BROWSER MONITORING EXTENSION FOR DEVELOPING WEB NAVIGATION SELF-AWARENESS

Since internet access has become ever more facile, there is a certain trend in user behaviors to favor online applications/solutions rather than standalone ones. This trend of shifting gradually towards online, cloud based applications may have been encouraged and facilitated by the IT industry indeed, but it reflects, at the same time, a behavioral change regarding the manner new generations of users interact with, and expect from technology. This paper presents the results of our ongoing research regarding the development of user's self-awareness when it comes to web navigation behavior, by conceiving a web browser monitoring tool. More specifically, our solution empowers the user with an overall perspective regarding the visited websites, counting the number of accessed pages, number of accesses per domain, along with the time span of each visit. Based on the collected data from monitoring the browser activity, the proposed solution offers daily summaries, the overall interaction with a website within a given timeframe, usage-based URL hierarchies. The analytics help user develop web navigation awareness, and by employing self-established limitations, alarm settings and notifications, prevent and correct unproductive web navigation habits.