A new magazine reviewing commercial Internet sites may prove to be ahead of the curve.

By CONSTANCE L. HAYS (NYT) 1001 words
Published: April 21, 1997

POSSIBLY before its time, a new magazine has appeared in which seasoned-sounding surfers review Internet sites peddling everything from imported olive oil to domestic flight reservations.

Something of a cross between TV Guide and ''Travels With My Aunt,'' the magazine, Internet Shopper, introduced earlier this month, provides a critical, at times cranky, commentary on the content, appearance and customer service of the World Wide Web sites it chooses to review, even marking its favorites with a little logo.

Given the scanty amount of real commerce yet taking place in cyberspace, there may be more grousing than shopping for those who surf the Web, credit card number at the ready. But Internet Shopper plunges gamely ahead.

Buying a mutual fund? A writer checked out eight sites where someone can do it, including Fidelity Online and the discount Net Investor. How about tickets for an R.E.M. concert? Another writer gives the lowdown on what happened when she tried to buy some using the on-line version of Ticketmaster.

''Ticketmaster may be the best,'' she concedes, ''but visually the site is nothing to write home about.''

Hungry after all that clicking? Mail-order food sites, including one called thefoodstores, get their turn on the grill. ''Thefoodstores is actually a grouping of five separate stores, and if more stores come along with more products, it's going to go from simply messy to a nightmare,'' the critic glowers. Basic concerns, like how simple it is to pay for purchases on line, are evaluated along the way.

Internet Shopper was dreamed up by Mecklermedia, which already has the business publications Internet World and Web Developer in its portfolio, along with a trade newspaper, Web Week. The thought was to create a continuously updated guide to the fast-evolving Internet for shoppers with varying degrees of familiarity with what is available, said Alan M. Meckler, the company's chairman and chief executive.

''It's going to be as fat as a phone book in a year and a half,'' Mr. Meckler promised. The first issue is a dainty 110 pages, 25 of which are ads. A full-page ad started at $3,500 for the first issue, and increased to $4,500 for the next issue of what is planned as a quarterly. The full-page advertisers include Ameritech, Blockbuster, AT&T and the Columbia House record club. There are other, smaller ads from Web sites and discount electronics dealers.

It is not the first publication to position itself as a map for the Internet's commercial side, but it does seem to be alone in its approach to the Internet purely as a shopping destination. And maybe they are just a teeny bit defensive about it. ''Using the Net to go shopping might seem pretty trivial at first,'' writes Dan Rosenbaum, the editor, at the front of the magazine. ''Not so.''

But just what would make people turn to a grizzled medium like magazines to help them shop their way through the cool and groovy Net? And -- examples like Amazon Books aside -- is there enough of an on-line shopping critical mass to support publications devoted to it?

One analyst says no. ''In 1996, the retail opportunity on line was $516 million,'' said Emily Green, a consumer specialist at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. ''We feel the channel has a lot of potential, but it's not going to be realized overnight, which is why I worry about the short-term success of a magazine like Internet Shopper.''

Technological as well as psychological obstacles remain before on-line shopping can hope to become really big, she said, adding that her own experiences had ranged from unsatisfactory to dismal.

''It fails in the 'I'm depressed and I feel like buying myself a pair of shoes' category,'' she said. ''I don't find it to be entertaining at all. It has potential in the 'I'm pressed for time and I need a solution' category.''

But often, on-line shopping is only half complete, she added, because selection is so poor. One merchant admitted to her that selection was based on ''whatever we had the most of, since we can't afford to change the Web site that often.''

No wonder, then, that other consumer magazine publishers have steered clear of dedicating themselves exclusively to shopping.

Ziff-Davis, a unit of the Softbank Corporation, sets the standard when it comes to computers and shopping with its monthly Computer Shopper -- 900 pages, mostly ads -- but on-line purchases are only one of various ways to buy the products featured in this hefty compendium. And even Ziff-Davis's Yahoo Internet Life, which has 19 pages of Web site reviews in the April issue, has no special category for shopping sites. (A page called ''Pretty Strange,'' though, does have a few odd consumer options, like the site offering intentionally unattractive false teeth.)

A third Ziff-Davis magazine, Internet Underground, includes a Top 10 list of Web sites reviewed in brief. But again, only a few could be considered shopping destinations, like www.carscost.com (about buying a new car).

''People's desire to use the Internet is multifaceted,'' said Daniel Rosensweig, executive vice president of the Ziff-Davis Internet publishing group. ''We have areas of content, and contained within those are places to shop. We're doing the reverse of what they're doing, and we wouldn't consider ourselves in the same camp.''

CMP Publications Inc. is also in the field with its Netguide magazine. The April issue includes a review of real estate options on the Web for someone trying to sell a house. It is generally kinder in tone than the Internet Shopper, but can lack a little in the creativity department. ''No matter where you start your search on the real estate Web,'' chirps the writer in the final paragraph, ''you're sure to end up at home.''