In a U.S. economy that is nearly three-quarters services, it seems the whole darn service sector is rushing to reach customers on the Internet. The diversity will amaze you. There are even more Web-based services aimed at businesses. Some are free, but more charge fees. It's reached the point that Hewlett-Packard Co. could announce a plan a few weeks ago to create a new online software technology aimed solely at helping us make sense of this jungle.
Consumers are indeed bewildered.
No sooner do they get the hang of one new service than a slightly improved version appears from a competitor. I spent several days two months ago checking out free faxing services online, only to watch them evolve rapidly since then. Competitors are adding features in an apparent bid to create new Webtop platforms that mimic the desktop metaphor pioneered by Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh and popularized by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. I had used the Web's stand-alone bookmark services before and was glad to see them incorporated into Ureach. Not without glitches.