Friend Lens: Novel Web Content Sharing through Strategic Manipulation of Cached HTML

Abstract

Content sharing has become a part our everyday lives. There are many forms for content sharing. Current methods of content sharing include blogs, Facebook, and Clip Marks. Content can be authored by users or taken from external sites. Blogs and Facebook allow for the quick and easy authoring of new content but do not support the complete extraction of external content. Clip Marks is a Firefox plug-in that does not allow for user to author original content, only allowing for the extraction of external content. This thesis details the construction and novel features of Friend Lens. Friend Lens is a web application that allows for user to author original content and for the extraction of complete copies of external sites using PHP. Friend Lens also implemented a novel means of collaboration with the ability to highlight posts and to make composite of multiple highlights. When viewing a composite of multiple highlights, a color scale is used to emphasize the content that received the most highlights. To evaluate Friend Lens, human subject evaluated Facebooks, Clip Marks, and Friend Lens in three general categories: community, posting content, and practicality of use. Friend Lens scored poorly in the community category since it does not have many features that allow for social networking. In the posting content category, Friend Lens ranked highest in the areas of extracting external content, showing other users the web sites one enjoys/visits most. In the practicality of use category, Friend Lens ranked highest is the areas of usability for peers to review one's work, and usability for one's profession.