In 1998 and the coming years, television will dance to a digital beat.

Today, we turn on the TV set and watch a music video. It makes us tap our feet and that's about as interactive as it gets.

Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester Research, believes that 10 years from now, such interactivity will be deeper as the Internet is integrated into the world of television.

We will watch the video, read the lyrics of the song being sung, read a biography of the singer and order a compact disc of the tune, if we choose.

And then there are our computers. Hooked up to cable modems, the home computer will be able to access video when need be.

Analysts say Microsoft's recent investments point the way to the future.

Microsoft's reportedly invested in US West cable operations, a move that that would complement its $1 billion investment in Comcast and its $425 million acquisition of WebTV Networks.

Mary Ellen Ingegneri, a Gartner Group research analyst, wrote in a report that "Microsoft is taking advantage of the opportunity that more homes have television sets than PCs, and is trying to develop the next generation of standards that will require direct access to the Internet.

"If Microsoft is successful in its effort to penetrate the cable market, Microsoft could set a new standard for set-top boxes and possibly televisions in the future."

 1. Dynamic HTML
 2. New Domains
 3. Metered Bandwidth
 4. Web-TV
 5. Rich Ads
 6. The Big Chill
 7. Middlemen
 8. Digital Detente
 9. Cybercommerce
10. Web standards

 1. Push
 2. Windows CE
 3. 56K
 4. Cable Modem
 5. Web-TV
 6. Net Magazines
 7. Apple's Demise
 8. Mac Clones
 9. E-Cash
10. Comdex '96