How many languages do you speak?

If you're reading this, the chances are you speak English, so you probably feel quite comfortable about finding what you want on the Net, written in a language you understand.

But that may soon change.

Far from dominating the Internet, English is going to have to share it with the rest of the world's most-spoken languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish.

That's the prediction by none other than James Murdoch, son of media owner Rupert. At a conference last month, he warned Internet users and producers to get used to an environment where English shares the limelight with other languages.

With computers and internet access getting ever cheaper, growth in users is accelerating all over the world, not just in the UK and other English-speaking countries.

It makes sense that well populated countries like China and India will eventually take over as the engines powering the internet and e-commerce.