Integration of Multiple Forms of Communication. The lines of distinction among broadcasting, telephony, print and other media will soon be blurred as these various formats are delivered over the same device. The World Wide Web is proving to be one of the forerunners in this arena. For example, audio conferencing is already providing telephone service over the Internet. As this new era continues, consumers will undoubtedly enjoy much greater control and access to information, entertainment, news, and communications with others.
Text searching and database searching are traditional tools for discovering information.
Unfortunately, these mechanisms fall short if the exact word or phrase contained in the needed document or record is unknown. Concept searching helps users to search for an idea instead of an exact word. Concept searching is a particularly important tool for the Internet since information is coming from such diverse sources and can be expected to contain a rich variety of words. Increased Use of Multimedia. Audio, video, and virtual reality are currently being used by a limited number of Web sites to improve the effectiveness of their presentations.