"Increased on line access will certainly become more of an option to driving all over the country just to do searches- I know I have no problem walking the 10-15 steps from my morning cup of coffee to my computer to get to work. This is not something that can occurs overnight though, it takes years of planning and developing the necessary databases to be able to make it work..."

...and therein lies the problem, Steve.  Not enough advance thought, planning OR development has gone into these online public records systems.  This "shoot first and ask questions later" mentality has created a whole host of problems, from poor quality searches to real estate fraud and identity theft, and no one seems to care.

Sorry, I'm on my soapbox and I know I'm getting off-topic, but as it stands now, online access is just not an option in some areas of the country.

Regards,

Scott Perry