Tag: browser plugin
Add Social Media Context to Your Web Browsing With Kikin
by neetika on Feb.16, 2010, under Latest Web Technologies, Trends
Name: Kikin
The pioneer of user-centricity, kikin is changing how people find and consume information and defining the phrase: “My Web Always With Me.”
Kikin is a browser plugin for Safari(Mac), Firefox and Internet Explorer(Chrome support is coming soon) that adds some context and rich media to your searching and surfing experience.
Even as different search engines try to cram in more relevant information into the top of search results, getting data from networks and places you trust isn’t consistent. Kikin adds consistency. You can choose what sites you want Kikin to scour for your searches – stuff like iTunes, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu,Google Reader, Wikipedia, YouTube, Bing and so on, and then when you search for a topic — like let’s say a band, you get this at the top of your results page:
What we like is that if you connect your Facebook or Twitter account, you can see not only public comments from those services, but just comments from your friends that are related to the topic in question. Context is key, and we like that you can focus that context.
Furthermore, if you go to view a YouTube video or look at an album or movie on Amazon.com, a Kikin bar will appear at the top of the page (you can easily close it), showing you recent searches for that item, feedback from Twitter and Facebook, and other options.
For media searches in particular — stuff like movies, music and TV shows, Kikin offers a nice bit of context and a very easy to navigate menu, that actually is more convenient that going to individual sites or even using some of the search engine specific aggregation services.
You can also easily share content you find on Twitter, Facebook or e-mail, which is a nice touch. Mac users, be aware that if you want to use Kikin in Safari and you run Snow Leopard, you’ll have to run it in 32-bit mode — so our recommendation would just be to use the Firefox plugin as it works the most reliably.
Do you use any search-enhancement plugins to learn more about media items? Let us know!
Finally! ‘Find in Page’ Comes to Mobile Safari
by neetika on Feb.11, 2010, under Gadgets, Top Gadgets
What important Web browsing feature is sorely missing from mobile Safari, the iPhone’s built-in browser? If you’re like us, you probably said the ability to search for text within a Web page. We’re accustomed to using this feature in the grown-up Web browsers on our desktop and laptop machines, but sadly, it’s lacking when we switch over to the mini-browser built into our mobile phone.
Until now, that is. In yet another case of “there’s an app for that,” there is, in fact, a new iPhone application that adds the “find within a page” feature to the iPhone browser. And it’s well worth the $0.99 fee to finally have this function at our disposal again.
Find in Page for iPhone
The application “Find in Page” (iTunes URL), which was released last month in the iTunes App Store, is essentially a browser bookmarklet that adds an extra feature to mobile Safari. Not only does “Find in Page” locate all instances of a word within the displayed Web page upon launch, it also counts them, highlights them and lets you move from once instance to the next (and back again) by tapping arrow buttons. Of course, there are other free bookmarklets out there that provide similar functionality, but this one feels very much like a part of mobile Safari itself. It feels built-in.
The key differentiating factor that makes this pseudo plugin stand out from the rest is the semi-transparent toolbar that appears at the bottom of the screen once the bookmarklet is activated. From here, you can access the arrow buttons, word count information and you can pull up the search window again if you want to edit your current search or start a new one. Also, if you perform multiple searches, you can do so without having to reload the page - a definite time-saver. Finally, an “X” button closes the toolbar when you’re finished.
Although this small application may not sound as exciting as a revolutionary new feed reader or a brand-new interface for Facebook, it’s arguably going to be one of the most useful applications you’ve ever installed on your iPhone. For that reason, we think it’s well worth the $0.99 the developer is charging for the app. We’ve certainly paid far more for applications we’ve used much less than this. However, for those of you who balk at paying anything for apps, especially for ones that are essentially just a bit of code, you’ll be happy to know that a free “lite” version of this tool will be coming mid-month. Stay tuned to the App Store for its release.
