Intelligent Agents are a new paradigm for developing software applications. Also, agent-based computing has been hailed as ‘the next significant breakthrough in software development’ ( Sargent 1992 ), and ‘the new revolution in software development’ ( Ovum, 1994 ). Agents are currently the focus of intense interest on the part of many sub-fields of computer science and artificial intelligence. Intelligent agents are being used in an increasingly wide variety of applications, ranging from comparatively small systems such as e-mail filters to large, open, complex, mission such as air traffic control. It may appear at first sight that such extremely different types of systems can have little in common and yet this is not the case. The key abstraction used in both is that of an agent. It is speculated that intelligent agents will be able to solve problems encountered when users are looking for information on the internet. These agents will also be able to speed up the process of locating information on the internet and leave users more time to do other, more productive or enjoyable tasks.