GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-95-12
Title:
Using Graphic History in Browsing the World Wide Web
Authors:
Eric Z. Ayers
John T. Stasko
Abstract:
Users of hypertext systems often find themselves eagerly following
hypertext links deeper and deeper into a hypertext web, only to find
themselves "lost" and unable find their way back to previously visited
pages. As navigation aids to help users orient themselves in the web,
browsers often provide a list of the documents a user has visited, a way
to move for ward and backward along previously traversed links, and a
quick way to return to a home document. Still, users often have trouble
re-visiting a page that was previously viewed in a session, especially
after many invocations of the backtracking shortcuts.
MosaicG is derivative work of NCSA Mosaic[1] version 2.5 which enhances
the history keeping facility of the browser by providing a two
dimensional view of the documents a user has visited in a session. It
is intended as an easy to use aid in navigating a collection of
hypertext documents. By presenting titles, URLs and thumbnail images of
the docu ments a user has visited in a session, the Graphic History View
allows a user to easily rec ognize a previously visited document and
provides an easy way for the user to re-visit that document and analyze
the structure of a set of hypertext documents.
Keywords:
WWW, navigation, hypertext, Mosaic, history
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