Quasimondo - Mario Klingemann's Flash Blog: Relexa aka Flash Connection II

February 28, 2003

Relexa aka Flash Connection II

Somehow I managed to ignore alexa.com until a few days ago when I suddenly ran into it. And I must say it's pretty amazing what kind of information they have collected about almost any site around. This for example is the current traffic info about Quasimondo. It also gives information about related links and
calculates a rank for each site.

This inspired me to pick up an old project of mine: Flash Connection and turn it into a real time site-relation visualization engine. Working Title: RELEXA In order not to freeze your cpu I had to limit the amount of popping up sites, but beware it's getting messy pretty fast and sucks a lot of computing power. You can drag the dots around and if you doubleclick them the link will open up in a new window.

To help Alexa collect more info you can install the Alexa Toolbar in its Support-Quasimondo Version.

Oh yes, I should mention that some of people say it's spyware. So just in case here is the link to Lavasoft's Ad-aware which could help you to remove it if you don't like it anymore.

Posted at February 28, 2003 11:14 PM | Further reading

Comments

Have you seen this?
http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html
Similar idea but done in Java...

Posted by: Kelvin on March 1, 2003 01:46 PM

Yes, I know it, it was one of the inspiration sources for version 1 of Flash Connection: http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000050.php

Anyway - I thought it's fun to do it in flash.

Posted by: coma2mario on March 1, 2003 03:24 PM

Is it possible to get more information on how this relaxa works? Where is the data feeding from? or did I miss something obvious?

Posted by: dror on March 3, 2003 08:07 AM

The data is fetched live via php from the Alexa site and is then interpreted by the flash file. I added a buffer which caches the information of a specific site for 24 hours in order gain speed and to save traffic. Probably it would be enough to update it weekly as the index doesn't seem to change a lot within one or two days.

Posted by: coma2mario on March 3, 2003 05:20 PM

Looking on Alexa page, it offers an XML feed, is that the way of accesing info, or they have some WSDL service?
Nice app, but you're rigth, sites with a lot of things simply froze the computer ... perhaps limiting results based on rank?

Jorge

Posted by: jorge on May 22, 2003 06:49 PM

Vaguely related, there's a search engine that uses flash to draw an interactive link web.

http://www.kartoo.com/

Posted by: Jake on January 20, 2006 03:21 AM


	« Fiddling With The Function Prototype \| Home \| New Flash Player 6,0,79,0 » February 28, 2003 Relexa aka Flash Connection II Somehow I managed to ignore alexa.com until a few days ago when I suddenly ran into it. And I must say it's pretty amazing what kind of information they have collected about almost any site around. This for example is the current traffic info about Quasimondo. It also gives information about related links and calculates a rank for each site. This inspired me to pick up an old project of mine: Flash Connection and turn it into a real time site-relation visualization engine. Working Title: RELEXA In order not to freeze your cpu I had to limit the amount of popping up sites, but beware it's getting messy pretty fast and sucks a lot of computing power. You can drag the dots around and if you doubleclick them the link will open up in a new window. To help Alexa collect more info you can install the Alexa Toolbar in its Support-Quasimondo Version. Oh yes, I should mention that some of people say it's spyware. So just in case here is the link to Lavasoft's Ad-aware which could help you to remove it if you don't like it anymore. Posted at February 28, 2003 11:14 PM \| Further reading Comments Have you seen this? http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html Similar idea but done in Java... Posted by: Kelvin on March 1, 2003 01:46 PM Yes, I know it, it was one of the inspiration sources for version 1 of Flash Connection: http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000050.php Anyway - I thought it's fun to do it in flash. Posted by: coma2mario on March 1, 2003 03:24 PM Is it possible to get more information on how this relaxa works? Where is the data feeding from? or did I miss something obvious? Posted by: dror on March 3, 2003 08:07 AM The data is fetched live via php from the Alexa site and is then interpreted by the flash file. I added a buffer which caches the information of a specific site for 24 hours in order gain speed and to save traffic. Probably it would be enough to update it weekly as the index doesn't seem to change a lot within one or two days. Posted by: coma2mario on March 3, 2003 05:20 PM Looking on Alexa page, it offers an XML feed, is that the way of accesing info, or they have some WSDL service? Nice app, but you're rigth, sites with a lot of things simply froze the computer ... perhaps limiting results based on rank? Jorge Posted by: jorge on May 22, 2003 06:49 PM Vaguely related, there's a search engine that uses flash to draw an interactive link web. http://www.kartoo.com/ Posted by: Jake on January 20, 2006 03:21 AM Post a comment Name: Email Address: URL: Comments: Remember info?
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