Buried underneath all the dot-com hoopla, the Internet runs on a simple concept - making connections. Our economy is nothing more than the sum total of these countless connections between buyers and sellers. Most of the action naturally flows to the buyers who can make a straight line out of the process - and nothing appears to have the potential to make as straight a line as the Internet.
"Other than physically picking up an order, just about every other transaction that now requires a personal visit, a phone call or fax can be replicated on the Internet - and done with much less time wasted waiting for answers, oftentimes very simple answers," says Kevin Price, the director of the American Supply Association's Center for Advancing Technology.