As more users begin to utilize these languages, hypermedia is likely to become widespread on the Internet. Hypermedia is appealing for displaying annual reports because it presents information with sound and movement. Several companies have already incorporated hypermedia in their Web sites. A word of caution is in order. Depending on your equipment, it may take up to five minutes to bring the speech into memory which, when activated, results in an audio message that lasts for about 50 seconds.
Hypermedia also has the ability to perform interactively with the user.
Interactivity is currently limited to the ability to search an annual report for specific data. However, the potential for interactivity with the financial statement user is exciting. Software developers are currently attempting to make their applications compatible with the Internet. For example, Internet users will soon be able to easily download Internet data into spreadsheet and word processing applications. The Internet of the future will probably be able to analyze the solvency or profitability of a corporation by making a few keystrokes or mouse clicks.