mall is gazing at all the merchandise, even if you buy him socks and handkerchiefs again.

Half the fun of shopping on-line is seeing what oddities you find before you end up at Amazon (www.amazon.com) ordering gift books-pumping a little money into the local economy thanks to their New Castle warehouse.

Thousands of businesses from Land's End (www.landsend.com) to Wal-Mart (www.wal-mart.com) seem to have on-line Web stores, open all hours.

By the way, the Land's End site is better organized and faster than it was 6 months ago. But they do caution that "We've done our best to represent our products' colors accurately, but the color calibration of computer monitors can vary considerably." In short, "pine green" might be "greener" than the greyish color I see on my screen.

Of course, on a crowded Net at 24,400bps, shopping can sometimes be rather frustrating. For example, Noodle Kidoodle's Web site (www.noodlekidoodle.com) was too busy every night I tried it. Other toy sites did much better: Zany Brainy (www.zanybrainy.com), eToys (www.etoys.com), and toys.com (www.toys.com) are my faves. Try the CarJam game at toys.com.

Sometimes the mall is better

When the malls are crowded, it may be more efficient to visit Macy's (www.macys.com) or Wal-Mart on-line. But do we really need to be able to order Lenore the Snoring Lamb for $19.99 (batteries not included; shipping extra; not suitable for children under 3) from Macy's with three clicks of our mouse buttons?

Macy's Web site is a perfect example of a print ad campaign that translates poorly when moved to the Web. In their gift giving area, entitled "shop for bright gift ideas," there are links to several ambiguously cute gift categories inscribed on garish Christmas tree lights. Will "action heroes" lead to toys for my third grade boy, to sporting goods, to exercise equipment, or something else?

If this were a catalog, the cute slogans would introduce the clearly visible merchandise. If the slogans were on in-store banners, they would attract attention to the merchandise on display. On the Web, the cute slogans are confusing.

And when those garish lights stand alone, pointing skyward on category pages and downward on pages describing individual items, they appear embarrassingly phallic.

Web shopping at its best

Let's face it. Unless you're gold-bricking at the office with a high speed connection, browsing for stuff on the Web is generally slower and more frustrating than paging through catalogs while waiting for your kid's swimming lesson. And if you're not sure what you're looking for, you often prefer seeing the physical things at the store.

But here's where Web shopping really shines.

When you seek a specific item that you cannot find in any of your catalogs or at any of the stores you frequent, try using the search power of the Web. For example, you could start at some of the well-regarded on-line shopping "services": Bizrate (www.bizrate.com), Visa-Yahoo Shopping Guide (shopguide.yahoo.com), and netMarket (www.netmarket.com) are three I found useful. Check out netMarket's "gift selector."

The Web also helps with pre-shopping research. Let's say that one of Santa's elves took advantage of a pre-Thanksgiving sale to purchase a Sony Playstation for a certain good little boy. But the sales staff looked at you, I mean at this elf, like he was nuts when he inquired about soccer games for this platform.

Just go to your favorite Web search engine-this elf recommends Alta Vista (www.altavista.digital.com)-and fire off an appropriate search. Using the plus sign (+) or other tricks to narrow the search, an elf could type "+soccer +Sony +playstation +review". Spend about thirty minutes digging, and you'll find reviews of several games and places to buy them.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

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