Drowning in information when surfing the Web? Or going with the flow

The World Wide Web (WWW) offers a vast volume of information, more than any other medium has ever provided. The paper explores critical factors for a successful Web site. It analyzes properties of information on the Web as well as user demographics and how these topics relate to the established theories of Media Richness (MRT) and Social Presence (SP). Next, the article investigates how the context promotes the ease of use and eventually achieves a state of "flow". It goes on to look at potential outcomes of surfing the Net. The paper uses established validated theories from IT/IS research (MRT, SP), from psychology (flow theory), as well as robust, reliable models (technology acceptance model, TAM).