XML is an acronym for "Extensible Markup Language". XML is the latest platform-independent and content-dependent technology available for Internet development. XML is the tool of choice for distributing structured information in this age. A working group under the guidance World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) started developing XML to simplify the transmission of documents across the internet.

XML is a young meta language. In early 1998, W3C published the XML 1.0 recommendations. Content developers have started developing various applications of XML - for example Mathematical Markup Language(MathML), CML - Chemical Markup Language etc. W3C, while releasing the HTML 4.0 recommendation in early 1998, said that it would approximately take 18 months to develop this transitional language. We have time to learn the basics of XML and develop the future internet language.

XML not only fulfills the needs of web authors but also those of anyone interested in publishing. Oracle, IBM and Microsoft are coming out with XML-related software and this gives sufficient indications about the future of XML in the IT industry..