>A similar argument could be made for including "group annotations" on the
>server side, while merging in "personal annotations" on the client side. The
>key is that the original document can be augmented or enhanced as it is
>retrieved.(While experimenting with cascading caches using an NCSA httpd, we
>found it quite useful to include "no-cache" links along with the age of the
>document in the cache as a quick means of seeing where a document ripened the
>longest.)
Good point. When you get down to it, highlights could be considered to be
a search engine's annotations! A general annotation scheme might thus be
useful for many purposes. Interesting ideas would be gizmos that would
link document sections to FAQs, as sort of an automated "explain this"
annotater... Our Topics are rather nifty for that sort of thing, if I might
plug ever so slightly.
I smell creeping elegance, however. It may be here, or perhaps is still
around the bend.
Nick