The Ubiquity Logo

I happened upon a very cool Firefox extension called Ubiquity tonight.

It works on Mac or PC platforms and allows you to do a huge variety of tasks.

I installed the extension, restarted Firefox and began the fun. There is a long list of commands you can issue. I suggest copying the list to a text file or printing it out for reference or you will be lost.

So, you ask, what does this Firefox extension do?

If you have used a Mac and have tried Quicksilver, you have a taste of what is possible here. On my Mac, I use the keystroke combination of option and space bar and a little black window shows up on the top left of the browser window (in the site area, not the menu area).

Screenshot showing the Ubiquity extension in action

This is where you type the commands. If you had an address highlighted and type the command “map this”, a small map will show up, which you can click on to make it a bit larger and then you can move around the map, zoom in or out and what not. If you were writing an email (works with Gmail only for now) and you highlighted an address, you could then click to have the map inserted into the email.

Another example is you can post to your Twitter account from any browser page. It even counts down the 160 characters for you.

It does calculations, you can browse Flickr photos, you can search Google, Wikipedia, Ask.com, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, do translations, define words, look up the weather in anyplace and so much more.

I could go on and on, but really, just check this extension out! It is very fast too.

It’s one of those things that could be a real important part of your work flow if you get in and learn the functions and use this. It’s not for everyone. I showed it to Ruthie, my wife, and she kind of guffawed and said “who’s going to remember all those commands?”

I’d love some feedback on this one. I think it will be one that catches on. Gotta use Firefox of course, but why in the world would you not be using Firefox?

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