In order to understand where the World Wide Web has been headed the past few years, it is crucial to understand a little about Macromedia Flash. Macromedia Flash is a program that allows you to create animations that use a series of quick loading, vector-based graphics. These graphics merge with other graphics and sounds to create short movies and other interactive elements for your Web page. These “movies” are different from the ones that show in theaters, in that the viewer affects what happens depending on how they interact with the site. When the viewer uses her/his mouse to click or hover over buttons, the movie reacts accordingly. Flash movies cannot be viewed on a browser without the Macromedia Flash Player, a software program that is embedded in the latest versions of both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. This player can be downloaded for free from the Macromedia Web site, located at http://www.macromedia.com.