So far, the answer is a no-frills Internet portal that indexes and cross-indexes the world of business into a directory that can be sliced and diced into 25,000 different combinations, plus a search engine that the site's designers say scans only Web sites devoted to commerce, e- and otherwise.

Business.com, which set the sneakered pioneers of the new economy a-chatter in November when its parent company paid a record $7.5 million for its domain name, launched the first phase of its much-anticipated Web site this week. Its creators promise that as subsequent phases of the rollout continue over the next few weeks, we'll find breaking news and house-written profiles on individual industries and companies.

To the casual observer, though, it's hard to see how Business.com, which was attractive enough to lure the Wall Street Journal's former Los Angeles bureau chief to join an Internet start-up, is any different from mainstream Internet portals like Yahoo, which also offers specialized business services categories.

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