Due to an interest in identifying alternative approaches for navigating Internet resources, a query was posted in Fall 1996 requesting nominations for incorporation within a clearinghouse devoted to visualization of Web collections and documents. Among the better-known products is HotSauce . By providing a complete overview, users are given an ability to 'fly-through' primary, secondary, and associated links, on demand. In those sites using HotSauce, topics are represented by round-cornered rectangles. By double clicking on a node, the resources linked to a topic are displayed.
Color is used to represent a difference in value or relationship.
Both approaches hold promise for improving resource identification and access within sites that employ categorization or standard classification schemes to organize Web resources. Such applications, however, do little in revealing the full semantic content of selected Web resources and the breadth of the relationship of a resource to others within a collection. Although significant, these techniques currently only facilitate access to Web resources through enhancement of established and conventional organizational frameworks. A number of experimental systems, however, seek to extend access to the underlying content of Web collections by representing them visually. In late summer, a query requesting information about the application of software agents for such library services as acquisitions, cataloging and collection development was posted to several library lists and newsgroups.