In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, if the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Nonetheless, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because doubts about its reliability. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access in the company’s private intranet. Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce is concerned the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to" pull" customers into sites. In the past year, additionally, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to" push" information directly out to consumers, transmits marketing messages directly to targeted customers. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks high of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. As long as commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninviting, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That’s a prospect that horrifies Net purists. But it is hardly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to push strategies to make money. The examples of Virtual Vineyards, Amazon. corn, and other pioneers show that a Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hostility, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprise setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may as well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge. ______