Where a single site contains a number of subsets of pages which in themselves satisfied the criteria for inclusion, home pages of these subsections were included. Sites which consisted solely of commercial advertisement were not included. Over 500 sites, and 1500 pages, were investigated in the preparation of this report, yielding fewer than 100 sites worthy of inclusion. Notes It should be noted that this document represents a snapshot of some of the available information at an early stage in the development of the Internet, and WWW in particular, as a conduit for the exchange and dissemination of commercial information. The information currently available via the WWW is especially fluid and subject to rapid change.
Information gaps Few sites show commodity prices, or summary information.
Few sites from developing countries, many of those which do exist are actually based in the United States. This document was the vision of Bernard Ancel , of the International Trade Centre 's Trade Information Service.