TechBlog

For some time now I have been using the Ubiquity add-on for Firefox. If you are a Mac user, you might be using Quicksilver, which allows you to use the keyboard to launch applications, find files, and so much more. Ubiquity is very similar to this. It allows you to use the keyboard to launch the add-on within the browser, and perform tasks. Now Firefox users are probably used to typing in words into their URL bar, such as my example, ‘wireless’. And Firefox looks into my history and pulls up anything related to wireless, allowing me to use my keyboard or mouse to highlight the item and get to where I want to go. Ubiquity is similar to this but it allows me to throw commands at it and perform tasks. Examples include the following:

Email (message) (to contact) - Typing this allows you to fire off an email message to your recipient. Simply typing in ‘email’ brings up options that allow you to perform all sorts of tasks related to ‘email’.

Weather Zip code or Weather City brings up the current temperature for that city.

Wikipedia - Even typing in wi immediately brings up a suggestion list for Wikipedia (search), simply typing ‘w’ brings up all related commands for ‘w’ such as weather, Wikipedia, etc. Typing in a keyword, Wikipedia wireless brings up all related content with photos and text for wireless. Pretty powerful, and all within your current browsing window.

If you are researching material on a page, you can highlight any text, use the keyboard shortcut to open ubiquity, hit delete to remove previous commands, and ubiquity does the rest, suggesting items related to your highlighted text.

Simply tinkering with throwing commands in the Ubiquity window is pretty cool as well. Typing in ‘a’ brings up all of the commands under the ‘a’ listing such as Amazon search, Ask search, Add to calendar, Answers search, etc. Below is a full listing to help get you started. As you can see Ubiquity is a really powerful add-on and I look forward to its future development.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Ubiquity/

A
ask-search (search term)
amazon-search (search term)
answers-search (search term)
add-to-calendar (event)
tab (tab name)

B
back 1
bold
bookmark
bugzilla (search term)
tab (tab name)

C
convert (text) (to conversion-options)
close-tab (tab name)
calculate (expression)
count-tabs (filter)
close-window

D
digg this page
delete
define (word)
desaturate-image
detect-email-provider

E
email (message) (to contact)
edit-page
ebay-search (search term)
exit-firefox
edge-detect-image

F
flickr (search term)
forward 1
flip-page
fullscreen
define (word)

G
google (search term)
gcalculate (expression)
get-email-address (name)

H
home
help (command name)
highlight

I
imdb (search term)
italic
image-search (search term)
invert-image
Performs a imdb search

J
twitter (status) as j
translate (text to translate) to japanese (from language)
translate (text to translate) (to language) from japanese
wikipedia (search) in japanese
twitter j (as twitter username)

K
back 1
flickr (search term)
bookmark
sparkline (data)
wikipedia (search) (in language)

L
last-email-from gmail
link-to-wikipedia (text)
bold
yelp (restaurant) (near text)
help (command name)

M
map (address)
map-these (selection)
msn-search (search term)
home
zoom (percentage)

N
undo
print
define (word)
tinyurl (url to shorten)
convert (text) (to conversion-options)

O
home
zoom (percentage)
bold
undo
redo

P
print
map (address)
yelp (restaurant) (near text)
help (command name)
edit-page

R
redo
refresh
report-bug
rotate-image
restart-firefox
The redo command

S
save
search (query) (with search engine)
sparkline (data)
skin-list
syntax-highlight (code)

T
tab (tab name)
tag (text)
twitter (status) (as twitter username)
tinyurl (url to shorten)
translate (text to translate) (to language) (from language)

U
undo
undelete
underline
tinyurl (url to shorten)
youtube (search term)

V
view-source
save
convert (text) (to conversion-options)
invert-image
remove-annotations

W
weather Milwaukee, United States (in temperature units)
wikipedia (search) (in language)
word-count (text)
forward 1
twitter (status) (as twitter username)

X
exit-firefox
restart-firefox
syntax-highlight (code)

Y
yelp (restaurant) (near text)
youtube (search term)
yahoo-search (search term)
tinyurl (url to shorten)
ebay-search (search term)

Z
zoom (percentage)
bugzilla (search term)
amazon-search (search term)