0ne thing that stands out about the Internet is that it is never static. New software driven by small start-up companies hoping to hit it big and publicly list on their country's stock exchange is constantly being released to the public, generally for free (at least in the beginning of the software's development). Such programs are called Web browsing companions. Two programs that fit this category and that have made a recent splash are ThirdVoice (TV) and uTOK. They enable surfers to "leave" comments on the Web sites they pass through. If you think it sounds irrelevant and a little silly, think of the uses to which you could put such software. For example, if you were travelling overseas with some friends you could leave messages to them pointing out certain sections of useful Web sites and swap comments with them about it; if you worked in a company you could use the software to discuss and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor's Web site and if you wanted to mark up Web sites in a way that could only be accessed by yourself you could leave notes to yourself using this software.

How They Work

Both programs require the user to download client software. uTOK provides a dedicated client, while TV has separate controls that enable it to integrate either with Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape Navigator. Users of other operating systems and browsers other than Windows and IE/ Netscape respectively are out of luck; both programs will only work with these browsers on the Windows platform (although the TV Web site says that the company is investigating the possibility of porting it to the Macintosh, Unix and Linux platforms). It should also be noted that since TV was originally developed for use with IE, the feature set of the ActiveX version is slightly more advanced than the Netscape version.

Each piece of software then requires the user to register with their network by creating a user name and password. Once logged in, users can post and read notes that reside on the company's server.

Features in Common

As mentioned above both programs allow the user to post notes on Web sites. There arc two types of notes common to both programs; self and public. Self enables the user to post notes that are readable only to themselves while public notes are readable by anyone logged in to the network. Each note can be voted on. Once a note has been posted each program keeps track of the note so that if someone responds to it the original creator is notified. uTOK does it by popping up a tab beneath the Write a Note function and TV by e-mailing a notification to the e-mail address that the user registered with the network. A user can also keep track of the notes (s)he has posted through visiting a Web page generated by the network.

Each program also enables the user to join various groups and to create a group if they cannot find an existing group that covers the topic they are interested in. Each program uses the group function for different purposes (explained below).

ThirdVoice

The implementation of TV is completely different to that of uTOK. It comes in the form of a floating minimisable button bar that pops up in the Web browser window. There are three sizes it can take up: totally minimised (Figure 1), main buttons visible (Figure 2) and side window form (Figure 3). Obviously, the maximised size has the most functions available but takes up the most screen real estate. The software can be turned on or off via a toolbar button on the standard button bar (Figure 4). Once turned on, a new instance of it will pop up in every new browser window, adding to the loading time of each window. This could be a disadvantage to those with slow computers.

Once maximised into a side window form, TV enables the user to view Self, Group, Public and Contact notes on the site that s(he) is visiting as well as Hot Notes (those written by TV commentators). Additionally, the user can view other notes on the site and the top sites by user traffic. When a user clicks on either of the four types of notes s(he) is shown an hierarchical tree of available notes (Figure 5). This is useful because a user can quickly get a sense of the thread of notes and the changes in topic as the thread has progressed and thereby pick and choose which notes s(he) would like to view.

TV has a couple of distinctive features that are lacking in uTOK. Firstly it enables a user to post group notes to the group s(he) has joined. Other group members are then notified by e-mail. Secondly TV provides the ability to e-mail an interesting note to the person of the user's choice via an envelope button at the bottom of each note. This means that people who don't have the client installed can view TV notes and even comment upon them via e-mail.

An extremely useful feature that still needs a bit of development to be indispensable is the Filter function. It can hide four different types of notes: Read, Spam/junk, Public and Unattached. Read notes are those that have already been read by the user, Spam/junk notes are self-explanatory (although it is not clear what criteria are applied by TV to distinguish these notes from other notes), Public notes are those readable by anyone and Unattached notes are notes which have been archived by TV after the text to which they are attached has been removed from the Web page.

Disadvantages

TV has a number of disadvantages. The first concerns the e-mail function. While the ability to e-mail notes to other people appears to be useful, if a group is active a lot of e-mail can be generated very quickly, clogging up your inbox and taking a lot of time to sort through. The same applies if you are an active poster who is topical. Each time a reply is posted to one of your notes, another e-mail is sent to your registered account resulting in a large increase in messages.

The second concerns the actual nature of the program. Because TV is not a separate program it tends to run more slowly than uTOK. It takes longer to download all the notes and then (optionally) place the inline markers on the Web page. Presumably, this will only get worse as more users use the software - not a comforting thought.

Tied to the implementation of the program is the problem concerning notes whose attached text is removed from the Web. Each note posted must be anchored to a piece of text the note is presumably commenting upon. This makes sense until the text is removed. For example, a story is updated on the CNN Web site (a site that has a large number of posters). TV has addressed this problem by providing a View Unattached Note function (such notes have a blue background). However, this requires the user to expand the TV bar to the side window form, which is annoying as the user doesn't know whether there are any unattached notes unless TV is in side window form, taking up maximum screen real estate.

Last, it appears that the company that owns TV has been thinking of the future by providing space for advertisers to place an ad if the service becomes popular enough. At the moment the space is taken up by a small TV ad (which leads me to believe that the potential is there for advertisers to take out an ad, otherwise why advertise TV to people who are already using it). This may not be an annoyance to other users but with ads bombarding people from the television, free Web space providers, free e-mail providers and the major commercial Web sites another ad space becomes a bit irritating.

Advantages

As mentioned above TV enables a user to: directly post to the groups that s (he) has joined, send an interesting note to anyone online via e-mail, filter content via a number of categories and view unattached notes. When it is in toolbar mode, TV takes up a smaller piece of screen than uTOK in equivalent mode (Figure 6). When individual posters can be filtered out (along the lines of a kill file in newsreaders and filters in e-mail programs) the filter function will become indispensable.

In terms of content, TV seems to be ahead. While most of the content depends on the users using the software, the company does have a more developed Web site (as opposed to uTOK) and has provided columnists who post interesting and thoughtful discussions. uTOK needs to catch up in this area.

uTOK

uTOK has taken a different approach from TV As mentioned above, it is a standalone program, resulting in a greater speed when locating notes as the user changes Web sites. Upon registration the user receives an individual uTOK user number that can be used by others to send notes to the user individually. After installing it, the user finds a new icon in the system tray. There arc 3 different icons: a blue horizontal pencil indicates that there are no uTOK notes for the current Web site (Figure 7), a green vertical pencil indicates that there arc uTOK notes posted for this Web site (Figure 8) and a red upright pencil with an exclamation mark next to it means that there are waiting notes for the user (Figure 9). When the icon is clicked, a Quantities panel pops up. This is a floating panel that can be moved anywhere on the screen (Figure 10). It displays the user uTOK number, name and rating, the current URL the program is accessing, whether any public, private or self notes arc available, the write a note button, the waiting note tab and the menu and location buttons.

The Public button is self-explanatory as is the Self Notes button. The Private Note button gives the user access to notes written by another for just that user. The Notes by Topic button enables the user to sort the given notes on a particular site by generic topic. There is a set number of topics. For example, site review, opinion, jobs etc.

The Notes by Group permits a user to sort notes according to the groups the user has joined and the poster has chosen to use.

After a user clicks on the type of note available (presuming there are notes of that type available) the Headers List pops up (Figure 11). It enables the user to view notes on a number of bases: by date, by user, by threaded topic, by group, by author and by subject. At the bottom of the list are two buttons. One pops up a random note and the other fetches more notes from the UTOK server.

Advantages

uTOK has an interesting rating system. As mentioned above, notes can be sorted according to user rating. All users start with 3 stars. The greater the number of "thumbs-up" votes received for each note the higher the user rating climbs, to a maximum of 5 stars. The converse can also take place, the more "thumbs-down" votes received per note the lower the user rating drops, to a minimum of 1 star. Clearly there is an incentive to make sure that the notes that arc posted receive as many thumbs up as possible. This is a good thing considering how much "noise" there is on the Internet compared to "signal".

The individual UTOK user number is an excellent feature in that it enables' others who are using the client to find the specific user if they know their number. Once found, a page listing who they arc, their e-mail address and various other information can he displayed (Figure 12). Using the Friends Finder under the menu button from the Quantities panel they can be added to the user's address book, enabling the user to post private notes for their friend. Each user has an address book (Figure 13), which holds the information necessary to post notes for their friends or group their friends into teams (the equivalent in TV would be groups) and thereby post notes for their teams.

Disadvantages

uTOK lacks a couple of features that have been built into TV. uTOK does not have a filter function, which means that anyone who wants to spam uTOK users can do so at will. This is a serious drawback if UTOK becomes successful as advertisers follow users onto each new popular tool. uTOK also lacks the ability to e-mail interesting notes to people who do not use uTOK. This is not so much a disadvantage as an omission. It would be nice to send notes to family, friends and business colleagues who do not use uTOK.

A further shortcoming is the lack of ability to view notes whose Web page has disappeared. These notes remain archived on uTOK's server but are inaccessible to the user. This is a major drawback for sites that have a high turnover of pages. At least TV enables such notes to be viewed. This is certainly something that needs to be fixed by the uTOK development team.

The uTOK Web site is very simple. It offers no content over and above what users put in and only exhibits the groups created that day on the front page in contrast to TV which makes an attempt to list all the groups on their front page. There doesn't seem to be a lot of content available on the site. However their FAQ and User Guide comprehensively covers most if not all conceivable queries.

Conclusion

The concept of browsing companion software is a good one. It facilitates a new and interesting level of interaction and commentary on Web sites. This could be a great feedback format, inspiring Webmasters to tailor content and format to users' desires without having to directly survey each user. As with all first release software, much development is needed. TV could do with some other way of notifying users of responses to their own notes, private notes and group notes while uTOK could do with a filter function and a way of viewing notes whose Web page has been removed.

Each program has its own unique features. uTOK has great versatility in sorting posted notes as well as ease of access and speed, while TV can more easily involve others who do not have the software in discussions. Both programs are only as good as their users so the more people who go out and try the software the better (hopefully) the level of commentary will be. Try it out and see what you think. One thing is certain, both these companies will go on trying to put in more useful features, streamline the interface and fix design problems to ensure a better user experience. The user is the winner.

It should be noted that there are other browsing companion type software programs available for download: Odigo, Gooey and ICQsurf. The difference between them and uTOK/TV is that they offer chatting capability with other Web surfers on the same site.

Addendum

Since the time of writing the original article both companies have released updated versions of their programs. TV has added the option to show or not show notes for a given page and is now compatible with Netscape as well as IE. The uTOK development team has addressed a number of its shortcomings. It now allows users to email an interesting note to a non-uTOK using friend and has dumped the annoying feature of popping up multiple browser windows for each waiting note a user clicks on. A couple of extra features have been added as well. Users can now import skins much like Winamp pioneered however at this time of writing only a couple of skins have appeared and it is unclear as to how a user can design their own. Secondly, a new feature called Poll Notes has been introduced. Users can create a poll on a question of their own choosing. Once voted on, the voter is able to see what is the percentage of each response.

A better sense of aesthetic design has gone into the new Web site with different areas clearly marked out and group organisation much easier to understand. For example, the top groups are easily available on the home page. In short the new releases have confirmed my opinion that uTOK is pulling further ahead of TV in design and features.

URLs:

• ThirdVoice: www.thirdvoice.com
• uTOK: www.utok.com