Wired For The Bottom Line

Whether or not the grocery venture works, Walker has proved that the Net is fertile ground for launching entirely new approaches to commerce. Other companies will follow. For instance, a firm called Mercata brings consumers together so their collective buying power can drive prices down. And Microsoft's Expedia travel site has announced a name-your-own-hotel-price scheme that seems similar to Priceline's (no word yet on whether Walker will charge patent infringement).

Will new models thrive? Absolutely. But they won't necessarily drive out the earlier ones. Jeff Bezos's direct approach seems firmly established and Whitman's auction economy is finding favor in areas beyond the Pokemon zone. And other Internet giants like AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft--less interested in direct selling than pointing their members to retailing partners--welcome any model that draws customers.

Meanwhile, Walker is figuring out the next big change. Maybe, he muses, it will come when computers can reliably recognize voices. And Walker knows just how it will work: "You're going to walk into the store and say, 'Hi, I'm here. I have some Priceline prices.' And they'll say, 'Great'." Ka-ching!