Internet pundits Mark Hurst and Robert Seidman have now launched their report, In Search of E-Commerce, in which they produce critical reviews of seven top sites currently doing business on-line (CI No 3,414). The sites are, in alphabetical order: Amazon.com, AOL, Apple, Barnes & Noble, CD Now, Dell and Microsoft Expedia, chosen, explained Hurst, who previously founded New York gaming firm Yoyodyne, because they were well-known, and are considered success stories. While each had its strong and weak points, the overall winner was, interestingly, the Expedia travel site, which had a very easy ordering process, said Hurst. The site that came off worst was Apple’s, on which Hurst eventually purchased the G3 used to write the report. The ordering process was not a seamless one, not least because he had to download his receipt in .PDF format in order to print it out, which in turn meant going away to download Acrobat Reader. As this took an hour, by the time he was back to ordering his computer, that part of the site had logged off automatically because of the delay, which in turn meant his order was lost, and he had to start all over again. Then when that was complete, he still had to phone an Apple store, which could find no record of his order on the database, obliging him to place it for the third time. Hurst says the report, which retails at $1,300 on-line and $1,500 via fax or mail, is aimed at anyone with an e-commerce site.
