Well, I’ve decided to throw my bit of knowledge into the big spinning wheel of Technology.
Although what I have to offer is only a mere speck of what exists out there, I have enjoyed the hours I have put into creating, what I feel, will enhance your search experience.
I have created an extension to be used in Mozilla Firefox.
What can I say? I love Firefox (though I am a die-hard fan of Opera).
You can
get firefox and check it out for yourself if you already haven't.
So what does my extension do? Let me give you a scenario.
Let’s say I’m searching for a MP-3 player (again...he he) and I want to do some price comparisons.
Usually this is what i would do. I go to bestbuy.com for example and I find the MP-3 player I like. Then hit “ctrl + t”, type in shopping.com in the address bar and hit go. In the site that opens up, I enter what I want to compare it's price and have my results.
Good.
But do you know what would make it great?
Staying at Bestbuy’s website, highlighting the text (i.e. IPod shuffle) right-click and going to “Advanced Search” where I have choices at my fingertips.
In this case, I would choose “Price Comparison.”
From there I can choose from the popular sites: Shopping, NexTag, Price Grabber & CNET. I just pick and click.
Or hey, what if you’re a newbie to the Tech world and have no idea what an IPod is (unthinkable, I know.)
Just highlight the word IPod, right click and this time choose "Wikipedia" under "Quick Search" menu or for the slower ones, pick “Definitions and Acronyms.” under "Advanced Search" menu. From there you may choose from Dictionary or Acronym Finder.
Oh and incase you are wondering, the definition for IPod is “a trademarked class of portable digital audio players designed and marketed by Apple Computer .”
So, have I got your attention yet?
Ok, you are at Starbuck’s site and wonder just how healthy coffee really is to your body.
Obviously you haven’t had a cup of coffee yet if you’re thinking like this.
So you probably get the idea now...select text, right click, advanced search, choose “Health” and go to WebMD.
In which you will find that Decaf coffee may raise heart risks. Woooooow,caffeine rocks!!
So these are just two examples, “Price Comparison” & Definitions and Acronyms.”
You can also pick an address on a page and look up the location in Google and Yahoo maps. Yupp...No copy-pasting line by line anymore.
But wait...there's more...
You still have “Mapping, Shopping, Jobs, Product Reviews, Movies & TV, or Music” to choose from in Advanced Search.
And well, I guess it’s not all about Advanced Search. You could choose from Quick Search if you have a desire to.
In which you will have choices from “Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, A9, Wikipedia, or Search All (Dogpile).”
So this is my project. I call it “Select Search Beta”.
It currently is getting a “Look” and hot slogan that reads “make your right click more powerful than your left” (A big thank you to my co-worker
Jeremy Johnson)
I intend on putting “Select Search” on its own site so you can read about it, install it and experience the magic (yeah...right!) for yourself.
Again, a creative mind required and so another thank you to Jeremy for that idea.
Thanksgiving part now...
Mapz librarian helped me test it and provided some valuable feedback. So did
Russ, Mike and
Luis.
Thanks guys.
With all the valuable feedback, when all its elements are aligned and it has reached is creative climax, I will put the link on my blog for all to download.
Will keep you updated on its birth date.
