We have chosen the title of this book with care, adopting the more general ‘digital consumer’ rather than the more specific ‘digital information consumer’ descriptor in recognition of the fact that, although the book focuses on the behaviour of people visiting the virtual space for information, the internet has redefined and widened the information domain. Because the internet is an encyclopedic, multi-purpose platform that people use, rather like a superstore, to obtain a whole range of things (often at the same time), it is now almost impossible to say what information is and what it is not, what is information seeking and what is not. Being a digital consumer does not simply mean choosing or buying e-documents or information services. Information is also fundamental to the process and success of e-shopping. As Chris Russell in Chapter 3 explains, first a person is a digital information consumer and then an e-buyer. Thus people shopping at the John Lewis e-store will be using the internal search engine to find what they want, navigating through the site employing browsing menus and opening another window on a cross-comparison site to make sure they are getting value for money. It is not surprising therefore that looking for information is one of the two most common web activities – the other is e-mail; the digital consumer is essentially an information consumer. There is another reason for employing the more general form of the descriptor and it is because 1 The digital consumer: an introduction and philosophy DAVID NICHOLAS IAN ROWLANDS RICHARD WITHEY TOM DOBROWOLSKI