Term

Definition

Archive / Archiving

Asifta’s document management features allow you to keep a local copy of the information you have found. Asifta’s archiving feature keeps a visual record of the content you can view as a thumbnail or in full resolution. Additionally, Asifta archives the complete web page source including any animations, scripts and images. Other information relating to the original reference (link) and the date / time of the archive are also kept. You can identify a custom group name and add your own notations to the archive record so you can easily identify the content at a later date.

Share / Sharing

Asifta’s sharing features allow you to select, organize and send copies of your Sifted results to your friends, family, colleagues and associates. Asifta creates a formatted e-mail message complete with links and image thumbnails. All you have to do is select the items and click the Share button. Asifta also includes a handy Export / Import capability allowing you to share your archived content with other Asifta users.

Sift / Sifting

A process that begins by searching for information that matches a set of criteria; followed by an analysis of those results; resulting in the distillation of the information into a format that is easier to understand and use. The actual sifting function is performed by Sifting Filters. Asifta’s Sifting Filters may be combined or used individually to precisely customize a sifting process.

Asifta offers two types of Sifting operations:

Quick Sifters appear as direct Sift operations you manually run from Asifta’s Results panel. You can think of a Quick Sifter as a Web Search on steroids. You define the Sift operation by combining Sift Filters to perform specific search / sift tasks such as General Sift, Shopping Sift, Research Sift, etc. and select a Quick Sift button face that will appear on the Results Panel. When you are ready to perform the Quick Sift, all you do is enter the Sift words and click the Quick Sift button.

Automated Sifters run on a schedule you set and they perform recurring Sift operations that you define by combining Sifting Filters and establishing the Sift Words to include and exclude. Then automatically the sifter will run in the background while you do other work. The automated sifters can even be running when you are not at working at your computer. So when you have Internet searches that you perform over and over again, Asifta’s automated sifters will save you time and aggravation since you only have to setup the process once.

Sifting Filter

Specialized program module that Asifta can load and execute when Sifting Profiles are run. Their function is to provide a configurable method to retrieve raw content from specific Internet and intranet search sources and then analyze and distill that raw content to generate unique and qualified reference links to the documents that match criteria you have established. In short the Sifting Filters are analytical engines that Asifta uses to provide "Just What You Want."

Asifta installs several Sifting Filters that cover a broad range of sifting activities. As time goes on, more Sifting Filters will become available from ProteanSoft. If you are a skilled programmer then you can create your own Custom Sifting Filters. ProteanSoft offers a Sifting Filter Toolkit and software engineering assistance to make the creation of sifting filters very simple. A Sifting Filter Certification service is available as well. If you plan to distribute your custom Sifting Filters, then certification allows your filter to load and execute without having to override the built-in protection against running un-certified sifting filters. If you are interested in creating Sifting Filters, please contact us at Support@ProteanSoft.com.

Track / Tracking

A scheduled process which periodically analyzes a web page document to determine if any changes have occurred since the last time it was examined. For example, tracking web pages is a good way to keep up-to-date on what your competitors are advertising and developing based on changes they make to their web page content. Web page tracking is also helpful for staying current on leisure activities such as reading, collecting and buying. 

After Asifta’s Tracker has detected changes, you can review the differences in a highlighted graphical format as if you had overlaid pictures of the web pages and used a highlighter marker to illustrate exactly what changed. You can also view the before and after images of the web page as well as the before and after textual changes that resulted in the differences.