Women Surpass Men Online, Says Report Virtual Car-Buying Catching On Barnes & Noble.com expands...

The number of women online in the United States surpassed that of men for the first time during the first quarter of 2000, according to a new Media Metrix Inc. and Jupiter Communications report.

Among the report's other findings:

• The population of women online is growing more rapidly than the online population overall.

• The most notable increase by age group from 1999 to 2000 was among girls age 12-17, which increased more than 125 percent.

• The number of females age 18-24, on the other hand, decreased slightly during the same period.

• Women over 55 have the highest audience share within family, health, genealogy and joke/fun pages.



The Internet has become an "essential instrument" in the U.S. consumer's new-car buying process, with a significant number of buyers using online dealerships for information-gathering, and even purchasing, according to a new survey.

The Gartner Group survey revealed that 48% of all households that purchased a new vehicle from September 1999 through March 2000 used the Internet in their buying process.

The survey also showed 45% of the households used the Internet to shop for their vehicle and 3 percent bought their new car online.



Barnes & Noble.com, http://www.bn.com, has opened an expanded eBookStore featuring books available for download in the new Microsoft Reader format.

The Barnes & Noble.com eBookStore is the first online retail bookstore to offer eBooks for the Microsoft Reader, the two companies said. It features works from more than 30 publishers.

With the addition of Microsoft Reader to the eBookStore, Barnes & Noble.com says it becomes the only ecommerce retailer to support three formats of eBooks: Microsoft Reader, Rocket eBook and Glassbook.