Where have you been from here? Trails in hypertext systems

People are confronted with ever growing amounts of information. This makes it increasingly difficult to navigate vast information spaces in order to f ind appropriate information. User trails provide a mechanism that allows pe ople not only to better manage their personal information spaces but also t o ask questions such as "where do other people go from here?", "what else s hould I read?" or "how did we come to that conclusion?". The fact that trai ls are built with information about the users' browsing paths and activitie s makes them well suited for collaborative applications where users with si milar interests are to be matched.