Microsoft Outlook offers what may be the world's most extensive collection of holidays, with civil holidays in nations from Algeria to Yemen, plus Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religious observances. Outlook 97 thought Thanksgiving was on Wednesday, and Outlook 98 was off by a week on Memorial Day this year. I haven't found any glitches in Outlook 2000, but old ones can be carried forward when you upgrade. Go to the site, search for ''holidays,'' and download your selection. Small business is playing a particularly large part in the trend as all sorts of companies vie to offer specially tailored sites for goods and services.
Technology is a major draw for online business shoppers.
Naturally, there are plenty of upstarts, too. It also offers such services as Web-site hosting, payroll preparation, and paging. It lets you set up shopping lists for repetitive supply purchases and allows you to create group accounts in which different employees are given different levels of purchasing authority. If you're having trouble figuring out how something works or what you need, you can find advice, too. The site is a visual mess and tends to open a new browser window every time you click on a link, but the info is lively and up to the minute.