Webbed fingers

JUST when you had begun to get used to it, the Internet is disappearing. It is not that the mother of all computer networks is going away. On the contrary, Internet traffic is growing at 20-30% a quarter. But the 15m or so users around the world increasingly see just the information the net carries, and not the technology of the network itself—rather as drivers see roads as ways of travelling, not as lengths of tarmac (except when there are potholes). Chief among the systems that obscure the underlying network and smooth the traveller's way is the World Wide Web.