Adaptive Websites – Making the Internet a friendlier place.

There are two different kinds of web pages:

1. Static.
2. Dynamic.

Static web pages contain the same pre built content each time the page is loaded.They are standard HTML pages with HTML codes that control the page display.The page looks the same every time it is loaded.

Dynamic web-pages on the other hand are built on the fly to match the users request or based on user interaction.Generally they may contain PHP,ASP or JSP code that are server side code which enable the server to generate different content each time they are loaded.

Even though considering the flexibility of Dynamic web pages ,  there is still scope for development of the interaction experience of the user,to improve the relevance of the content displayed etc.

There are websites as iGoogle,MyYahoo,MyExite,MyCNN that allow users to customize the website according to their like. But even in this case users have to do the customization themselves by explicitly itemizing each item for which the user must have understanding of the website itself,and it know the different offering site like MyYahoo have could be a daunting task and will require the user to browse the site extensively.

So we look into this new concept called adaptive websites (the research was ongoing since the last decade) :the websites that automatically improve their presentation,organization( of pages) and content based on the users access patterns that are mined from the web server logs or other data sources.

For example ,let us consider a person visiting a news website on a regular basis. Every time he visits the website, he only visits the links related to computers,technology , science and technology,electronics,computers , literature and sports,  rather than business,economics and politics ( but still seldom reads such  articles  ).So based on his past reading activities,the website may his access detect patterns and know about his interest,and based on these results structure the website so as to include more links about technology or computers rather than politics or  finance ,then the visit for the person shall be more useful.

So, adaptive website analyze user access pattern and mine them to find different groups of people sharing same interests and display the website to such users by improving  the web-site’s design,organization  accordingly then the users will find the website more useful than the latter case. Building adaptive websites is still a concept . Data mining,machine learning,collaborative filtering etc are the techniques closely related in making Adaptive Website a reality.

First ,based on the user access data and using data mining tools we must detect groups(clusters) of users with similar access patterns and form clusters. We can either form flat clusters or Hierarchical Clusters.

Once the Clustering is built,we then look at transformation.The process of transformation deals with creating patterns for each cluster by searching for the different steps required to design the from the  present initial page to the goal page  using a scoring function and applying the information gained employing different mining techniques on the access histories of users(generally Web Server Logs) to complete the transformation (similar to the process of planning in which the path from initial to goal is deduced in steps).

These transformations re stored on the web server ,and when a user visits the website again ,the web server will detect him and apply the transformation  to the web pages to provide the user with an environment designed to his/her likes and habits , thus making  the visit more fruitful and eventful and the user being satisfied.

Hence ,if and when the concept of Adaptive websites becomes a reality ,the Internet that is ever growing and becoming a bigger part of our life day-by-day , will become a more pleasurable,informative and relevant experience for each one of us.

Read more here.

– Venkatesh M. [Student Intern]