Today, you either slog through online catalogs at each manufacturer's site or you punch in a generic search query. Either way, good luck. With keywords like ''digital'' and ''price'' saturating Web-site descriptions, you'd be better off browsing a magazine rack. With XML tags, a single search sentence would elicit all published prices. Such efficient targeting, multiplied by billions of searches a year, would greatly ease the current strain on Web servers.
Smarter searches are just the beginning.
Unlike HTML, which is a fairly rigid set of standards, the XML language is designed for flexibility. Wireless equipment makers, for example, are working on a variant called WXML whose goal is a speedier Internet experience for road warriors. Web sites coded with WXML will recognize the memory, modem, and display limitations of the user's phone or other handheld device. Instead of sending pages laden with graphics, they'll dispatch text synopses. It will convert XML text into speech so car phone users can keep their eyes on the road.