Ubiquity: Browsing Extended, A Lot
Posted
I've just spent some time with Mozilla Labs newest creation Ubiquity. And I'm impressed, ok I'm very impressed. If you have spent time on a mac, chances are you used Quicksilver (If you haven't you need to now! I'll wait). Quicksilver is the ultimate productivity tool and goes far, far (very far) beyond just an app launcher. Now imagine taking all that wonderful power and transferring it to the your browser. I know, mind numbing isn't it.
What is Ubiquity?
Ubiquity strives to do just that. And in my experience is on its way. Ubiquity is still a prototype, an impressive one, but still a prototype (is prototype the new beta?). Your mileage may vary with how useful you find Ubiquity right now, as it has limited capabilities in this version, from Mozilla:
- Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more.
- Find and install new commands to extend your browser's vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism
I don't use that stuff
Now if you're like me, that is actually quite useful already. If your not like me, maybe you should be trying harder. The second bullet is the eye catching one for me. Like Quicksilver, Ubiquity supports a what I'm going to call, a plugin architecture. This has potential to extend this prototype far beyond what it is currently capable of.
I'm using the term "plugin architecture" loosely here, and Mozilla refers to new commands as "subscriptions". You essentially go to a site that contains a script, and subscribe to the command. You can then use the command like any of the built in commands.
The lowdown
So what can it do? Honestly the best way to find out is to download and use it, but I'll give some highlights here.
- Email — Seriously? I can already do that. No you can't. Yes I can. Not like this. Oh. Ubiquity allows you create emails while still on a page or import things such as maps without ever leaving gmail. Impressive? If you ever email it is.
- Translate — On the page. There are countless times when I want to know what is being said on a page about one of my themes, but I'm far too lazy to copy and paste into babel. Problem now solved.
- Search — You can search a plethora of sites directly in Ubiquity, no longer do you have to open google or go to youtube. And yes moving the mouse to the upper right corner wastes my time.
- Define Terms — Ever been reading a Merlin Mann post on 43folders and didn't know what a word meant? Highlight and define right there in your browser.
That is a taste, a small portion, an itty bitty of what Ubiquity is capable of. Twitter, Facebook, Craigslist, yeah they are all there too.
But what about the masses?
The down side to ubiquity is that some people probably won't "get it", much like people don't use Quicksilver to it's fullest. For me it is an easy transition into using the command line interface because I use it daily already. But what about the people who don't? I'm curious to know what they think of Ubiquity. With people spending more and more time in their browser I believe this is the future. Things are changing in browsers as evident by Google's Chrome and Ubiquity, and I for one am happy about it.
The Awesome Video
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.
Update
ReadWriteWeb just released a huge list of custom Ubiquity commands. Check out the some of the power Ubiquity already has.