The eVolution Of The iNternet Family Online Shopping Mall

Do you remember how great great grandfather1996 that Microsoft finally figured it out and came
did the family shopping? He would hook up hisroaring down the road with their internet explorer.
team of horses to the big wagon put in theThe race was on.The other side of the story was
family and trudge off across the prairie for a daythe functional software development on the
or so to get to the nearest 'general store'. Onceinternet. In the beginning the only thing we could
there it was a great outing for the family. Thefigure out for the internet was file transfer (FTP).
store had everything needed from children's storeThen it dawned on someone that if we could
bought candy to mother's ready made dress. Ifread from the internet why not write to the
the store did not have that certain special iteminternet. Incredible concept! Websites began
there was always the option of the catalog.Afterpopping up all over the place.We began to see a
the turn of the century (1900 not 2000) a coupletrue information highway. Any company could
of remarkable changes occurred that begin toadvertise it presence throughout the world with
alter family shopping. America began to grow upminimal effort. The internet browser now could
and out - at least to the oceans. And theinteract with a company's data base. Of course, it
automobile made its auspicious entrance. Now thewas just a heart beat away until the website
family could get to the general store much faster.could actually sell products. The impact of this was
Mother loved that, she could make more trips is aabsolutely profound. Shopping was changing
shorter time.There was, however, an embryo ofcourse. It was now being called internet online
change being observed in the stores themselves.shopping. Family online shopping was born.Internet
The increase in populations made for more storesonline shopping is now moving so fast it is near
and a wider variety of markets. The generalimpossible to keep up from day to day. However,
store began to break up. 'Specialty' stores beganwhat goes around comes around; we are right
to emerge. Dress shops, drug stores, movieback to the 1950s, electronically speaking. The big
theaters etc. A whole group of cottage industriesboys still have their big websites. But now the little
began to make an entrance. It is true the bigspecialty ishops are filling in the blanks. They can
boys were still ever present and getting bigger.compete directly with the big companies-almost.
Sears Roebuck and Co, J. C. Penny, and othersThere are online shopping malls all over the
were still on top, still selling through the everinternet. Home shopping online, even discount
present catalogs.As our country grew throughshopping online is growing non-linearly
World War II it became more sophisticated. TheeverydayThere are now, as there always are,
little village grew into a city. This resulted in theanother set of complications that have risen with
concept of a 'town square'. The big stores wereneed to be addressed. There are literally millions
usually on opposite sides of the square with theof websites on the internet to be found or in
little specialty shops filling in the gaps. Usually thesemost cases NOT to be found. This has caused
types of cities were the county seat so youthe mushrooming of another incredibly fast most
would have a court house and a governmentmoving cottage industry in the form of Internet
office building. There was something else ofMarketing. Search engines, Pay Per Click (PPC),
importance that came into prominence throughWebsite Content etc. are all now very critical to a
this period. Access to information began to growwebsite.When you search during an online
with the appearance of the County Library.As weshopping spree, for our purposes a shopping
moved into the 1960s the automobile presented asearch, it is not uncommon to get back several
nightmare problem to family shopping that wasthousand websites. In order to truly shop you
totally unexpected. Traffic and Parking began tomust go through one website at a time until you
choke the city square concept. It is certaincan find that for which you are looking. This gives
everyone still wanted to shop, but usually at therise to the word surfing.The solutions for these
same time. It was near impossible to find aproblems are emerging in the form of holistic
parking meter on the down town streets in theonline shopping mall websites that provide
town square.American ingenuity, as usual,categories from discount shopping online to online
prevailed. We made parking the priority item andclothes shopping to surf through. The website
called it all a 'suburban shopping mall'. Now therebears the burden and responsibility of filtering and
were acres of free parking with the shops in theselecting appropriate merchants based on the
middle. The next major evolution was to airsubject of the website.The next cutting edge
condition the whole shopping mall. What's not todevelopment emerging is the 'internet online
like? The big guys where still at opposite ends ofshopping specialty ishops'. That is where a very
the shopping mall. Now there was unlimited spacenarrow subject is the focus of a 'mini website'.
for expansion of the specialty shops. Even better,For example, a 'Women's Plus Size Clothing
it was all accessible on foot. Only thing left wasSpecialty iShop' or a 'Family Scrapbooking
the food court. Now family shopping had movedSpecialty iShop'. The list for online shopping
to heaven.We refined and sharpen this concept tospecialty ishops will soon be endless. The
an art form over the next few decades. Someimportant factor here is this type of website
where during that period of time the governmentcontains only merchants for that very specific
slipped in a not understood or utilized systemspecialty. That places all the major merchants plus
which took the handle of the 'internet'. So what?many of the competitive smaller online shopping
Nothing happened for a long time. Then the nextwebsite within one click of the customer. It
stunning invention occurred. The mousegreatly curtails the endless surfing through each
(computer) began to wiggle around. Do you notmerchant website.One last point, much like the
understand that without the mouse the computershopping mall of old the specialty online shopping
is a black box? Put them together and we havewebsite will have the library, i.e., information
the Personal Computer.Somewhere in the eternalhighway, news links, ebooks, fresh content articles
scheme of things the infinite minds of theand what ever else is required to maintain a
computer geeks and nerds began to squeak andholistic family shopping environment at you finger
rumble. A marriage of the internet and personaltips.Then the next step in family online shopping
computer took place. While that is a worthwhilewill be ...Mikey Miller is a single father of a 12 year
discourse in its own right far too large for ourold daughter who has worked for the same
purposes we would be remiss to pass it bycompany since he was 16 years old. At 36 Mikey
without comment. It was only a few years back,realized that his future was a dead end.He began
in the mid 1990s that this even occurred. This islooking to the internet as the last frontier where a
important to understand to be able to focus ofyoung man could earn his own destiney. After a
the rapidity of current events, speaking of thecouple of years of self education the result has
internet online shopping. It was about 1994/95been the Family iMall .Mikey invites you to send
time period that a company called Netscape cameyour comments and suggestions to
along with their commercial internet browser. Itmikey@familyimall. Together we can define what
started an absolute revolution. It is not until aboutthe family shopping malls will look like in the future.