For the first time in history annual online spending topped $100 billion. Online shopping during the holidays rose 26 percent over sales during the same period in 2005. And the Monday after Thanksgiving this year was nothing unusual, as it was surpassed on 11 other days before the end of the year by greater sales.

If you still feel that those who shop online are high-tech, geeky people in the minority, think again. The Internet has become what all the geeks in 1999 wanted it to be and what gullible venture capitalists thought it already was.