Navigator plug-in surfs in reverse

Navigator users will soon be better equipped to surf the Web--backwards.

SmartBrowser today unveiled the HistoryTree plug-in for the Netscape Navigator browser that records a history of everywhere a user travels on the Web and presents it as a tree of URL addresses. Users can view the tree and jump back in time to any address instead of using the back arrow.

SmartBrowser says its HistoryTree plug-in allows users to preview an unlimited number of recently visited sites, instead of the list of 20 recently visited sites that Navigator itself now maintains automatically.

"We developed this plug-in to avoid two problems with browsers," said Matt Jensen, HistoryTree project director. "The first one is that when you want to go back to something you were at 10 days ago, your browser's history list only has your current path, and old branches of the tree get lost. The second one is that when you quit Netscape everything is lost. This plug-in stores your entire history when you quit. You can even prune the tree down and start over."

A free beta version of HistoryTree can be downloaded from the SmartBrowser site and runs on Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT.

An upgrade of HistoryTree scheduled for release in April will also allow users to type in comments and store screen shots next to each URL. "That way, you can remember what the site is about," Jensen said.