Invasion of the Browser Snatchers Analysis/Commentary No matter how often you explain to people that cyberspace isn't flat, round, or otherwise geographically apportioned, they seldom understand. In chat rooms, chatters invariably ask each other "a/s/l?" (age/sex/location), feeling that the compass points that apply to good old terra firma also apply to the Net. But on the Net, geography simply isn't an issue. On the Net, you hop or transport yourself as effortlessly as "Beam me down, Scotty." Early this year the craze was to erect "vertical portals." If you needed glasses, you went to an eyeglass shop; if you wanted to play games, you went to a gaming site, etc. Only, the Web never worked that way; the Web, as an information medium, follows trails of associations rather than point-to-point excursions. Now a number of clever e-commerce site builders have discovered the new geography of browsing, and stand to challenge hubs, vertical portals, and other woefully cyber-landlocked locations. Auction sites, for example, pull information from scattered points to present it all on a single list. Bid.com, for instance, has rapidly risen on the Web popularity charts through its easy-to-use interface and ability to bring together -- "aggregate" -- buyers and sellers. New shopping places on the Web include Shoppinglist.com, Shopnow.com, and Fashionmall.com. (A year ago, these sites were practically unknown.) Shoppinglist.com offers a point of consolidation to shoppers looking for deals, and pushes customers to physical stores by providing a store locator. Many of the names on Shoppinglist aren't sanctioned for Shoppinglist's use by their proprietors, but since the law currently allows sites to link to other sites and to make fair use of names, Shoppinglist thrives. What Shoppinglist sells is information, including information about discounts and sales promotions, and it actually transacts with lesser-known name bearers, while prominently displaying better-known ones. Shopnow.com offers an alternative to the tiring drill-down or drill-up method used by most e-commerce shops. It gives the customer a choice of ways to buy: auction, dropping price bidding, comparison shopping, and "name your product" or "name your price." The site brings buyers and sellers together according to terms defined by buyers. Fashionmall.com "co-sponsors" links to e-commerce sites, creating a synergy between them, and charging the name-bearers a yearly fee. It also provides a nifty search engine that helps shoppers identify what they want by function, category, or brand. Clearly, the Web has been invaded by "browser snatchers," snatching browsing customers who want to be informed about what they are buying. This lateral sweep of shopping across the Web tends to validate the dimensions of cyberspace, their freedom and lack of limits. July 19, 2000