Personalized content from anywhere

Volume 17, Number 7 • July/August 2000

Personalized content from anywhere — Meta-browsers offer users the ability to customize their Web sites
by Robin Peek

FOCUS ON PUBLISHING column discusses meta-browsers such as OnePage.com (and other emerging personal portals) that are showing how the future of Web publishing might be reshaped. Says that Napster, OnePage.com, and the others represent an entirely different type of information architecture for the Web - one in which the future role of centralized information services like portals could be reduced or possibly eliminated. Explains that Napster and others are examples of file-distribution programs, and once downloaded, a user can trade files with anyone else who has the same software. Adds that OnePage.com takes the Napster model a step further by pulling information from all over the Web and constructing a personal home page. Concludes that if all this customization is overlaid on top of all the Internet appliances, a practical way to architect information may be developed. Contains one screen display.