gHacks technology news » Ubiquity

Mozilla Ubiquity Command List

Martin — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:15:15 +0000

Ubiquity is an interesting add-on for the Firefox web browser that was covered before here at Ghacks. Here is a short explanation of what Ubiquity adds to the Firefox browser. It basically provides access to a command line in Firefox that comes preinstalled with dozens of commands to make life easier for the Firefox user. It takes for examples only a few seconds to look up an address in a map, perform a search in a search engine, submit a page to social media sites, send a message to Twitter, look something up in a dictionary or start writing an email.

The main command to open the command line interface is [CTRL Space]. This opens the command line in the top left corner of the screen. Matching commands will automatically be shown once the first char has been typed into the command line. To sum it up: Ubiquity enables Firefox users to quickly access web services and features without opening them first in the web browser.

Several commands are available that can add new features to Ubiquity. It is for example possible to add new search engines with just a few keys. Any website with a search box can be added that way to Ubiquity.

The Firefox community has created hundreds of additional commands that can be added to Ubiquity. The Mozilla Ubiquity team has added them to a master command list linking to hundreds of different commands that can be added to the web browser. The contents are divided into various categories from country specific commands to web search, programming language or web 2.0 commands.

Commands are added much like Firefox add-ons are added. If Ubiquity commands are found on a website a small bar at the top of the web browser is shown that can be used to add the command to the Internet browser.

Ubiquity to be built into Firefox

Daniel Pataki — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:14:08 +0000

If you’re into browsers, browser tech and mashups, chances are you know what Uniquity is. In a nutshell it’s a mashup service which lets you navigate and manipulate the web in more natural ways. It’s quite hard to describe if you haven’t seen it, think of the awesome bar in Firefox and multiply it by 10, but apart from searching and gathering data it allows you to manage task lists, edit webpages locally and so on, tons of cool features.

A version of ubiquity called taskfox, although slightly toned down, will be built right into Firefox (hopefully soon) and will allow for a lot of the power which Ubiquity gives you. There are some awesome things in there, like searching for and starting a youtube video from the awesomebar, in the awesomebar. The path you need to take from inputting something to finding what you want is greatly reduced as a result, especially since everything can be completely controlled by the keyboard too.

Take a look at the video on the site, it looks interesting, I can’t wait for it to get into the Firefox main build. Until then, if you are restless, take a look at Ubiquity, which offers much the same, and then some.

Mozilla Labs Ubiquity Is A Firefox Killer Application!

Martin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:31:48 +0000

Amos mailed me today telling me about a new Mozilla Labs prototype Ubiquity which he called phenomenal. I was skeptical at first but this could be the killer app for Firefox. Yes that might be hard to believe but this prototype introduces a whole new level of interaction. Natural interaction that is, something that integrates itself perfectly in the work routine.

Ubiquity is a Firefox prototype add-on that is similar to Launchy but located in the browser. Launchy is a Windows launcher that makes things much easier. Ubiquity takes that concept to the web. The interface is loaded with CTRL SPace. A black transparent block is opened just below the header bars of Firefox waiting for input.

Now the interesting aspect of this is that everything happens in that black area. A basic example would be if you want to write a message about something that you discovered to Twitter. With Ubiquity you press CTRL Space and enter Twitter This is a cool thing that I discovered. Enter sends the mail to Twitter. That’s it. No more leaving a page, no widgets in the background that you need to open.

Lots of commands are available by default. I would say about 50 are available. This reaches from normal web searches, map searches, translations, adding events to the calendar, emailing, calculating or digging. Lots of stuff to explore and it is pretty exciting that users can create their own commands.

This requires some programming skills but I’m confident that we will see many user created commands that can be integrated into the own version of Ubiquity easily.

A wonderful feature is the Google Maps integration. If you got a list of addresses Ubiquity can map all of them on a Google Map and it is possible to add the map to the current page, for example an email or web form.

There is so much possibility. What can I say. Go get it right now, it is a killer app. Thanks again Amos, your tip was wonderful.