Most of today's web applications are built for human consumption. Because real people interact with these applications, information must be presented in a visually appealing way Users fill out HTML forms and then receive static or dynamic HTML output in response. For example, metacatalogs automatically query hundreds of existing online catalogs from a single user interface where users have made queries. In recent years, more and more such software agents -- not people -- are interacting with these Web applications. The long-term view of Web-based B2B is based on such automation. In fact, it is likely that the network transmission of such automation will eventually dwarf the traffic generated from human-based interactivity.
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