Legal Research

IBM?s CoScripter Reusable History

By Simon Fodden

This one comes under the conflicted heading of “fairly nifty / kind of creepy.” IBM’s Research Labs have come up with a Firefox plugin called CoScripter Reusable History that records every single click and entry you make in the browser — and then lets you search, replay, and share that history, hence the “reusable.” This graphic (click to enlarge) will give you a quick sense of what’s on offer here. (There’s also a video and a further explanation here, that should clear up any confusion.)

I can see some uses for this — and, of course, some dangers for the foolish. (I should note right away that the app does not record passwords.) This might be a very useful tool for someone wanting to test and improve the usability of a website: okay, it won’t record the eye-movements of the test subject (thank goodness), but it will leave a very handy trail of clicks and starts. Too, the video shows the developer searching his browsing history for all of the instances in which he entered his name into a text box on a website; I can see that being useful under some circumstances. And, I suppose, the sharing aspect of this could make a decent way of showing someone how to accomplish a task on the web.

And speaking of usage trackers, take a look at the more impressionistic Java applet, Mousepath, described in the blog entry, “Who moved my mouse?” by Jason Wilson.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).