A famous man once said that the internet was just a fad that would quickly die and be forgotten by people. Today we all know how essential the net is for our society, offering many things that have never been seen or heard years before. Communication is one of the primary uses of the internet. Free web-based e-mail has boosted internet usage throughout the whole world. Students research the internet for information they wouldn't find anywhere else before. And lastly, people find the net quite entertaining, reading write-ups of their favorite stars, playing games with other people, and browsing just for fun.
With all these things that can be possibly done you may think that the net has nothing left to offer us. But you may be mistaken! Remember those silly Home Television Shopping shows that have captured the hearts and minds of our beloved friends? You can do just that and more with what many people call, Online Shopping. Unlike HTVS Online shopping is an interactive process involving two parties at the same time. One of the largest, if not the largest , products sold in the net are compact discs (CDs).
Audio CDs that previously can only be bought at department stores and music shops can now be ordered online and delivered right at your very doorstep! Thus, eliminating the hassle of lining up in a very crowded department stores and those nasty sales ladies who treat you very badly.
Once you enter an online CD shopping page, the first thing you notice are the CDs that have just been released. You can also see a button for a featured artist. In this feature some information is available about the artist, their albums and reviews of these albums. Plus, you can get to hear some clips of their songs in those albums, using Real Audio.
What if you know the song but you don't know the singer or the album . They already have taken care of that, how? By using a search engine to search for any song, artist, soundtrack, or label, so you can easily find what you are looking for. And if you're not looking for a specific song, instead you'd just like to see what they have. The albums are sorted out by genre for quick searching , so you can browse though albums which suits you tastes. Once music shop actually offers about 200,000 products to choose from!
They also have music charts, where albums are arranged according to the number of actual purchases. 
This would greatly help you if you want to know which albums are popular and may have songs which many people love( though you may not like what most of them like, right? ). These albums are subdivided also in groups, from Top Pop-rock to Top Latin, again for your browsing pleasure. Another thing to include is their classical music search engine. This search engine as the name implies only includes classical music. It is very interesting to note that this search engine is completely independent from the main search! Why? Because this search engine has specialized parameters for searching your favorite works. These parameters include: composers, conductors, ensemble, work name and performer. With its many parameters, you can see why classical music requires a totally independent search engine.
So you've found your CDs and you finally decide that you want to purchase them. Purchasing items on online shopping shops is as easy as 1,2,3. First you create an account for that shop, you enter your credit card information, or you can fax or phone it to them. After creating the account, you then click on the CDs that you want to purchase, this puts them in your "Shopping Cart" .
Lastly, you finalize your order. Here the CDs that you wish to purchase are listed and if you want to make corrections you can make them here. After these 3 steps, all you have to do is wait for your CD to be delivered! Your shopping cart will not be processed until after 6 hours, so these means you can again order another CD you forgot to enter and it will still be included on your previous order. The ordered items take up to 30 days to be delivered, until it is declared lost by the online shop, which then entitles you for a refund.
The shops guarantee the security of Online Shopping. In fact, they claim that using your credit card is much safer than using checks. One site claims to have had 100,000 credit card transactions without a single credit card number being compromised. In the event that a problem arises with your purchase, the credit card company will remove that purchase from your bill and the on-line merchant is not paid. Also, if your credit card number is stolen, the credit card companies do not hold you responsible for any unauthorized purchases.
