DIGITAL L.A. : GIVE ME AN `E' ... GIVE ME ANOTHER `E'.

Byline: David Bloom 

I've about had it up to my e-yeballs with companies putting an e in front of their names when they create a Web presence. Way back when, e-commerce and e-mail were bearably descriptive, but e-tailing (instead of retailing) started to push it.

Now, thanks to Web notables Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton, we're going to get a whol-e lot mor-e of this stuff than I think I can handl-e. The good news is that at least they're investing in some useful e-stuff.

Winebaum and Dayton jumped ship earlier this year from their jobs as chairmen, respectively, of Disney's online ventures and Earthlink, which just merged with Mindspring to create the nation's No. 2 Internet service provider, second only to America Online.

Though Dayton keeps his hand in part-time at Earthlink (another e!), the two are spending most of their energy on their Pasadena-based eCompanies (aargh) and a related $130-million venture-capital fund that together have already helped bring forth three online companies (one's a business-to-business service we won't worry about).

A lot of folks will like eHobbies (www.ehobbies.com), which wants to tap the business in scale models, rocketry, radio-controlled vehicles, die-cast models and model trains. Best estimates are that Americans alone spend $3 billion to $5 billion a year on those pastimes.

The new Santa Monica-based Web site, which debuts Monday, will provide access to 5,000 models, supplies and more for those five categories and - just as importantly - a place where hobbyists can congregate, chat, learn beginning and advanced tips and much more. This Christmas season, the site will also offer gift packs to make shopping easy.

Founders Brad Sobel and Brent Cohen are themselves hobbyists, though they hired three longtime hobby-biz vets to be their buyers.

One great feature: The site will give local hobby groups their own space, complete with discussion boards, live chat rooms, messengering and archives that can be partly or wholly private.

``It's not just a shop-and-leave site,'' Sobel said.

The site has a real opportunity to succeed, in part because the hobby business has never had the ``category killer'' megastore chains of, say, the music or book business. Instead, the business is largely confined to about 4,000 mom & pop stores, which seldom have a wide selection.

The other Dayton-Winebaum company of recent note is the incubated e-Parties, which won't actually hit the Web in earnest for a while. But it will target the estimated 180 million parties thrown every year in this country (costing as much as $50 billion).

``If you're thinking about going shopping at a party store, it's a frustrating thing because they never have what you want,'' Dayton said. ``Brick-and-mortar party stores don't make a lot of sense. It's too hard to keep a broad enough selection. It's a social staple that is rife with frustration.''

The new Web site is designed to make it easier to plan, shop for, schedule, RSVP and throw a shindig of most any kind, short of a wedding or wake, Dayton said.

``We're with you from the moment you think of the party until the last guest leaves,'' Dayton said. ``I think the Internet is a perfect medium to make planning and throwing a party easier.''

Sounds e-xcellent.

Styling sites

Speaking of the fifth letter in the alphabet, eStyle.com has rolled out babystyle.com (www.babystyle.com), a thoughtful and, yes, stylish affiliate site for mothers-to-be and children under 2. Babystyle will sell maternity and baby clothes, baby and nursery gear and developmental toys.

The Los Angeles-based eStyle is populated with a raft of ex-Disney people led by president and CEO Laurie McCartney, 32, herself a new mother and Harvard Business School grad.

McCartney said babystyle will eventually offer about 5,000 different items but is trying to be choosy about which products it offers.

``We're not a baby warehouse,'' McCartney said. ``We're more of a personal shopping service. We kind of do the shopping for you. To me the service is us actually milling though the products to find the best ones.''

The site also does a lot of ``solution selling,'' displaying not just the crib but a whole themed nursery package with linens, curtains, baby clothing, other furniture and bedding.

``What we've been really sensitive about is to build something that is targeted at women, that's designed for the way women like to buy,'' McCartney said. ``Women are fairly goal-oriented online. They say men like to surf, women like to swim online.''

A large gift area (for each parent and the child) with various levels of prices, a baby registry and lots of reading material from the magazine Fit Pregnancy help round out the site's offerings.

While eStyle focuses on selling to women with children, the makeup-needy should wander over to Gloss.com (www.gloss.com). As with eStyle (which recently added Cindy Crawford to its board), Gloss has some model citizens involved in the company. At a recent bash near downtown Los Angeles, Gloss launched its site in concert with Elite Models 2000.

I'm not competent to speak to the site's array and quality of makeup for sale, but the company's young, female founders plan to allow you to upload a picture of yourself (or pick from a group of archetypal face types) and then ``try on'' different colors of makeup online.