Improving Linkage of Web Pages

Organizations maintain informational websites for wired devices. The information content of such websites tends to change slowly with time, so a steady pattern of usage is soon established. User preferences, both at the individual and at the aggregate level, can then be gauged from user access log files. We propose a heuristic scheme based on simulated annealing that makes use of the aggregate user preference data to re–link the pages to improve navigability. This scheme is also applicable to the initial design of websites for wireless devices. Using the aggregate user preference data obtained from a parallel wired website, and given an upper bound on the number of links per page, our methodology links the pages in the wireless website in a manner that is likely to enable the ‘typical’ wireless user to navigate the site efficiently. Later, when a log file for the wireless website becomes available, the same approach can be used to refine the design further.