ABSTRACT
Since its invention in the early 1990s the World Wide Web has rapidly expanded, and we have now reached the stage where no advertisement, feature film or television programme seems complete without its associated Web site. Radio hosts invite their listeners to visit the Web and join in discussions, advertising hoardings promise extra information or the chance to win prizes if Web sites are visited, and airlines sell tickets cheaper through the Web than through any other medium. Web-based sales, in particular, developed quickly at the end of the 1990s and have become, despite some misgivings, an established part of purchasing practice in countries such as the UK.
