Trexy is an Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 metasearch engine

Metasearch engine

A metasearch engine is a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines...

 established in early 2006. It allows users to record and share "search trails" of their activity on search engine

Search engine

A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...

s. The trails themselves are searchable, allowing users to save time when searching by examining the pages found by other users. The intention is also to allow easier searching of the "deep web

Deep web

The Deep Web refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines....

".

The site is used by installing a toolbar

Toolbar

In a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor, a toolbar is a GUI widget on which on-screen buttons, icons, menus, or other input or output elements are placed. Toolbars are seen in office suites, graphics editors, and web browsers...

 in one's web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

 which records the user's activity on search sites that Trexy is aware of. In mid-2006 this numbered in excess of 3,000 search engines.

The technology was inspired by Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...

's 1945 paper As We May Think

As We May Think

As We May Think is an essay by Vannevar Bush, first published in The Atlantic Monthly in July 1945, and republished again as an abridged version in September 1945 — before and after the U.S. nuclear attacks on Japan...

, in which he described his idea of a machine called a Memex

Memex

The memex is the name given by Vannevar Bush to the hypothetical proto-hypertext system he described in his 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article As We May Think...

: a Memex would augment one's memory and searching powers by helping to create and share "trails of association" between things in the "common record". The name "Trexy" is derived from TRails and memEX.

Awards

In July 2006 the British Computer Society

British Computer Society

The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...

 announced Trexy as one of the medallists in the Services section of their IT Professional Awards.http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.6062

External links

• Trexy
• Video interview with Trexy founders at the WWW2006
  World Wide Web Conference
  The International World Wide Web Conference is a yearly international academic conference on the topic of the future direction of the World Wide Web...
  
  conference.