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

Lithuanians Enjoy World‘s Fastest Highest-quality Internet

Recent global broadband Internet studies show that Lithuania has got the fastest Internet in the world as well as is one of the leading countries in terms of Internet service quality. more »

Gemalto to Provide Three Million Identity Cards in Kuwait

Gemalto announces it is delivering national ID cards to Kuwait. more »

Windows Engineer Touches the Future of Computing

Yves Neyrand, the director of test for the Windows Developer Experience team, helped create multitouch functionality for Windows 7 that allows the use of touch to perform actions normally performed with mouse and keyboard. more »

New Retail Stores Connect Consumers With the Best of Microsoft

Microsoft makes retail debut to bring consumers more choice, better value and great customer service. more »

60% of cross border internet shopping orders are refused, says new EU study

There are widespread problems with refusals of orders for EU consumers trying to purchase goods online in another Member state, according to a new European Commission report on cross border consumer e-commerce published today. more »

A new service for DnB NORD e-banking customers – mobile e-signature

Lithuania’s Electronic signature breakthrough program AB DnB NORD Bankas upgraded its Internet Banking system so that customers could log in and sign payments, agreements and other important documents using mobile e-signature. more »

Cisco Education Specializations Help Customers Identify Qualified Learning Partners

Cisco announced the availability of Cisco® Channel Education Specializations to help customers identify Cisco Learning Partners that offer advanced training expertise in specific, sophisticated network technologies. more »

Wincor Nixdorf awarded contract to provide site systems hardware as part of Shell’s Global Site Systems Program

Wincor Nixdorf has extended its relationship with Shell International Petroleum Company Limited (Shell), an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc. more »

AT&T announces first Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones

AT&T announced two new smartphones based on Microsoft Inc.'s new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, HTC's Tilt 2 and Pure. more »

Verizon Business Wins Metro Ethernet Forum European Service Innovation Award

Verizon Business is the winner of the Metro Ethernet Forum’s 2009 European Carrier Ethernet Service Provider of the Year Award for Service Innovation. more »