1 World Plaza

This electronic shopping mall has a directory of 35 online stores selling everything from audio books to baby blankets. It's organized well and designed nicely, but the stores aren't located on-site; you'll just find links to the stores' own Web addresses. Moreover, the mall offers no such amenities as security, or a food court.-WKC

B-

America's Choice Mall

When you enter this E-Mall, you'll find a small variety of products; mostly strange mail order niche things. Most of the storefronts are on-site, and online ordering is available through a secure form. The graphics won't win any awards, and the organization is a little odd, allowing the user to select a mall by state, which doesn't make too much sense in the extra-geographical realm of the Internet.-WKC

B-

Bargain Finder Agent Prototype

This brilliant little utility from Andersen Consulting does your music shopping for you. Just enter the artist and album title you want to find, and Bargain Finder goes to nine online music stores, and comes back with prices. Or it would if CDNow, NetMarket, and CDLand weren't blocking it -- Bargain Finder seems to have problems integrating with other stores' search forms. The only store it consistently returned prices from was CDworld.-WKC

B+

">DreamShop



One of the more cumbersome URLs in existence hosts TimeWarner's DreamShop, a collection of upscale catalogs including Eddie Bauer, The Sharper Image, Williams-Sonoma, and The Bombay Company. The site is colorful despite its sanitized corporate feel, and suggests an aura of having never been touched by human hands or imagination. Features include the Personal Shopper search engine, which facilitates searches under Timeless Classics, Under $20, and Indulge yourself. -RK

B+

Jumbo Shareware

With almost 50,000 programs, Jumbo can definitely claim to be the Internet's "Official Shareware" site. Shareware and freeware is categorized by type, then operating system. Once you find something you like, you'll link to a list of FTP sites from where the software can be downloaded. The number of sites varies depending on the software. Nice graphics. If it exists, it's probably here.-WKC

A-

Net 1

Net 1 promotes NetChex, a system for secure Internet money transactions. NetChex software can be downloaded from this site. One problem is that the software only exists in PC format. Another more serious problem is that few vendors have adopted NetChex as a standard. If nobody accepts our NetChex, we can't very well spend our money, can we? An impressive looking site on the surface, but NetChex has yet to deliver the goods.-WKC

C-