It has the potential to become a standard for every browser.
webzinger.com
Why WebZinger?
by Len Kain, Vice President, Engineering, ImaginOn
January 14, 1999
The World Wide Web is probably the largest and most unorganized database ever created. There is a
lot of information out there. Some of it is true. Some of it is false. Some of it interests us. Most of it
does not. Most people use their browser to find information on the Internet. The main way that
information is found is through search engines such as Yahoo, Excite, and Lycos. People type a word
or two, and the search engine returns the first ten (or twenty) sites from its database that match this.
There are many ways that each of the engines prioritizes sites. These include relevance (how many of
the words in your inquiry exist in the summary), economic considerations to the portal (who pays for
them) or time that the site was entered into the database. The details here are not important, what is
important is that in a short time (about 30 seconds in most cases) you get a list of sites that may meet
the criteria requested, and some that should, but don't.
Exactly what information is passed to the user in this initial list varies from portal to portal, or search
engine to search engine. In most cases, the site URL (http://….) and a summary of phrases and words
about two lines long is supplied. In some cases, the title of the site is also included. These summaries
usually are automatically created by the search engine's "robot" at the time that the site is registered
or entered into the database. It is often based on the keywords (or meta-tags) supplied by the site when
it is created. These are the words that the site would like to be found under. It may or may not have
much to do with the site content. In some of the recent improvements, a small thumbnail-sized picture
is shown. An important thing to know about this summary is that in most cases the information on the
page is old. It may be a day old, a week old, a month old or years old. This usually depends on when
the site is registered with the search engine or when the search engine last "checked" the site with it's
robot software. At that time, the summary, title, text, or picture is gathered and stored locally in the
search engine's database. In most cases, the actual site is not actually visited by the search engine
before it is presented to the user. The site may not even exist any more! Typically, this list contains
some non-existent sites, some non-relevant sites and many duplicate sites on the same server. For
example, you may have www.imaginon.com, www.imaginon.com/help.htm, and
www.imaginon.com/about.html in the same list. Or the sites that interest you may be in other search
engines' databases, but not the one you happen to be using. So, you would not find them.
It is this summary, one page at a time, ten items per page, that most people use to find information.
They read these summaries, decide which site to try, and click on that link. This sends them to the site,
if it exists. Otherwise, the user gets an Error 404, or other such greeting if it does not. Then, a period
of time passes while the site is loaded and the site is reviewed to see if it is of interest to the user. If it
is, then the user visits the site for awhile, if it is not, then the back button on the browser is pushed
and the user returns to the list to try the next choice. How long does this take? On a ultra-fast T1 line,
which most of us do not have at our disposal, it may take 10-15 seconds per site. (It may take a lot
longer due to loading on the T1 line, or the restrictions placed by the server being visited, which is
usually the bottleneck). On a more typical 56K or 33.6 modem, it will take 30-40 seconds to load the
site, or longer. Worse, the user must be active the entire time, they need to move and click the mouse
at each point. They need to make decisions throughout the process. To review ten sites in this manner
can easily take ten minutes of your time, simply to screen the sites for relevance, to return to them
later.
There are some tools to help this process. There is a category of products called "meta-search
engines". These search engines use a number of the basic search engines, eliminate duplicates, in some
cases refine the search to make the sites shown to the user more relevant and then present the list to
the user. This is quite helpful, and can easily reduce the time the user has to sit at the computer doing
the search by a factor of 2 or more. However, it does not address the workload imposed on the user;
clicking through to each site to review it for relevancy, and then possibly rejecting it. You must still
spend a lot of time reviewing the sites and waiting for sites to load.
A second category of tools is the offline browser. These tools seek to address the problem of the speed
of a connection, especially on a modem. By downloading one or more sites to your hard disk you do
not have to wait 30 or 40 seconds for each site to load in order to review it. These tools are useful for
downloading a site that is of interest to you on an ongoing basis and you need to look at often. It is not
very useful for finding sites in the first place. Downloading 10 sites that may be Megabytes in size
over a modem to decide if you like them does not make much sense. It would take hours, require huge
disk usage, and be very cumbersome. It would tie up your computer most of the time. And you will
throw away a large number of sites anyway.
So how do you find sites productively, without taking too long and without wasting your own time?
This is what WebZinger ™ by ImaginOn, Inc. does. WebZinger goes to the Internet, finds sites,
eliminates duplicates, collects up to date summaries of sites including the title, a picture, text, and with
version 6.0, audio or movie files, if desired, as well. It eliminates most irrelevant sites and presents
you with a focused set of sites for your review. Unlike most tools or search engines, it does not stop
with a list. WebZinger presents the information to you, in the form of a slideshow. Like using your
VCR, you make a recording off of the Web about a subject, then play it back later. You push one
mouse button, and WebZinger automatically, spending a few seconds per slide, shows you all of the
slides. You don't need to press any more buttons, just watch. If you see a site that you like, simply
push the "Goto" button and WebZinger takes you to that site. Each topic requested is presented on
request. What's more, click on Report and WebZinger automatically makes a report for you which
can be printed out or shown to other people. This report does not have month old summaries, but
current information. It has, for each site, the title, URL, most of the relevant text on the page, and a
picture. Audio and Movie files can be run from the report. How much of your time does this process
take? Maybe thirty seconds to start a recording. If 10 sites are found, at 4 seconds per playback maybe
another 1 minute. Ten minutes of pushing buttons, clicking, and waiting replaced with Under two
minutes of your time. Plus, the information is automatically available as a report, which is an added
bonus.
How quickly does WebZinger search the net? Depending on your settings with regard to picture size,
audio and movies and your network speed, this will vary considerably. One minute per found site is
typical on a modem with no audio and movie files, but a large picture is included. WebZinger does
not hog your computer. It is designed to allow you to work while it is finding your sites. You send it
off, like a personal assistant, and it comes back with your report in two useful formats. Your
WebZinger assistant presents your information as a slideshow and as a fully formatted html report. It
does most of the work for you. Automatically. WebZinger gave me a report on ImaginOn, and
another report on Hotels in Los Angeles while writing this article. I just watch the slide show when it
tells me its done. And print out the report if I need to. That's all there is to it. And on top of the
efficiency, WebZinger is entertaining. Pictures add a lot to the summaries presented.
What if, as we all are occasionally known to do, I need the information now. I can't wait even 3
minutes. Do I have to use a big browser and old-style search engine? No, beginning with WebZinger
6, simply check off the "Fast Searches" option. Immediately, usually within a minute, WebZinger will
find you 7 or more sites complete with a report containing titles, URL's and most of the text from the
page. Up to date information, not month old stuff. You can view the slide show or print a report. In
almost the same amount of time that most traditional methods will present you with a list to start
hunting and clicking with, WebZinger gives you a slide show or a report. Automatically.
What do you use WebZinger for? Want to find out about a company? What to do in San Diego? Who
sells tractors? What's on the Web about Zebras? WebZinger is for you. Simply type it in and let it go.
WebZinger will find it for you. Automatically. Conveniently. And then it will present it to you. In an
entertaining way.
Try WebZinger for 30 days, Free.
1313 Laurel Street
San Carlos, CA 94070
Phone 650-596-9300
Fax 650-596-9350
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