Best of the Web 2001

E-Commerce

Gavel Down

EBay

EBay has long been synonymous with online auctions, despite competition from powerhouses like Yahoo and Amazon. Its 11 regional sites encourage international surfers to participate in an activity largely restricted in the past to U.S. residents. And unlike some of its competitors, EBay has the critical mass of users needed for a person-to-person marketplace to work.

Runner-Up: EWanted puts a new spin on auctions: Buyers can post requests for items in the same way that sellers post their goods.

-- Emru Townsend

Cell Phone Plans

GetConnected.com

Choosing a cellular phone and service provider is an arduous chore. Fortunately, GetConnected.com helps you navigate the morass of pricing plans, service options, and phones with charts and shopping aids.

Our favorite feature: Estimates of typical monthly bills for different plans based on the level of usage you forecast. The site also offers comparison-shopping sections for PDAs, satellite and cable TV services, and long-distance phone carriers.

Runner-Up: Point.com has a good set of tools for cell phone shopping as well as articles about wireless services.

-- Yardena Arar

Consumer Advice

ConsumerSearch

Reading product reviews can be tedious, especially when it involves trying to make sense of divergent opinions. ConsumerSearch simplifies this task. Pick any category, and you'll get detailed summaries of reviews from top magazines (including PC World) and Web sites as well as a ranking of a reviewer's reliability; a breakdown of product features; and links to other resources.

Runner-Up: Though not as thorough as ConsumerSearch, ReviewFinder casts a wider net for online reviews, and its editors sometimes write their own.

-- Emru Townsend

Buyer Beware

RatingWonders.com

You've found a great digital camera deal at an online store you've never heard of. Before you hand over your credit card number, get the lowdown on the vendor's legitimacy. RatingWonders.com can provide an overall rating of the site or a department-by-department analysis that assesses everything from product selection to spelling and grammar.

And if you decide to pass on the unknown supplier, RatingWonders.com can help you find another e-store based on the criteria you specify as most important. Customer comments and ratings provide insight into whether the store lives up to its promises.

Runner-Up: BizRate.com's comparison-shopping tool lets you strike a balance between product price and store ratings.

-- Emru Townsend

Build Your Own PC

NECX Direct

NECX Direct sells everything you need to build a PC from scratch, and the site is well designed. You can usually reach a compact product listing in two clicks. From there, you can compare products or access detailed specs. Shipping costs are calculated automatically for the items in your shopping cart.

Runner-Up: TC Computers is less extensive but offers excellent prices and unique features like the Configurator, which lets you order all the parts for a custom-built PC in one interface.

-- Eric Dahl

Best Bot

My Simon

Most of us don't have time to hop from site to site ferreting out the best deal, so MySimon does the job for us. It's easy to use, and it tracks a large number of merchants (who pay a fee to be listed).

The bot lets you reorganize listings--for example, by filtering out merchants that charge restocking fees. You can use customized menus to specify the product features you want. MySimon also includes merchant ratings by Gomez.

Runner-Up: PriceGrabber.com lets you punch in your zip code to receive approximate shipping and tax charges with your product listing. (PriceGrabber.com provides prices and specs for PCWorld.com's Product Finder feature.)

-- Aoife McEvoy