Not all Internet businesses and services are doing as well as expected. E-Commerce Times reports that 43 percent of shoppers visit etailers sites intending to buy, but end up leaving without purchasing an item or contacting customer service. Reasons included slow-loading pages, difficulty in finding products and problems with checkout. A report by Insight Express shows that only 7 percent of US consumers have ever purchased goods from an online drugstore. Online Banking is also not as popular as expected.
Internet users are concerned about intrusion into their personal lives.
More than 80 percent of Americans are worried that data held by the Government could be misused, according to a survey by the Information Technology Association of America. And US consumers are more concerned about losing their personal privacy than they are about key public policy issues such as health care, crime and taxes, according to a study commissioned by the National Consumers League. The crystal ball When television was new, families gathered around the electronic hearth watching the test pattern. That wore off pretty darn quick. When the Internet was fresh, users would surf mindlessly, amazed at where their random clicks transported them.