Another way to draw the crowds is to offer free downloadable dictionaries and encyclopedias in the reference centers on large portals that get hit by thousands of surfers daily (Versaware does that through deals with Lycos, XOOM.com and MyBytes).
Commenting on the up-and-coming developments in how book publishers and authors are tapping into the online markets, Ravitz suggests that: "People would want to customize their own books and get information from various sources." For example, she says, if you're planning a vacation in one particular region of Italy, instead of buying a travel guide that covers the whole country, you may want to gather information from many guides about that region. Similarly, Ravitz predicts that users will also be able to customize parts of books by changing their layout, size and fonts to their liking.