8.4.1 Since the introduction of the Web and consequent commercialisation of it, one of the problems facing developers everywhere is how to deal with information overload. Search engines became the information bots, widely developed and used on the Internet. An intelligent agent (or simply an agent) is a program that gathers information or performs some other service without your immediate presence and on some regular schedule. Typically, an agent program, using parameters you have provided, searches all or some part of the Internet, gathers information you are interested in, and presents it to you on a daily or other periodic basis. But as the search agents became more powerful, they overloaded us once again with too much information. So, the next generation of agents focused on classification and narrowing down information.

8.4.2 That navigating information would be the primary problem facing developers was evident to developers on the net. Very early on. Brewster Kahle, who I discussed in chapter five, developed the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) in the early 1990's, the first system for publishing quantities of data in a searchable form on the Internet. More recently, with the rapid expansion of the web and the near frenzied rate of Internet stocks, the stakes have been raised tremendously. Browser and search firms are snapping up technology that improves Web navigation. Search company Lycos spent $39.75 million for WiseWire, which automatically organises Internet content into directories and categories. In 1997, Microsoft shelled out a reported $40 million for Firefly, which recommends content to Web surfers based on profiles they submit. [top]