While many of us cool kids are busy talking about the wonders of Web 2.0 (and rightly so), it probably pays to ask this question:

Why are so many massive companies still unable to get out of beta when it comes to Web 1.0?

I tried to buy some of those delightful, wrinkle-free khakis from BrooksBrothers.com the other day. No go. First the site was temporarily down – ever wonder why they can’t tell you they’re down before you enter all of your details and go through the order tunnel. And besides, it’s the web and you’re a big brand. You’re not allowed to be down.

So I tried again. It worked this time. Sort of. I got a message that the site was unable to confirm my sale but that someone would email me once things were back online.

Did they? Nope.

How can they figure out the nano-tech required for wrinkle-free pants but not be able to master an online shopping cart?

So at least, I thought, if pants are out of the question, I should at least be able to score some Nordstrom underwear. After all, there is a product that, for me, is really what ecommerce is all about.

I only wear Nordtrom underpants (and only inside-out while we’re on the topic). That means a special trip just for underwear. But not in 2005, right?

Well, I went through the order tunnel at Nordstrom.com only to find that they only had two packs of white underwear in my size.

Two packs?

I often go through two packs of underwear during the authoring of a single blog post.

Hey, I’m no logistical expert, but even Apple wouldn’t run out of underwear when there was sufficient demand in the marketplace.

All of this is simply to say that the ecommerce experience really hasn’t improved much when it comes to a lot of major stores.

Remember how sure we all were that Bezos had to get profitable quickly before he was eaten alive by the dinosaurs coming online?

Well it’s ten years later, folks, and I just got back home from buying underwear (speaking of which, this was a long post, I likely need a costume change).