I have been using the Internet since I was five years old, when my dad first sat me down in front of a computer and connected me the World Wide Web. I've always felt like a master of the Internet world. AOL Instant Messaging, MSN, Gmail, Facebook, Myspace -- I've got it all under control. I thought there was nothing more to it besides checking my e-mail and wasting my time, until I was introduced to electronic commerce(e-commerce): business on the Internet. Some online businesses are run from one-room home offices. Others have hundreds of employees   across the world. Have you ever heard of Amazon.com, Yahoo.com? My friends often said they got cheap textbooks off Amazon.com, or had a good deal   on Steve Madden shoes that were on sale at SteveMaden.com. Unfortunately for me, I continued my "e-commerceless" Web-surfing, not knowing about all the deals I was missing out on. That is, of course, until my sister finally sold the idea to me. "Why are all these packages arriving in the mail for you, Katy?" I asked her one day. Strange envelopes   had been put on our doorstep for weeks now, each one always addressed to my sister; and we all know little sisters should never be getting more mail than their elders! "Oh, it's the things I ordered online!" she answered. I watched speechlessly as she opened them. There was no way our parents were letting her spend that much money- online or off! "How much did all of this coat?" "Oh, only about $15 in all!" She said excitedly. "Everything on eBay is on sale! It's a way better than going to the mall." I felt as if there had been a store right in my backyard that I had never walked into! That week, I ordered a used Spanish textbook for my summer course online for 10 percent of the publishing price. A few days later, I bought an iPod protector and a book or two via the wonderful eBay.com. The writer didn't find out about e-commerce until  _
he stopped web-surfing he visited a store in his backyard his sister explained the packages she got by mail his friends told him about the online deals they made