Friday, 13 April 2012

mapping the internet - research5

I've decided to use books/print copies as the mapping tool. Library and Internet have a complex relationship too and since papers are flexible and easily editable, thought playing with them would be a fun way to start.

They both act as information storage, also as platform for social gathering. I support physical books. I value the activity of holding a book, turning a page and feeling the texture of it. Internet is after all more convinient in terms of "accessing information" but prints are more efficient in "absorbing knowledge."

Another good aspect of library is that you have a full set of books in a shelf of a topic, and even if you don't know what to read, the whole set will give you an inspiration. With internet, you have to click a link of a keyword you typed in search engines, choose what to read, and they often turn out to be advertisements or scribbles from undefined source. This type of method of search stops you moment by moment, by confusing you with unnecessary pop-ups and advertisements.

Conversely, with library books, is it only the spine of books in the shelf and the titles of books that inspires me? Then, is it the whole related keywords that cheers me up?

When you type in a word in search engine, related keywords also appear above the list of search results. But they are limited, obvious and shortened, since they are really "key" words. However with book titles, book titles can be as imaginative as the editor.

The information stored both in internet and in library is vast, it's about choosing the right information from bunch of decaying source. And I concluded that the way of listing is the key to the appropriate method to access of information. 

Then how do I distinguish and cut off unneccessary information and efficiently lead users to the right place? Do we need a whole new arrangement of web searches?

First of all, I established what goes in the way.
1. Hyperlinks
(1) inline links - may display a modified version of the content. e.g. instead of an image a thumbnail low resolution preview, cropped section
(2) anchor - anchor links embedded in the content

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