Imagine a future, then, in which virtually every Web site is linked to every other. Read a news or feature story about a lovely resort and with a few clicks of a button you can locate a suitable airline schedule, order the tickets, choose a car rental and hotel, reserve golf time and restaurant tables and maybe also order babysitters, guidebooks and the appropriate wardrobe. What AOL and the other gateways currently long to become is your port of entry to this vast commercial net. And like Amazon, they may also compete with eBay, which brokers auction sales of both gems and junk among its customers. Once enmeshed in the Web, every dot-com will relate to every other.
Merchants find it useful to post complementary news and advice.
And companies offering news and advice grow eager to link themselves to the sellers of goods and services. Similarly, The New York Times and other newsmongers will lure you with reading matter but hope to pay for it by directing you not only to ads but also to purchases inspired by your reading. Potentially, every site on the Web can be a portal to all other sites, just as in the air age every American city can be a gateway to our country. The ultimate competition among the dot-coms will be for a place in the subconscious of every Web user. But while the Web stores must build warehouses and employ order fillers, the grandest portals will exist only virtually and collect from you every time you pass Go.