Two more surveys have found that small business owners are increasingly taking their businesses online and purchasing online, they just aren't using the Web to sell much of anything.

The 19th annual Dun & Bradstreet Small-Business Survey was conducted in February and March of 2000, and found that 40 percent of small businesses have their own Web sites, up from just over a quarter last year, and that 70 percent now have Internet access, up from 57 percent last year. But while 31 percent of the small-business decision-makers responding to the survey said the Internet had helped them, nearly 60 percent said the Web had no measurable impact on their business. The number of small businesses saying they advertised on the Web in 1999 fell 10 percent from the survey done one year ago. Nevertheless, e-commerce still saw a slight increase over last year's survey. This year's survey found 38 percent of small companies with Web sites transacted business with customers over their sites, up from 33 percent in the previous survey. On average, 8 percent of 1999 revenues came from their Web sites, down slightly from 12 percent in 1998. D&B also found a notable change in the way small businesses use the Internet. The top use of the Internet among small businesses is e-mail, but every significant usage category slipped this year, with the exception of purchasing goods and services for the business. Forty-three percent said they used the Web for this purpose, up from 38 percent in last year's survey. Use of the Internet for research at work showed the greatest declines -- from 71 percent to 58 percent for business research and from 64 percent to 50 percent for personal research.