Bob provides two active windows in his paper. One where you can add text, the other where you can enter a web link to see how his system works. To avoid frustration for Mac users you may try to use the Omniweb (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/download/) browser to see both the definitions in his hyperglossary, and to have words you select searched in Google.

Bob provides this information: The AJAX hyperglossary links work with Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers and are not blocked by pop-up blockers (as you are not loading a new page). The JAS links do not work on Safari but do work on Firefox and Internet Explorer, but you must have pop-up blockers disabled (allow pop-ups).

Bob has put in substantial time and effort to provide a system for us to experiment with. I think it will be quite interesting to hear how you would put it to use. We both look forward to your thoughts. Harry's ideas on social networking might mesh well with this software. What do you think?

 

 

Hyperglossary Generating Program with Wiki Content and Modifiable JavaScript Automated Search Functionality.
Bob Belford
Department of Chemistry
University of Arkansas at Little Rock,
Little Rock AR, 72204
rebelford@ualr.edu
Chris Killingsworth
University of Arkansas School for Medical Science
Little Rock, AR,72205

 

One can postulate that the World-Wide-Web had its origins in the advent of HTML (hypertext markup language) which allowed navigation over the web through linked text. There was a fundamental limitation to this "web" as the links are confined by the knowledge of the author. As the content of the web grew, another way of navigation evolved through the advent of search engines. These allowed users to seek non-connected documents using key words instead of linked text. A logical next step is to combine these two processes. We have developed some JavaScript code which does that, creating a Javascript Automated Search (JAS) document, where every word in the document is hyperlinked to a search engine by simply highlighting the word. We have embedded the ability for JAS into a wiki hyperglossary generating program that can read web pages or text documents. This program utilizes Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) links that allow users to interact with a hyperglossary database without ever opening a new web page. Thus a document viewed through this program has three types of hypertext links; intrinsic HTML links to other web pages, AJAX links to the hyperglossary and JAS links to search engines.