How to personalize the Web

Abstract

Agents can personalize otherwise impersonal computational systems. The World Wide Web presents the same appearance to every user regardless of that user's past activity. Web Browser Intelligence (WBI, pronounced "WEB-ee") is an implemented system that organizes agents on a user's workstation to observe user actions, proactively offer assistance, modify web documents, and perform new functions. WBI can annotate hyperlinks with network speed information, record pages viewed for later access, and provide shortcut links for common paths. In this way, WBI personalizes a user's web experience by joining personal information with global information to effectively tailor what the user sees. Keywords Agents, World wide web, User models. INTRODUCTION One goal of networked computing is to provide all users access to the world's vast information resources. This trend toward a single, global database clearly shows its potential in the World Wide Web. Tens of thousands of institutions, hundreds o...