Challenges of Networked Media: Integrating the Navigational Features of Browsing Histories and Media Playlists into a Media Browser

摘要

One of the goals of the Continuous Media Web project is to integrate digital media with the World Wide Web: media documents can hyperlink to and from other documents in the same way that HTML pages do. The dual capabilities of hyperlinking (1) to other documents while viewing a media clip, and (2) into precise time intervals in a media clip, enable greatly improved user interaction with media. We discuss the idea of a novel media browser application, which merges the concept of a traditional media player that presents video and audio to the user, with a Web browser that provides hyperlinking and navigation between networked (media) documents. The particular issue we address in this article concerns the primary navigational features: a media player relies on a playlist while a Web browser uses a browsing history for navigation. We discuss design and user interface issues that arise when integrating these two navigational features in a media browser.