XML

XML - eXtensible Markup Language is a markup language as is HTML for Web pages. However, whereas HTML describes data in terms of its display characteristics a page, XML describes data in terms of its content. In that respect XML is a markup language that has significant potential for the capture and onward processing of data directly from Web pages.

The real significance of this is that Business to Business data transfer will be greatly facilitated by XML as neither party needs to write interfaces to each other's systems; they merely need to be able to accept and process XML.