Well I beg to differ. I'm sure there are some well dodgy sites about but there are also some damned good ones that work quickly and intuitively. For instance I used the Interflora web site the other day to buy my bloke some flowers (no I hadn't done anything wrong just thought it would be nice - girls can send flowers too you know). Anyway I thought the site was cool. It just had a few little 'things' that it did nicely. For instance I liked the way it asked me if the adddress I used to register was the same address I wanted to send the flowers too. With one click I could have duplicated the delivery address as my own. You could setup calendars with memorable addresses so you would be reminded when it was dear little Tommy's birthday and such the like, you get the general idea, it was a good site. Anyhow, I bought a red rose in a bottle after having a bit of a browse round and sent the flowers to his work. He got them and was suitably embarrassed. No bothers. I buy books online and have never had any bother, I think I must have been one of the few people that spent money with boo.com and thought the site was really impressive. Whenever I have shopped online I've always recieved the goods on time and never had any sort of fraud trouble with money disappearing from my accounts. Now I don't want you thinking I'm some kind of shopaholic, because I'm not, but those were just a few sites that proved Mr Kewney wrong. Having made my point that there are some decent shopping sites about. I also reckon that they are improving and there are companies setting up to help everyone online buy and sell in a more secure fashion. For instance I went to a press briefing the other day of a company called I trust you.com. It was set up late last year and now provides a completely secure online escrow service for for consumer to consumer (C2C), business to consumer (B2C) and a slightly different service for business to business (B2B). Without wishing to sound condescending if you don't know what escrow is I reckon you will be hearing it alot soon and for the purposes of this explanation -- 'escrow is allowing the buyer to put money into the custody of a third party for delivery to the seller after the agreed fulfillment of the sale.' It's a great idea for auction sites to ensure that your limited 'beanie baby' isn't a fake (I met a bloke from a newstand mag called Mary Beths Beanie Baby World who was at the press briefing for just those reasons) or to check that Rolex watch you bought for a super-low price isn't hotter than hell. I trust you.com (silly name I know) holds onto the money for an agreed evaluation time before it releases the money to the seller if the buyer is happy or arranges return of the goods and the buyer gets his or her money back. Simple. The B2B version of this does have a reduced security model but it does allow the seller to setup an e-commerce venture without the hassle of trying to get a Merchant Bank account. Now I know this is only one company that I have offered as proof of the improvements that are happening and will continue to happen but there are others and undoutedly there will be more. Some of the bits of software that are knocking about such as HAHT Site (you pronounce it 'hot' but using an American accent) which is B2B software for e-selling. I saw a demo of it last year and I was very impressed. There are many other shrink wrapped products about for getting your self up and e-selling. e-commerce is on the up. The founders of these e-places are beginning to realise shoppers don't continue shopping if there is no one there to help them when something extraordinary happens. Something as simple as including a telephone number on a web site is always 'a good thing', making software multi currency and multi lingual helps too. If we are to truly use the all encompassing'ness of the web to its full potential we need all these things and more, some have got it right and some are working bloody hard to make it loads better. If you're waiting for e-commerce don't hold your breath, it's already here. To have your say online click on the TalkBack button and go to the ZDNet forums.