Every technology needs a killer app - something that will make millions of people go out and buy it. Like those out-of-town zoos the railway companies built to lure city dwellers onto their line, and the X-rated movies that provided the economic basis for VCRs. This Christmas, it's becoming obvious that gifts are the killer app for the Web. Last year, the geeks bought other geeks their gifts online - this year it's you, me and lots of people like us.
For those of us who buy gifts for people far away, online shopping is a godsend. To get books for my family in Ireland and England, I don't have to trudge to my local bookshop, find gift wrapping and then line up at the post office any more. I just log on to Amazon.co.uk, order up everything, complete with gift-wrapping, tell them the various addresses and I'm done.
Going the other way, there are many online choices - and if you're reading this and still haven't completed your gift purchases for US-based family and friends, please have pencil and paper ready.
For books, videos and lots more, there's Amazon.com - awesome selection, fast website, two-day delivery and excellent gift-wrapping. For toys, this year's hot site is etoys.com. Search by brand, by age group, by product - again, an excellent all-round service including delivery.
For technology, it's hard to beat buy.com. It's hard to forget its name, too. I bought a computer screen there a few days ago and was stunned by the choice and value.
In the tricky area of clothes, the smart choice is gap.com. Gap stores have long been the place to go for mainstream casual clothes, and its online offering manages to combine the best of the stores with the ease of online shopping. It even allows clothes bought online to be exchanged at "real" stores. I'd hate to be doing the back office accounting for that, but it's a significant benefit for customers.
More edgy clothes for Generation Y girls can be ordered at dELiAs.com (yes, it really is spelt that way) and for teenage boys check out droog.com. CDs of all stripes are online at cdnow.com.
The best coffee and tea is at peets.com, while an excellent wine source is virtualvineyards.com. At Virtual Vineyards, you can even set up a wine-of-the-month delivery to your grateful US-based relative. In a throwback to the Prohibition years, some states still don't allow shipments of alcohol, but the site has all the details on how to cope with that.
All the signs are that online gift shopping is going to be a real winner this year. Jupiter Communications predicts $7 billion (£4.7 billion) in online sales in 1998, with $2.3 billion over this period. That's more than double what was spent in 1997.
These numbers can only grow as US households continue to buy computers - more than 60 per cent of them are expected to have them by 2000, according to analyst Dataquest - and as more name brands go online.
Of course online transactions lack the charm of doing last-minute shopping on Grafton Street on Christmas Eve and bumping into everybody you ever knew. But wouldn't it be nice just to enjoy yourself stress-free instead, knowing all those electronic-gnomes had already done all the hard work on your behalf? Happy CyberChristmas!
Frank O'Mahony can be contacted at frank@liffey.com
