2013-05-12

Alphabet of your web

Your browser knows a lot about you. A feature that demonstrates its vast knowledge of yourself is URL autocomplete. When you start to type a URL, then it suggests possible URLs containing the fragment that you typed based on the web sites you visit most frequently. When you start to use a new browser, pretty soon it'll be completing your URLs.

The collection of the web sites you visit most often forms your personal subset of the Web. It describes your online habits, which in turn describe you; the things you do on the Web, both those that you must do and the ones you enjoy. I think a nice picture of your online world is to collect URLs that your browser suggests for every letter of the alphabeth. Here's mine personal list of places that I'm always returning on the Web.

A ... answers.semanticweb.com
B ... bit.ly
C ... calendar.google.com
D ... drive.google.com
E ... eurostat.linked-statistics.org/sparql
F ... facebook.com
G ... github.com/OPLZZ/data-modelling
H ... headtoweb.posterous.com
I ... isis.vse.cz
J ... joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/esco/home
K ... kosek.cz/vyuka/4iz238/
L ... lod2.vse.cz:8890/sparql
M ... mail.google.com
N ... netstorage.vse.cz
O ... or.justice.cz
P ... prefix.cc
Q ... foursquare.com
R ... regiojet.cz
S ... slovnik.seznam.cz
T ... twitter.com
U ... usaspending.gov/data
V ... virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/doc/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader#Bulk loading process
W ... w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/
X ... xrg15.projekty.ms.mff.cuni.cz/geo-enhancer.html
Y ... youtube.com
Z ... zvon.org

When you have such list, you can look through it and reflect on the places on the Web you spent hours with. Browsing through these links (all coloured as visited ones), you become aware of the parts of the Web where you do your work and where you waste time avoiding work. You recognize web sites where you seek information and web sites where you seek entertainment. You can also find dead places, such as the URL of my previous blog in my list. Overall, it's likely that such list can satisfy your craving for stats for a while and can provide you with insights into your quantified online self.

Now you know what to do: build a browser extension that creates the alphabet of your web automatically.