While online lexicons have been a technical possibility since the days of the first wide-area computer networks in the 1970s (Cerf and Kahn 1974) and have existed in some form since at least the early 1980s (Unknown ?1983; Curry 1990, 1996; Mayer 1996), it is only with the popularization of the World-Wide Web in the mid-1990s that significant work in producing online lexicons has begun.
This work, first and foremost, is an attempt to apply and extend aspects of lexicographic theory in the light of the possibilities and demands of online media, so that the theories of the past can be put to use in producing better online lexicons. Secondarily, I hope to point out the advantages for lexicography which online media have over print media.