Searching the Internet and the World Wide Web just got a little easier, thanks to the efforts of UW researchers who have designed electronic "slaves" that can seek out information for you.
The Internet is a collection of computer networks that contain a cornucopia of information. But finding something in a hurry in that electronic haystack is not always easy. Several searching tools have been created to help users find needed information, but they can be difficult to access at peak times of system usage. And even then, a user may need to run more than one type of search to try to locate the desired data.
In 1991, UW computer scientists Oren Etzioni and Daniel Weld
set out to create a software robot, or "softbot," that could
make searching easier and faster. They gave the softbot a
detailed knowledge of the Internet, along with enough
artificial intelligence to interpret instructions and to
evaluate and screen retrieved information. The Internet softbot
was recognized by Discover magazine's 1995 Awards for
Technological Innovation as a finalist in the software
category.
Apple Computer
has licensed a component of this technology.
With graduate student Erik Selberg, Etzioni developed a similar softbot for the World Wide Web, called "MetaCrawler," that can operate eight search tools simultaneously, rather than just one at a time as a user would have to do. Moreover, MetaCrawler uses its artificial "noodle" to prune as much as 75% of the material it finds that is irrelevant, outdated, or unavailable, saving users the trouble of sifting through mountains of data themselves.
