The desire to innovate is deeply rooted in what makes us designers. Our motivation does not come from a need to create something new, but to create something that provides positive change. It is our responsibility to understand our users and their needs in a way that leads to change. For us, true innovation can only be derived from designing concepts that deliver on this promise. To be recognized above an incredible group of projects created by international developers and designers means more than we have the ability to express.

We would like to thank Mozilla Labs for providing a great challenge for the winter months of 2009 and we would like to thank our wives for letting us stay locked into yet another project for a few weeks.

- Craig and Chatree

                          

A window into your past experiences has the potential to open a world of thought and possibilities. Today, browser history provides no more imagination than a breadcrumb trail sequencing your online experiences. Usefulness extends little further than your memory can reach. Bubbles and Stacks open a window to your mind, providing the ability to extend your memory and organize your online experiences.

History

We have improved the current concept of browser based history. Rather than sequence sites based only on the time they were accessed, the History view will also take into account frequency of visits and context of the information viewed. All this information is packaged together and provided to the user in groups of websites we call Stacks.

Stacks are automatically generated by the system based on an individual’s normal behavior, but no system has the ability to know exactly what a user desires. Users have the ability to easily edit each Stack title as well as the add or remove sites associated with that group. This pattern is available where ever a user sees a Stack.

Users have two ways to add sites to a desired Stack. They can simply add a URL or search for sites they have visited based on concept or topic.

Stacks

The advancement and popularity of tab based browsing has evolved the way individuals navigate the Internet and seek out information. Websites are often opened in groups rather than just one at a time. Each group is related to a specific task or necessity. A user may open a series of websites once a month to pay their bills while another user searching for a car may open the same 3 automotive search engines once a day. Stacks make these experiences easier.

The Stacks view is essentially an organized extension of the History view. Stacks listed here are made available based on popularity or a user’s desire to have specific groups of sites available with a single click. Selecting the title button will open all sites in the given Stack in tabs.

Each visit to the Stacks view will suggest groups of sites based on recent popularity. Users also have the option to save suggested stacks to the view by pinning them to the screen or creating original stacks by searching for concepts.

Not every desired stack will be visible by default so users will have the ability to search for concepts and allow the system to suggest stacks for them. The results of a search will display in the stacks area.

Bubbles

While navigating the internet, over time users access an incredible amount of information. Keeping track of such a large amount of information can be overwhelming organized by time alone. Bubbles makes it possible to organize sites visited based on the concepts written on each page accessed by the user. Each group is a network of sites packaged together based on the concepts available in each of the sites. Bubble groups are listed based on recent popularity and just as in History and Stacks views, users can search deeper based on concept or topic. Titles are given to each group based on the most frequent, global topic associated with that network.

Selecting a Bubble group will expand the network full frame. Users can select a topic represented in the network to find which sites they have visited representing that idea. Users can open some or all these associated sites in tabs.

This network visualization is simply one of many possible representations of connections between ideas, concepts and topics.

                          

Traveling through the Internet, users generate a wealth of data that can be used to analyze habits, suggest new paths of discovery and support behavior.

Today, several popular web browsers have taken advantage of part of this data stream by providing thumbnail views of websites individuals have accessed recently. Simple algorithms based on the frequency of access to a particular URL gives way to the suggestions made available to users. It has become a very useful, very powerful tool. Bubble Stacks seek to improve upon this concept by opening the floodgates to utilize not just a simple stream of time/frequency data, but organize behavior based on a much wider realm of available information.

Among other potential data sources, Bubble Stacks are supported by the following elements associated with a given website (URL):

• Time of access
• Frequency of access
• Onscreen text
• Page titles
• Meta tags

In addition to time based analysis, we have proposed the notion of tapping into the information already available on each page itself. Onscreen text doesn’t get us very far by itself because to automatically analyze the information available, a system would need to understand the context of use. Understanding context, and thus concept is no small feat of artificial intelligence, but incredible advancements in this area have already been made.

One possibility of determining context is Princeton University’s WordNet. A number of incredible projects have been created tapping into its potential for recognizing connections between words and concepts. Other systems of artificial system intelligence exist. WordNet is simply a highly accessible, widely known system.

                          

Social

Behavior is not based on the individual alone, but it stems from the people around you. Suggestions for Stacks or even Bubbles can be generated based on your friends, family and others similar to you. They may even be shared amongst this group like a “mixed tape” of suggested websites.

Multi-user

Often times a family shares a computer and thus an operating system. Not every individual using the same machine will share the same set of tasks or the same desire for information. Providing the ability to provide different versions of Bubble Stacks dependent on a given user is a logical iteration of design.

Bubbles and Time

Currently the design best supports time within the History view. The Stacks view represents time on a smaller level by basing the unpinned areas on popularity (a factor of time). Bubbles remove the concept of time altogether. One future concept looks at the ability to bring an element of time into the realm of Bubbles.