ALife-WebGuide: an intelligent user interface for Web site navigation

ABSTRACT

This article describes Artificial Life, Inc.'s WebGuide, an intelligent software bot that helps users navigate a Web site using natural language. The article describes the technology behind ALife-WebGuide, discusses some of the issues involved in commercialization of this type of user interface, and summarizes possible enhancements for future versions of this product.

REFERENCES

• 1: Alife Solutions. White paper available on the Web at www.artificial-life.com/whitepapers/ALifeSolutionsWhitePaper.zip, 1999.
• 2: Liren Chen , Katia Sycara, WebMate: a personal agent for browsing and searching, Proceedings of the second international conference on Autonomous agents, p.132-139, May 10-13, 1998, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States [doi>10.1145/280765.280789]
• 3: Lieberman, H. Letizia: An Agent That Assists Web Browsing. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Montreal, CA, August 1995.
• 4: Jude Shavlik , Susan Calcari , Tina Eliassi-Rad , Jack Solock, An instructable, adaptive interface for discovering and monitoring information on the World-Wide Web, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, p.157-160, January 05-08, 1999, Los Angeles, California, United States [doi>10.1145/291080.291106]
• 5: Neil W. Van Dyke , Henry Lieberman , Pattie Maes, Butterfly: a conversation-finding agent for Internet relay chat, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, p.39-41, January 05-08, 1999, Los Angeles, California, United States [doi>10.1145/291080.291088]
• 6: Ahmad M. Ahmad Wasfi, Collecting user access patterns for building user profiles and collaborative filtering, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, p.57-64, January 05-08, 1999, Los Angeles, California, United States [doi>10.1145/291080.291091]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
Web navigation, Web site interface, intelligent navigation, natural language, software bots