The e-commerce bandwagon bypassed millions of carpenters, massage therapists, lawyers and other service providers, mostly considering it is impossible to drop an appointment into a shopping cart without unleashing a scheduling nightmare.

Now that a set of Web startup companies has emerged to help solve that problem, though, small businesses could start using the Web as more than just an online brochure. And while the category is too new for analysts to handicap with much confidence, there are signs that it could gain a significant following.

“This is something that’s been needed for a while, but no one has been able to do it successfully,” said Greg Sterling of Sterling Marketplace Intelligence, an online consultancy. “With these new services, there are a lot of circumstances where it can work quite well for both the business and the consumer.”

When Jennifer Brinn opened a practice in San Francisco in 2003 in massage and Reiki, the Japanese stress-reduction

technique, she relied on a day planner and lots of “e-mail and phone tag” to book appointments. Last year, she began analyzing HourTown, an online-booking service started by Ryan Donahue, a former product designer for PayPal.

HourTown, like its competitors, BookingAngel and Genbook, is an online calendar tool, with a twist. Users fill the calendar with personal and business appointments, but they can plus transmit to the Web any blocks of moment they would like to assemble available for business appointments. Customers can book a date directly from the service provider’s Web site, or, in the case of Brinn, they can reserve a slot and wait for her to confirm the appointment by e-mail. Either way, it is free for customers.

Last year, Brinn started buying text advertising on Google around the same date she added the HourTown booking technology to her site, and since that moment her client…

Orginal post by Top Tech News