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The answer is: integration. While TRN is a great newsreader, and Eudora's a great mail reader, etc, if I read a post in TRN or a message in Eudora, there is no hyperlinking. If I see a link or reference,

If you used a Mac, all you had to do is click on the URL in your mailer, newsreader, even some text editors, and the correct helper aplication will open the URL.

Yeah, but does it fire up 1 browser process everytime you click on it, or will it command an already running browser to follow the link? Secondly, this still doesn't solve the problem of interactive content and custom interfaces. With Java, you can build arbitrarily complex web interfaces with objects that can be linked together. An example of this is Sun's Spreadsheet Java App which is connected to a StockQuote app which runs a cute ticker tape scroller in the page. If you fill out the spreadsheet with stock symbols and amounts, it automagically updates your net-worth in real time, and simultanteously updates a line graph of your net worth in a window below. I can imagine a newsreader app which automagically pulls ratings down from a server and communicates with other apps in the same page. (plus, Tetris, Reversi, and Video Poker running within a web page with text and links wrapped around them is really cool!) -Ray