Understanding Web Augmentation

The increasing volume of content and actions on the web, combined with the growing number of “digital natives”, anticipate a growing desire of more sophisticated ways of controlling the Web experience. Webies 2.0 do no longer take the web as it is but imagine fancy ways of customizing the web for their own purposes. So far, mashups are the forerunner exponent of this tendency where consumers (companies and laymen alike) come up with new applications by synergistically combining third-party resources. This presentation moves the focus to another approach: “

Web Augmentation

” (WA). Rather than creating a new application, WA builds on top of the rendering of an existing website. In some sense, WA is to the Web what Augmented Reality is to the physical world: layering relevant content/layout/navigation over the existing Web to customize the user experience. Unlike mashups, the purpose for WA is not so much coming up with a new application, but framing the new development within the Web experience of an existing website. Since this is achieved by third parties in a non-intrusive way, WA is a client-side technology: extensive use of

JavaScript

(

JS

) using browser weavers (e.g.

Greasemonkey

) or plugs-in.