Visualizing the Web

Published: 1 May 2001 y., Tuesday
In WebMap, irregularly shaped topic zones represent the content of the Web. Web browsers have changed little since the first versions of Mosaic came out of the University of Illinois, way back in 1993. To put a visual face on the job, a company called WebMap Technologies has developed a new way of browsing that provides a sense of location on the Web. The technology requires a connection to a server-side application, which categorizes documents based on the Web page's text and metadata entered by Web developers. On the client side, WebMap is a free browser plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer, which connects to the WebMap server and displays pages as icons on a map. The map is divided into oddly shaped, interconnecting regions, like territories on a chart. To look more closely at a region, you click to zoom in, which displays more sites from that region and then individual pages. You can see a demo at the WebMap site. The regions include Reference, Arts, Computers, Sports, News and Society. This common taxonomy is the same one used by the Open Directory Project, a Yahoo-like directory created by Web surfers. Each region contains icons. A legend in the browsing window shows icons that represent a standard Web page, a very popular page or one of your Internet Explorer Favorites. The icons and regions are superimposed over a Web topography. Concentric colored shapes represent traffic patterns. Higher traffic areas appear in warmer colors—yellows, oranges and reds. Lower traffic areas are displayed as greens and blues. Zooming into a region presents a more detailed view of the traffic patterns within that region.
Šaltinis: techreview.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.

Facebook Comments

New comment


Captcha

Associated articles

Google Makeover Gets 'Personal'

Looking to stave off aggressive competition from rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft, search technology powerhouse Google has started testing a personalized Web search feature more »

search.lt news

search.lt presents newest links more »

Ballmer rues Web-search decision

Internet searching is a hot technology business, but you wouldn't know it from looking at Microsoft more »

Lindows plans US gov backed global assault on Windows trademark

Lindows.com intends to use a US Department of Commerce programme to have Microsoft's trademarks of Windows invalidated worldwide more »

CeBIT'2004: All in One Screen

Why have two or more screens when you can make do with just one? more »

Sony Ericsson banks on 3G appeal

The future looks bright for third generation mobiles, according to the boss of phone maker Sony Ericsson more »

New Standard Would Let Devices Communicate by Touch

Visa has already distributed millions of so-called contactless credit cards cards that can be read by simply waving them in front of small machines more »

The "Swissmemory USB Victorinox"

It's got everything from a toothpick to a bottle opener and screw driver more »

No Bigger than A Pen

German company Siemens introduced its latest contribution to the mini phone rage: the PenPhone more »

Dancing Robots

Kunitake Ando, President of Sony, unveils the Japanese company's contribution to artificial intelligence: a dancing robot more »