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Boxxet, a Tool for Automatic Webpage Generation
tkajstura writes "New Scientist is reporting on 'a new tool [called Boxxet that] offers to create websites on any subject, allowing web surfers to sit back, relax and watch a virtual space automatically fill up with relevant news stories, blog posts, maps and photos.' It uses an algorithm based on unique word count to filter an index and integrate relevant subject information into the page, called a 'Boxxet.' The tool will first be available by invitation only, opening to the general public by the end of April 2006."
Now that we are finally rid of geocities pages some new shit service comes along.
So you say you wanna be a blogger, but you're just too darn lazy? No problem!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
explains slashdot articles!
Hope the got that dupe bug fixed
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
Does anyone have an example page that is a result of this alogrithm? The article is a little sparse on details or functionality, and you can't see anything if you go to the website.
From what I've read, I've tried to come up with stuff that I'd put in the first 5 links to give to the site, and I'm having trouble. I don't necessarily like to view the same things or same types of things from day to day, so I'm not sure how useful that'd be...
I can just see this program being used to "create" content to push more advertising. Just what we need more of, websites that have recycled content put online for ad revenue.
Accentuate the positive, don't waste your mod points on the negative.
Isn't that what a search engine does? You type in a phrase and it finds things like that and sends you a web page?
and a nightmare for search engines. Hopefully there will be a way to detect boxxet pages and purge them, or at least show them seperately from relative content. Going from a search result link to another link full of partial information will be frustrating for many users and only benefits those who are makign aliving off of google ads, affiliates, etc.
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
How long until someone (i.e. everyone) figures out how to fool the algorithm and exploit the system so that their blog posts show up every single day on the front page of the "Boxxet"? Unique word count has got to be the most naive algorithm out there. Remember in the nineties when every web page had a list of three thousand keywords at the very bottom of the page to fool the search engines of the time?
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
KBBL Boss: This is the DJ 3000. It plays CDs automatically, and it has three distinct varieties of inane chatter.
[presses a button]
DJ 3000: Hey, hey. How about that weather out there?
Woah! _That_ was the caller from hell.
Well, hot dog! We have a weiner.
Bill: Man, that thing's great!
Marty: _Don't_ praise the machine!
KBBL Boss: If you don't get that kid an elephant by tomorrow, the DJ 3000 gets your job.
[Marty punches it]
DJ 3000: Those clowns in congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.
Bill: [laughs] How does it keep up with the news like that?
This kind of tool might be nice for those people that are to lazy to either blog themselves or do some honest-to-god surfing, but can you really see publishers being thrilled that their content is going to be diluted and published on some Joe Q Random's Boxxet page?
Now, some bloggers and others might be happy to be republished verbatim outwith their control. That's fine. But most professional webmasters have a name for bots that go around taking content and putting it on other sites without permission*. The are called scrapers . The Boxxet bot and others like it are and will be banned by many webmasters (including myself) because the potential for abuse is too high.
There is also a name for such sites automatically produced by scrapers -- made for AdSense
* Note: There is no problem with sites that take headlines, write a summary/teaser and link back (like a certain site we are all very familiar with). These sites are doing a Good Thing(TM) for the content creators -- sending them an interested [ie targeted] audience. The problem for both the publishers and the search engines is the scraping. Only time will tell whether Boxxet is one of the troublemakers (cause the article and the site sure don't give many clues).
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
As the volume of recycled content goes up, the noise ratio will eventually be too much for anything too put up with. That's why I'm working on an automated web surfer so that this the recycled content can find some readership.
Do you see what I did there?
Sorry I haven't jumped in earlier but here goes.
The New Scientist article didn't describe it as well as I would have liked. Think about a place like Slashdot, which is a great destination for tech information. We think that there ought to be similar places for many other subjects, whether it is a sports team, school, hobby, etc.
The problem with trying to support many subjects is that most subjects cannot produce a community as active as Slashdot. So Boxxet is trying to using automation to augment the user submissions and preferences.
Who knows, this thing may be totally not useful, but we're going to give it a shot.
We expect to open up invitations starting next week. We did not expect to get on Slashdot so our queue is higher than expected.
We will try not to disappoint.
You Mon Tsang
Slashdot editors are still pissed off that there was no major damage from the Y2K bug. They continue using Y99 dates in protest.