Jan 18
Hyperwords = so nerdilicious.
I ordered some new glasses today. I took a cell phone photo of myself trying on the frames and sent it to my sister for her opinion. She texted back, “They look kind of nerdy, but that is you!” (She liked them overall.)
I arrived home and sat down at the computer… some of my Firefox plugins/add-ons updated automatically when I started it up, and this made me think it might be a good time to explore what sort of new add-ons are available (unplanned vacation day boredom). I started with the category of “Interface Customizations.”
About halfway down the page, I saw Hyperwords. I clicked.
Hyperwords: Interact with all the words on the web, not just links.
Select any word or words on any web page. A menu pops-up. Choose from any one of the many powerful commands. And that’s it. Fully customizable menu and behavior. Short Demo Video available on YouTube [and a link to the video]
Well, that sounds like something I pondered or wondered about a few weeks ago (whether in my head or in a work email or here, I cannot recall). An evolution of hypertext, where EVERY WORD could be linked to information somewhere else - just the best thing ever for info addicts like me. Watch the short demo video - the first 20 seconds are boring shots of a trade show, but when the guy starts talking along with the screenshots, damn. This is so cool.
So, you don’t have to cut and paste something into Wikipedia or Google or Flickr or Babelfish… highlight a word or phrase, right-click, and you have various Google search options, choices to search for references on Wikipedia or define it (in a neat little pop-up box) on dictionary.com, translate it, check stock prices, hear the word SPOKEN if you’re not sure how to pronounce it, search for images and video on Flickr, Google Image Search, YouTube or Google Video, copy references and links in full, or have it email the info directly via your email client (Gmail is supported- though Gmail is currently acting a bit strangely for me; it keeps telling me it couldn’t load the page and to try again later) without you having to copy references, links, etc. into a new message.Here’s a screenshot of me highlighting “hypertext”, right-clicking with Hyperwords installed—and some of the results, including the dictionary.com definition box right there:
You have to be using Firefox, but you should be doing that anyway.
Install it. Take it for a spin. I’m excited over this. So much.
Tags: add-ons, Firefox, hypertext, information science, nerdiness, plug-ins, search options
