FIRE CHIEF magazine's annual Source Guide is in the final stages of preparation. This section of our February issue has a handy listing of fire and emergency products and services, listed by categories, companies and addresses. The online version will offer a year-round "quick-click" search of our Source Guide databases by product category, company name or both. This year, I see a significant increase in the number of Web sites added to company listings.

This trend matches a recent report in Operations & Fulfillment's Weekly Update, a Primedia e-newsletter. According to Hitwise, a New York-based online competitive intelligence service, "online Americans in rural districts were 16% more likely than all other social segments to visit a shopping site during the four weeks ending Dec. 4, 2004."

According to the Hitwise 2004 Holiday Shopping Services report, U.S. online shopping was up 24% over the same period last year. It also mentions that rural Americans accounted for 38% of total Internet visits during that period and 44% of all visits to shopping sites. It will be interesting to see what happens as we get closer to Christmas!

Is online shopping catching on in rural American volunteer fire departments? Has the Web had any impact on how volunteer departments purchase equipment? I asked Rod Carringer, vice president of sales and marketing for Task Force Tips, to weigh in on the issue. "People buy parts online from us," Carringer said, "but everything else is through the dealers. People do research on Web sites; everything they want to see is on the site -- specifications, operation manuals and identifying local dealers. Most people that are looking for information end up on the Internet."

Carringer said his company has experienced a significant increase from international visitors and has invested in multi-lingual capabilities for its Web site by adding seven language options.

The General Services Administration's Web site could change the way the public sector uses online buying. Currently, GSA is a "Partner in Wildfire Protection" and has actively supported the national wildfire suppression effort since the 1950s. The program stocks 229 products managed under the wildfire program.

While anyone can browse through standard fire equipment on the GSA's Advantage! Program Web site, only a federal government employee with a government-wide SmartPay purchase card or a GSA Activity Address Code may shop on the site. The site includes product descriptions and other pertinent details, including cost and delivery time.

Several fire equipment manufacturers and vendors have successfully adapted to online buying, including W.S. Darley and Galls Public Safety Equipment. Products that are less than $500, which usually don't require a bid process, are ideal for this kind of shopping.

The Internet is turning into the world's shopping mall. While it will never replace curling up with a stack of mail-order catalogs, it certainly is easy to shop online. New scanner radio or 25 pounds of fatwood for my fireplace delivered to my door? Absolutely!

Janet Wilmoth, Editor