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Business
`Tangling' the web with links
THIS WEEK NetSpeak discusses the features of a net service that creates dynamic links automatically between web pages using the information on the path through which people enter and exit web pages.
Though the web is a storehouse of information that has no parallels, due to the absence of proper classification schemes, an ordinary web user wastes time looking for the right web sites. In spite of the availability of web-based services such as search engines, meta-search engines and other special search tools, a user still finds it difficult to identify the sites that fit her requirements.
This problem of `web clutter' due to the tremendous expansion of the web, coupled with the absence of proper web page organisation schemes, has made researchers come out with imaginative solutions. One such solution is the concept of a self-organising web. According to its proponents (http://webselforganization.com/), `(the) web self-organises into communities of related information'. Most web pages contain links to other web sites and by analysing the structure of these links we can locate a web community — a set of web pages with related information. For more details, refer NetSpeak (March 21, 2002) that discussed this subject (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/biz/2002/03/21/stories/2002032100300100.htm). The Web tangle proxy service is another innovative attempt to make web travel more efficient.
Web tangle
We reach a site through different means: it may be from a link provided in a similar/related page; it can be through a search engine results page or we might have reached a web page by directly entering its address. It is possible that the site from which we entered a page has some relationship with the current page. Also, when a visitor leaves a web page, generally, we can assume that she has moved to a page with some related content. For example, if someone is conducting research on cancer, it is likely that she has reached the site from a related site. Likewise, it is also possible that she may leave the site for another that hosts materials on cancer or allied subjects. That is, if we can produce a mechanism that automatically tracks and displays sites from which users enter a particular web page, and the pages users exit to from the same page, it will make the page more useful and web surfing more productive as it is likely that most of these `from' and `to' links are related to each other. The web tangle service is an attempt in this direction.
The tangle service automatically generates two-way links between pages, whenever a user enters and exits web pages. When one browses, using the tangle proxy service, it automatically records two types of links called the `entry' link (the link from which the user entered the page) and the `exit' link (link to which the user moved from a web page). Apart from recording the entry and exit links, the service exhibits them at the top of the page, sorted by popularity, under the headings, `Entry' and `Exit'. So, a user browsing a web page through a tangle will get an augmented web page with many valuable and useful sites that have already been visited by people, probably with similar interests. This will naturally provide the web surfer with some insights into other web sites with similar/related content.
When you click one of these displayed entry/exit links, Tangle will conclude that the link is relevant to the visitor, take this as a vote for it and increases the clicked link's popularity rating. That is, apart from using the information left by netizens who visited the site earlier, by accessing the web through Tangle, a netizen also has an opportunity to provide information on related web pages to other users. Another point is that if you are browsing through Tangle, it manipulates the links in each page before giving it to the browser for displaying the content so that all these page links will also be served through Tangle.
For further details and to experiment with this open source product, check out: http://tangle.sourceforge.net/. Readers may also find interesting the discussion on this subject held on the Slashdot site (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/ 11/10/1858259&mode=thread&tid= 95)
Irfanview: A free image editor
We know that picture files come in several formats that include TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), WMF (Windows Metafile Format), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). For situations where one needs to convert a picture file from one format to the other, here is a free software that can be used to view picture files in almost all formats and save the viewed file in a different format. Apart from allowing you to view/convert files in various formats, the software provides powerful tools for editing and manipulating a picture file in multiple ways. For downloading this feature-rich and simple software, check out: http://www.irfanview.com/english.htm
EasyOffice
Finding it difficult to use MS-Word, due to its licence restrictions or looking for free software similar to MS-Office? Here is an alternative office suite that can be downloaded for free. The software suite, EasyOffice, contains programs that include EasyWord (similar to Word), EasySpreadsheet (similar to Excel), EasyPresentation, EasyBookkeeper, EasyContact Manager, EasyCalendar, EasySpeaker (for reading out documents/e-mails), and EasyZip (an excellent file compression utility). If you are on a low-end machine that lacks the necessary resources to run these programs, use the small word processor, SimpleWord, that also comes with this free suite. For more details, check out: http://www.e-press.com/
J. Murali
Email the author at:
murali27@satyam.net.in
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