Taking inspiration from the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams's cult, fictional guide to "Life, the Universe and Everything", h2g2 aims to create a real guide, where real information will be stored for future generations to browse. There are further exciting plans for the integration of h2g2 with handheld devices, as used by Ford Prefect 21 years ago, taking fiction into fact one step further.

The imagination, intelligence and wit of Hitchhiker's are clearly mirrored in h2g2. It is, in short, for people who think the world is a small place.

Earth visitors, 'employed' as Ford's field researchers can register on the site and submit editorial, ranging in diversity from descriptions of curry houses in Tooting - to the latest Broadway reviews. Visitors can see all existing editorial content, search the guide, get help from the "Don't Panic!" pages and be entertained by a team of animated field researchers, whose journal entries will also be frequently updated.

The immediate response to the highly-anticipated televised launch was overwhelming as over 30,000 page hits swamped the company's server, minutes into the launch. Within 24 hours over 3000 researchers registered, 50000 articles were read, 1500 messages posted and 1200 pages created.

Bearing this in mind, if at first you have trouble registering on h2g2, please be patient. You receive an automatic email as soon as the registration process has been completed.

The h2g2 production team comprises a number of experienced artists and programmers, most of whom worked on The Digital Village's last project, Starship Titanic, a CD-ROM adventure game, conceived by Douglas Adams.