In some ways, the most difficult connection on the Internet may be the very last one: between the computer screen and the human mind. Although finicky servers and overloaded phone lines cause their share of problems, the bits usually get delivered. The message, however, often doesn't. It remains imprisoned within a confusing, indecipherable Web page. Viewers of the page follow wrong links. They can't find what they want. They get lost, or they get bored--and they move on.

The hypertext markup language (HTML) used to create Web sites was created less than a decade ago. And as with any language, people learning it must babble for a while before they achieve eloquence. In the meantime, users of the Web struggle to decipher its mangled metaphors and broken syntax.