Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

January 6, 2010

App Review: KwiClick’s Firefox Search Plugin

The question is, as always, does the world really need another search gadget?

At first, I thought the answer was no. I’m perfectly happy with my Firefox searchbar. Then I got introduced to KwiClick, which has been described asFirefox’s dedicated searchbar on steroids.” And it really is just that.

KwiClick works by attempting to make your search experience quicker, and allowing you to watch the videos you’re searching for, read the pages you’re looking for, and access the content you need on-the-fly, from the same place you searched. In other words, it’s a multi-page experience.

The idea is great, but does the application actually deliver on its promises? Well, here’s my experience…

The Anatomy of KwiClick

KwiClick is non-intrusive. Two tiny buttons, one next to the address bar, and another on the status bar, provide you with the access to the KwiClick interface. The interface is basically a hovering box nested on the lower corner of the browser.

KwiClick's hovering box is always accessible

KwiClick's hovering box is always accessible, yet non-intrusive

[read full article >>]

October 31, 2009

Google Social Search: What a criminal wants? [video]

Last week, Google announced its experimenting with a new social search feature. The feature simply combines your Twitter, Facebook, Google (…etc) contacts and friends and includes their photos, updates and entries in your search results.

Besides the immediate “this is interesting and should be useful” thought, it got me wondering, do we really want that? Think of it from this: without the option of having each and every update of your friends searchable, people were complaining about others stalking” them on Facebook and MySpace. Imagine now, when instead of just inferring information from the bits and pieces everyone posted, you can actually search for whatever you want to learn about.

Imagine a thieve looking for an easy target to steal with 1000 “friends” on Facebook and 10,000 Twitter followers. A simple “vacation+from” search on Google, limiting it by time, would get him all “friends” out of town. Now, we can agree that the user who posted the “I’m on vacation from-to” online is an idiot, while Google is just making it easier to track all of that.

Below is the video introduction of Google’s social search experiment. Let us know your thoughts.

May 25, 2009

Google@Omgili Debate: Which Side Are You On?

Omgili’s new mashup, Google@Omgili, seems interesting. In their own words, off the Omgili blog: “the most noticeable feature is the ability to find forum discussions about the results Google returns. This way you can find more people that are interested in the same topics as you, and also provide more in-depth discussions about the topic you are researching“.

But, will it bring about change or is it just another Web 2.0 tool that will waste our time? What advice could we offer Google@Omgili to enhance its users’ overall experience?

Google Omgili in action!

Google Omgili in action!

We will start by offer you a list of pros and cons, which is by all means not inclusive, and we urge you to join the discussion and let us know your opinion and if you think Google@Omgili is worth while. [read full article >>]