NETSPEAK
Information retrieval made easier for browsers
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Cleeki lets you select any word from any Windows application
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Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar, which enables one to access these services directly from the Windows taskbar, is a valuable product.
NetSpeak devotes yet another edition to discuss tools that enable us to retrieve information with ease.
In our professional life we regularly access a variety of on-line applications. We use search services like Google and Yahoo, consult dictionary services like dictionary.com, social networking services such as del.icio.us.
Generally, to access each of these services one has to follow certain steps — like moving to the browser, entering the URL and the like. Now, if such services can be invoked with shortcuts, entered directly from the desktop, the process becomes easier and less cumbersome. In this regard, Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar ( http://www.dqsd.net/), which enables one to access these services directly from the Windows taskbar, is a valuable product.
Once ‘Quick Search Deskbar’ is installed, a text-input bar will appear on the Windows taskbar. Now, if you enter a search string in this text box, the tool will start your browser and by default invoke a Google search on the string.
And, by prefixing this search string with certain specified characters you can change the search service. For instance to invoke a search on Yahoo, enter the string “yh key-phrase”, for MSN, type: ” msns key-phrase” and for del.cio.us search enter: “dlc key-phrase”.
If you wish to invoke the dictionary service, ‘dictionary.com’, type: “dic unknown-word”. And, if you wish to start a search on Encyclopaedia Britannica, enter: “brit key-phrase”. Like this, several other on-line services can also be accessed via this deskbar.
To obtain help on the various facilities, just enter question mark (‘?’) on the text box. Apart from accessing the on-line services, this open-source tool can be used to invoke Windows built-in commands too. For example, the command ‘run msconfig’ will start the utility Msconfig.
If we come across an unfamiliar word/phrase while reading a web page or writing an article, we usually access an appropriate on-line service (like Google and Wikipedia) to obtain more information about the word/phrase.
To facilitate this process, several tools that enable you to collect information from any of these search services directly from the current application are in place. The advantage of such a client tool is that it allows you to select the unfamiliar word or term and invoke a search on it from a service of your choice without leaving the current application.
Once a search is thus invoked, the client application collects the results and displays them in its own window. The advantage is that you obtain what you want with minimum distraction. KallOut, discussed in the past, is one such application.
Apart from popular browsers, KallOut can only be invoked from MS Office and PDF documents.
Another downside of this tool is that once a search is made with a search service, to resume the search with another one, you have to repeat the process all over again.
On this count, Cleeki ( http://www.cleeki.com/), a new product encountered by NetSpeak, assumes relevance.
Once installed, Cleeki lets you select any word/phrase from any Windows application and it automatically invokes the search process — you just need to select the word or phrase and hold on to it for a while. In addition, it displays several search services on separate tabs in its interface. So, if you wish to search with Google, press the ‘Google” tab, for Wikipedia search, click on the Wikipedia tab and the like.
For those of you who are unable or unwilling to install the Cleeki software, it offers a browser add-on as well.
The Firefox extension KwiClick (http://www.kwiclick. com/) is yet another tool that lets you retrieve information from popular online sources such as Google, Google Maps, Youtube, Flicker and Technorati with ease. Similar to other tools, KwiClick also enables you to obtain information from your favourite on-line sources without shifting from the current page. The search results are displayed on a small floating window away from the page being viewed.
Contact the site owner
While on a web site, at times you may have the urge to contact its owner.
On such occasions, the web application ContactTheOwner (http://www.ctowner. com/), which enables you to contact the owner directly, could come in handy. When NetSpeak used this service, though it failed in a few cases, in majority of the cases it worked.
Presentation aid
While demonstrating a web page or running a presentation, one may encounter the need to magnify/mark or annotate certain parts of the web page/slide to clearly explain the point/concept being discussed. If you need an annotation/drawing tool, capable of enriching your presentation live, check out the free software Zoomit (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx).
The software allows you to easily do things such as zooming to any part of the presentation, drawing on it with different colours, write comments and so on. In addition, you can even save the zoomed/annotated screen and take it to another application. Once activated, the application lies in the background and can be invoked with certain configurable key combinations.
He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com
J. MURALI
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