The report says online retail is strong in many industry categories, including computers, autos, books, sporting goods and catalog sellers. What's significant is that many analysts predicted a sharp drop after the Christmas season. But that didn't happen, which is welcome news for today's surviving e-tailers — and downright encouraging for dotbams stepping up their Web efforts.

The dotcoms were beginning to look at Old Economy issues like costs, cashflows and tangible assets.

Almost simultaneously, we started seeing a wave of Old Economy companies joining in the surf. They were beginning to dotcom their brick-and-mortar businesses, i.e., dotBAM.

Traditional bricks and mortar stores ('dot-bams') will have to face start-ups with a business model which harnesses user buying power.