Next Generation Hypertext

Why shouldn’t every word in every document online
be a hotlink to dictionary, Wikipedia, image and  Google search
results for itself, and any other database or information source you desire? Technically, while this ideal presents problems,
they are not insurmountable. A Scandanavian university workgroup named Liquid
Information has
a prototype up and running, where you can test drive the next generation
of hypertext. 

Take, for example, an article that appeared at the CNN Web site on Jan.
26 about the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. The
first sentence after the boldface type says: "The final vote of the
full Senate was 85-13 in favor of the nomination."
Let your cursor linger on the first word, "the," and up pops what Mr.
Hegland calls a hyperwords menu. Here are the choices: You can highlight "the" throughout
the article, you can read only paragraphs containing "the," you can
Google "the," or you can get various dictionary definitions of "the." (Eventually,
you will be able to add your own commands to the menu, Mr. Hegland said in an
e-mail interview.)

If you Google "the," you might find that "The Onion," the
spoofing newspaper, pops up before The White House. Gee. Better find out why.
At The Onion, after watching a "premercial" for Bud Lite, you read
the lead article, "U.S. Children Still Traumatized One Year After Seeing
Janet Jackson’s Partially Exposed Breast on TV."

If you haven’t seen that particular exposed breast for a while, you might take
a moment to watch it on a free video site. Fifteen seconds of pixilated titillation
later, you return to the text about Secretary of State Rice. You’re still on
the word "the."

Choose the dictionary option and 26 dictionaries beckon, beginning with Merriam-Webster’s
online dictionary, where you can’t begin to concentrate on the definition of "the" because
a team of animated basketball players is begging you to shoot hoops. Scroll down
to the end of the dictionary list and you will find the site stands4.com. Did
you know that "T.H.E." stands for "three hours extra" and "thermometer"?

article from the New
York Times

Demo using Dowbrigade News