Enabling web browsers to augment web sites' filtering and sorting functionalities

Existing augmentations of web pages are mostly small cosmetic changes (e.g., removing ads) and minor addition of third-party content (e.g., product prices from competing sites). None leverages the structured data presented in web pages. This paper describes Sifter, a web browser extension that can augment a web site with advanced filtering and sorting functionality. These added features work inside the site’s own pages, preserving the site’s presentational style, as if the site itself has implemented the features. Sifter contains an algorithm that scrapes structured data out of web pages while usually requiring no user intervention. We tested Sifter on real web sites and real users and found that people could use Sifter to perform sophisticated queries and high-level analyses on sizable data collections on the Web. We propose that web sites can be similarly augmented with other sophisticated data-centric functionality, giving users new benefits over the existing Web. ACM Classi�...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: UIST
• Authors: David F. Huynh, Robert C. Miller, David R. Karger
• Keywords: Structured Data, UIST 2006, Web Pages, Web Sites