Talk to my agent

Citation

Schwartz, D.G. (2004), "Talk to my agent", Internet Research, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr.2004.17214aaa.001

Talk to my agent

Talk to my agent

Agent technologies, with their roots in distributed artificial intelligence, have begun appearing (or as is often the case "hiding") within a variety of mainstream applications. Two examples of this phenomenon are presented in this issue of Internet Research.

Sundarraj and Vuong discuss the "Impact of using attachment handling electronic agents on an individual's perceived work-performance". The combination of ubiquitous mobile Internet access, and the common practice of attaching large files to e-mail messages, presents a new usability problem. Sundarraj and Vuong have applied agent technology to this specific problem and study how attachment handling agents impact mobile e-mail usage within an organization.

Applying agent technology to online search is the topic of Jansen and Pooch's "Assisting the searcher: utilizing software agents for Web search systems". As in the previous article, agent technology is being used to improve the user experience – here by taking some of the more mundane aspects of search optimization out of the hands of the user. One of the strengths of Jansen and Pooch's AI²RS search agent is that it can function independent of the specific search engine being used.

It is gratifying to see two papers by returning authors in this issue of Internet Research. Yu et al. present "Archive knowledge discovery by proxy cache", which extends research on novel uses of proxy servers first reported on by Yu and Tseng in Vol. 12 No. 1. Okazaki addresses the question "Do multinationals standardise or localise?" applying the framework for cross-cultural Web site analysis first presented with Alonso in Vol. 12 No. 5.

The growth and associated challenges of Internet-based distance education has been the subject of much research that has appeared in the journal. In this issue Ko and Cheng attack one of the most daunting barriers to widespread e-learning adoption – the inherent difficulty in identifying a student and measuring his or her performance. Their presentation of a "Secure Internet examination system based on video monitoring" will surely be a welcome development for those seeking to extend the effectiveness of online education.

Also in this issue, Sánchez-Franco and Rodríguez-Bobada Rey present "Personal factors affecting users' Web session lengths". This in-depth field study measures a broad range of personal factors in an attempt to isolate those factors critical to encouraging and supporting longer, more sustainable user sessions.

As software agents take a more active role in conducting our online activities, it may no longer be the users' personal factors that we are interested in, but rather those of the agents. When the day comes that we need to consider improving the user experience of a software agent – well, perhaps we will have agents for that too.

David G. Schwartz