Iterasi: Dynamic Bookmarking

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira,

on January 28, 2008,

Iterasi logo image Launching today at DEMO 2008, Iterasi promises to revolutionize social bookmarking for the Web 2.0 world. While sites like del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia allow you to share bookmarks, one of the problems with sharing static URL links is that much of the content of AJAX applications is absent when you return to the site.

Iterasi will launch as a private beta within 30 days with a plug-in for IE 7 and Firefox for Windows, with a Mac version following soon after. I had the opportunity to speak with Iterasi CEO Pete Grillo last week at a pre-launch demo. Pete points out that we no longer use a static web, but instead, pages are created on the fly. In this new, dynamic environment, bookmarks are no longer able to capture the information we wish to share. These traditional tools are able to point to no more than a URL.

Iterasi proposes to solve this problem with a process called notarizing, which saves this dynamic page content. Running in your toolbar, it will suggest tags from your collection as well as page content for easy retrieval, which can be done from either the toolbar or the Iterasi site. Items can be shared as well as searched by tags, dates, page content, keywords, and folders. These sites can also be shared both inside as well as outside the Iterasi system, allowing you to share the content with others even if they aren't Iterasi users.

Using Iterasi, you can also notarize searches to preserve them in a static state, saving frequent Google searches for easy reference. Other search applications include scheduling periodic notaries (for example, a Presidential candidate's Facebook profile or fares on a service such as Farecast. Scheduled notaries can run daily, weekly, or monthly, allowing you to watch sites or content over time. Notaries can also be embedded in other pages as a thumbnail or link. Simply clicking the notary reserves the page with the content already loaded.

Of course, no system is perfect. The links in notaries are live, but content may change months down the line so links may not work. The content is still preserved in these cases, but links may not be able to provide you with additional information. In addition, applications that preserve a complex interaction in a server state are much more difficult to save in Iterasi, although as Pete pointed out, Iterasi is doing it better than anyone else.

As for me, I'm looking forward to the Mac release with great anticipation. I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than having to screen capture and then convert images for articles, and hope that Iterasi can eliminate that need.

<i>For a video demonstration of Iterasi, visit http://www.viddler.com/player/93866484/ </i>

Iterasi screenshot image

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13 Comments (Subscribe to rss)

Grendel - January 28, 2008 at 08:12 pm PDT

It will be interesting to see what sites work with this and which don’t… I personally like building apps that maintain state on the server and don’t send it all back and forth with every call, but I’m usually building more “enterprisey” apps with richer functionality.

Outside of the technical challenges, I hesitate to mention a business challenge… how exactly does Iterasi make money at this?
Lana - January 28, 2008 at 08:53 pm PDT

I am curious as to why do you use the key words ‘notarize’,'notaries’,'notarization’ to describe facts and processes that have absolutely nothing to do with being a notary or the process of notarization of the document; not even close!
Cyndy Aleo-Carreira - January 28, 2008 at 09:12 pm PDT

@Lana: Because that’s what the application developer calls them?
Lana - January 28, 2008 at 09:21 pm PDT

Cyndy,

I am not doubting that application developer is highly skilled in technical issues, but this is completely wrong use of terms. Why not use something that actually more closely resembles the information being described?I hope he or she is reading all this.
Grendel - January 29, 2008 at 07:30 am PDT

@Lana, I’ve gotta feel for the developer on this one… This is a new concept. It’s like a bookmark, but it’s trying to fix the problem that bookmarks don’t work in rich apps. In compsci terms it’s really a “continuation”, but end users would go “huh? continuing what?”

It’s tough to come up with new terms for new ideas and make them quickly understandable by the users. Most of us aren’t notaries and don’t get upset by co-opting these terms, so…
Pete Grillo - January 29, 2008 at 02:48 pm PDT

Thanks for your thoughts. Let me do my best to respond.

re: business model: we will follow up with a free version of the product with limited storage and ads, and a pro version with more features, storage, etc. I am open to ideas and comments on this thought. More down the road.

re: Why the term Notarize? A controversial one internally. The cons are covered, the pros were the analogy it draws; a notary verifies the authenticity of your signature, iterasi verifies the authenticity of a web page. The accuracy of what we capture is one of our core values. So we felt that this term best represented what we wanted to convey to users. Also, in general, naming a company, product, child, etc is a challenge at best.
Hazzaa - January 29, 2008 at 07:27 pm PDT

A Notary verifies your signature, iterasi verifies the authenticity of a webpage then should iterasi be considered an attorney? Just a thought considering it takes an attorneys to verify the authenticity of a document.
Linda - January 31, 2008 at 03:04 pm PDT

Peter, Cyndi and Grendel,
While I understand you are attempting to show the importance of your authentication, I find that this is a misuse of the terms notary, notarization and notarizing and very inappropriate at the very least. These terms are exclusively applicable to the title and duties of a state appointed official.

Rather than to have this come back and haunt you at a later date with state officials, I think it would be in your companies best interests to address what has been brought to your attention now opposed to later.

I will give you an example: A company that provides bookkeeping and tax preparation services states they are accountants and their business name has the word ‘accounting’ in it. They are not licensed CPAs and were forced to eliminate any mention of the word ‘accountant’ or ‘accounting’ from the business descriptive and business name. The argument was that the majority of the public see the terms accounting and account and understand that to mean someone is a licensed accountant.

In your case, using the term notary etc, could be misconstrued and could be seen as a disregard for the meaning of the term/s. I’m afraid you may find yourself in a situation of misrepresentation down the road.
Todd Sieling - February 01, 2008 at 10:38 am PDT

Congratulations on the launch! One detail about the post I felt it worthwhile to address is that Ma.gnolia does save a copy of a bookmarked website’s content, so that if the content changes between visits you can actually see what you were looking at when you saved the link.
For proper disclosure, I’m part of the Ma.gnolia team.
pete grillo - February 01, 2008 at 11:43 pm PDT

@Linda, I mean no disrespect to the people and institutions that are part of the notary system. The word has lots of history, and as I have confessed before, was a controversial choice for us internally. But I do draw parallels to what we are doing and the function performed by a notary. The concept of using a state appointed official to assure the authenticity of Web content is not practical. We are commited to a high degree of assurance and have chosen the only practical method for the Web: we automate the process. Obviously the Internet challenges some traditional ways of doing things and also brings some new meanings to existing norms.

@Todd, I am a fan of Ma.gnolia. It is a great product and I use it daily. we think our vision is a little different from others and we hope to be a good contributor to a better Web experience for all, similar to so many other great products including Ma.gnolia.

pete grillo
ceo, iterasi
Shaarangapanaye - May 28, 2009 at 08:39 am PDT

You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
Wellbutrin SR - June 25, 2009 at 07:06 pm PDT

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