User:Ghoroob/Volopt

Volopt.com is a web portal. The website’s name, Volopt, is derived from the Latin phrase ‘volo optimus’ meaning ‘I want the best’. The name reflects the site’s goal to give users convenient access to the best websites on the internet.

Volopt.com ‘identifies the best websites and provides you with the tools to customize how you use them’.Volopt’s tagline ‘it’s your web’ refers to features that provide users with a ‘personalized web experience’ allowing them to store and organize sites they like and visit often.

Volopt.com is not intended to replace search engines, rather it addresses problems researchers have identified with conventional web-searching. The Volopt team has developed a detailed research process to separate the ‘best’ websites from the mediocre and just plain bad. This process takes into account several factors such as content quality, global traffic rankings, relevance and credibility of websites. Selected sites are ranked and categorized by topic and type of site ( e.g., blogs with blogs - not normally intermixed with regular sites). The results are presented in sets Volopt calls 'Webspaces'. A Webspace contains from as few as 6 to as many as 20 of the highest quality sites for a given topic.

Volopt is an open site. All visitors have access to all of the collections of carefully vetted and categorized websites. Registration for Volopt is free, and there are a variety of interesting and useful features available to registered users such as a customizable homepage called ‘MyWeb’. Registered users also gain the option of editing Webspaces by adding and deleting websites to suit their personal preferences. ‘MyWeb’ allows registered users to save and organize their favorite websites and personalized Webspaces with other convenient features such as weather and rss feed.

Users can find content on Volopt by entering a topic of interest in the Search/Find bar displayed at the top of each page or by browsing the Webspace directory. There are also links to popular webspaces on the Volopt homepage

Volopt.com’s developers appear to be aiming for a combination of the best features of sites like DeeperWeb.com, Uclue.com and Quora.com



Searching


Web searching is a daily reality for the ‘computer literate’. The Web is an essential source of information for work and education and increasingly for everyday problem-solving. Major search engines and hundreds of search tools including directories and alternative search engines are available to help users search. Yet studies show that web users still struggle to find relevant and credible information .

It isn’t surprising that users prefer quality over quantity of search results Nonetheless, it is disturbing and somewhat ironic that many users, even those assumed to be the most ‘tech-savvy’, often cannot distinguish between good and bad in the results obtained from a search. While traditional search tools have shortcomings, they are not entirely to blame for the problem. A majority of users naively expect and put unwarranted trust in search engines to do all the work, beginning with reading their minds, to organize the huge amounts of available information, categorize it correctly, sort it and spit out ‘the best’. This almost never happens.

Obstacles to Searches
Few users have the time, training, or inclination to do advanced, nuanced searches or to just sort through multiple pages of results. Users want speedy and convenient access to details that exist somewhere in a vast disorganized pile of stuff.

When users search they typically enter one or more self-chosen keywords and expect to find relevant sites at the top of the results page. Their search problems begin with the keywords and phrases. All languages’ have semantic issues (words, symbols, phrases and signs) that create subtle and often intractable problems for search algorithms. Common but complex polysemy, context and metacontent ‘issues’ can render search keywords and search results useless.

There are also the non-technical and far less benign consequences of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activities, spamdexing and the undisclosed strategic and financial interests , of the ‘tool’ provider(s). Many of these same issues plague directories, and miscategorized content can frustrate even the most determined sleuth. These issues all contribute to why high-ranking sites on search results pages or directory lists may not objectively be the best or necessarily even be generally considered to be quality content.

Smart Search vs. Smart Humans
Current search tools do not meet users’ expectations for quality of results. While they will become better, the optimism of artificial intelligence experts for the future of such tools is unlikely to be realized in the immediate future - if ever. The ability to mimic the subtleties inherent in the application of informed human judgment remains problematic. Equally problematic is the unfortunate reality that even users who acknowledge their personal ‘searching’ shortcomings remain unlikely to invest the time to address them.

Website
Web users want good results – fast. Volopt.com’s goal is to address the problems identified above by providing an alternative to algorithm-based search engines and Web-directories. They refer to it as a web portal.

Features
The sites’ features suggest more than a portal. Volopt provides a broad array of in-depth, human researcher-refined content. It also has global, location-based, user-customized content features that effectively ‘crowd-source’ and refine content over time. With such features Volopt is substantially more than a portal. It is probably better seen as a novel tool that synthesizes features from ‘deep’ search services, e.g., deeperweb.com; ‘user pays’ custom search services, e.g., uclue.com; and, ‘social’ / ’crowd-sourced’ information services, e.g., quora.com.

It's Your Web
Volopt’s slogan is “it’s your web”. Users who choose to take advantage of the site’s free registration gain access to their own “MyWeb” page where they can access and manage all of their favorite and most frequently used websites and Webspaces. Users can even include websites that are not in the Volopt database. Having registered users actively adding and deleting websites from their “MyWeb” pages allows Volopt to modify its public content database to reflect the preferences of Volopt’s user base. While this may not have much impact on global content listings. At regional and sub-regional levels the impact is likely to be substantial.

Content and content restrictions
Volopt has a policy of no pornographic, violent or hate-content (eg. racism, sexism, etc). All websites displayed on Volopt have been reviewed and approved by the Volopt team, practically eliminating the chance of inappropriate content appearing. Users can use the “search on web” feature and add sites from outside volopt to their personal webspaces, but they cannot edit or affect public webspaces.

User involvement
Registered users including website owners are encouraged to request Webspaces and suggest websites to be added to Volopt at any time. In the future Volopt intends to create a version for parents and their children.

Webspaces
All sites featured on Volopt.com are organized into collections called ‘ Webspaces’. Each Webspace contains from 6 - 20 of the highest quality sites for a particular topic. A large thumbnail of a recent screenshot of each site is shown above a click-through link to the site. Webspaces can be accessed using the search/find bar at the top of each page, from the webspace directory, or by links of popular websites on the home page. Registered users can save webspaces for quick access and edit the content, adding and deleting websites to suit their preferences. Their changes will not affect the public Webspaces.

Initially the best websites are picked by Volopt taking in consideration these websites number of users and reputation, Volopt don’t contain inappropriate websites like racist and porn’s websites, still the user can use the “search on web” field at Volopt to search for any needed topics which are not available on Volopt. Users have no role in determining the best websites on Volopt unless they register, registration is free and it gives the users many services other than searching for their needed topics.

Registration and MyWeb
Registration for Volopt is free and all features of the site can be accessed by registered Volopt users completely free of charge. There are several incentives for registering at Volopt [20] including the a personal, fully-customizable homepage called ‘MyWeb’ and the option to save and edit Webspaces. ‘MyWeb’ allows registered users to save and organize their favorite websites and saved Webspaces and has other convenient features such as weather and rss feed (and a promise of more in the future). Myweb is meant to streamline the entire process of using the internet, making everything available to the user from one place.

Art @ Volopt
The background of each page on Volopt is a piece of original artwork submitted by a Volopt user. The full piece can be viewed by clicking on the art icon (the color-wheel) in the right top corner of the page.

Any registered user at Volopt can submit work to be displayed on Volopt as a background image. Art can be of any medium: photography, drawing, painting, photographs of sculpture, crafts, etc. Users wishing to participate in the art program must submit digital images of their original work to Volopt. Volopt publishes only Art that meets with its rules and quality-standards. Publishing art for the global audience of Volopt is free of charge and Artists keep all rights to their work

Volo
Volopt created Volo (the ambassador); a purple octopus that ‘helps’ users figure out how to use the different features of the site.

Privacy and security
Registration at Volopt requires minimal personal information essential for providing the user with Volopt services. A valid e-mail is required (for verification), country (to set the weather and time). No information that could compromise a user’s identity is required; for example users are not required to mention their names, date of birth or social security number. Volopt does not give personal user information to a third party.

Pros and Cons
It might be an advantage for users to find filtered results about a searched topic, instead of finding hundreds of results about their searched topics which might not be highly related. However, Volopt is a new web portal that currently has a limited number of websites in their database. Although users can have a role in determining the best web sites over the net, users’ contributions will not have much impact until there are many thousands of registered users at Volopt. Future will prove whether or not Volopt is really serving users to make a web of their own.

Future Development
Volopt.com is already useful. More content is critical and will make it much better. The value of this service may be most evident when it is adapted for mobile devices. Searching is a real chore on a smartphone’s smaller screen. If Volopt can make an effective transition to mobile, ‘searching’ as we know it now may not be necessary.

Social impact
Volopt's Social Impact is too soon to tell.