Home iReader Previews The Content Behind Links

iReader Previews The Content Behind Links

In October 2005 I reviewed a potentially disruptive
search engine called ePrécis, from Syntactica. Unfortunately it got shut down by
Google (they “nearly put us out of business”, said Syntactica President Henry Neils). But
there was some heavy duty linguistic theory behind ePrécis and the good news is
that now Syntactica is back with a new product, which looks equally promising.

iReader is a browser extension (for both IE and
Firefox, and on PC or Mac) that lets you preview the content of a link, before you click
on it. It’s similar to the web previews
products
we reviewed back in January – Browster, Cooliris, Snap, and Sphere. Our
conclusion in that post was that previews are good, if implemented correctly –
because previews can save us a lot of time over the long run.

iReader (full name: iReader 2.0 Web Previewer) is probably the most sophisticated
previews product we’ve seen on the market yet, because it doesn’t just preview a webpage
like Snap, or relevant links like Sphere. iReader actually studies the semantics of the
content behind each link, and pops up a preview of that content in the form of a short
list. The best way to illustrate this is to show you an example. Here is what happens
when I hovered over a link in an earlier R/WW post:

As you can see, the preview is useful because it gives me a bullet point list of
(hopefully) the main content in the webpage behind the link. This is called an
“intelligent summary” by the company.

However there are some rough edges to the app. Sometimes the preview content doesn’t
seem relevant, as in this example (also from R/WW):

The link previewed there was about Talkr, yet the pop-up displayed content about AOL
(which was a whole other post). Perhaps this was pop-up lag, but I did notice some funny
results elsewhere too. Another slight criticism is that the pop-ups tend to drive you
crazy after a while. Every time your mouse passes over a link, up comes the preview
pop-up. That’s distracting when you’re browsing the Web. But it is a beta product, so
you’d expect some rough edges.

However when it comes down to it, there’s something about iReader that is attractive. In
the press release which will go out later today, it states that iReader “is based on
linguistic technology the company has been developing for several years.” And indeed,
creating an on-the-fly pop-up summary of the content behind a link – in an easily
digestable list – is a clever thing. So give it a bit of time. And for those interested
in the technical explanation:

“The technology behind iReader 2.0 is Syntactica Web Services, which can be embedded
into a number of computer programs that process English language text – including,
for example, those for search output, search indexing, or book indexing.

The iReader 2.0 technology works by quickly digesting archived information of a web
page and providing the essential meaning, or sense, of the text on that page. The
technology can also be integrated into Internet search engines to produce relevant
abstracts of text information in real-time. “In short,” said CEO Neils,
“this technology quickly compresses massive amounts of electronic English text into
meaningful short abstracts along with a reference index.”

What’s more, the iReader 2.0 “macro” is being offered on an Open
Source basis for
developers
.

I think this is promising product, albeit possibly too much of a distraction when browsing.
But check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Get the biggest tech headlines of the day delivered to your inbox

    By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

    Tech News

    Explore the latest in tech with our Tech News. We cut through the noise for concise, relevant updates, keeping you informed about the rapidly evolving tech landscape with curated content that separates signal from noise.

    In-Depth Tech Stories

    Explore tech impact in In-Depth Stories. Narrative data journalism offers comprehensive analyses, revealing stories behind data. Understand industry trends for a deeper perspective on tech's intricate relationships with society.

    Expert Reviews

    Empower decisions with Expert Reviews, merging industry expertise and insightful analysis. Delve into tech intricacies, get the best deals, and stay ahead with our trustworthy guide to navigating the ever-changing tech market.