David Ruppert

A surefire sign that the bathroom is getting close.

Hmm, a very interesting mashup coming from Firefox called Ubiquity. A . . . sort of . . . massive tool type thingie connecting what looks like all local applications [or at least a few?] with a Quicksilvery/Launchy’y type interface.

Very cool. Also very much in its initial stages. There are clearly some bugs to be worked out and some standards that need to be adopted, but this could be an unbelievable time saver for several monotonous tasks while specifically browsing the web.

The first example shows the user creating a simple email. An invitation to a friend to meet for lunch at a local cafe. He’s very quickly able to . . . * without opening another tab in a browser * . . . find a map and drop it in his email. Then he does the same for reviews on this restaurant. The copy, images and formatting from his search results on the restaurant reviews are all placed in his email . . . cool.

The next example works for Craigslist only, but I’ve been wanting something like this for a while. He views lofts for rent in San Francisco. Then by highlighting the results, opening Ubiquity and typing ‘map-these’, a Google map appears with the location of all of these lofts pinpointed. SWEET. Again, only for Craigslist right now though.

They allow users to type normal language commands to find results. This could be unbelievably helpful, or amazingly difficult, depending on whether or not it and I share the same ‘normal spoken language’. I’m interested in trying this out and seeing if it’s as intuitive as it seems.

Anyway, watch the video. The first full minute is quite a beating . . its a very retro SWiSH-like splash page. Ugh, but fight through it and get to the good stuff.

http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/

After questioning this storm’s manhood, it let us know who’s boss.

Just sitting here on the newly decked addition waiting for this massive storm to roll in.