I’m always on the lookout for a good Firefox extension, and I got an email the other day about one I’ve really fallen in love with. It’s called KwiClick, and it does exactly what I look for in an extension… it stays out of my way until I need it, and when I do use it I get the results I want.
So what’s KwiClick do? Basically it displays a nice little floating window that is capable of showing search results from sites like Google, YouTube, FriendFeed, Twitter, Google Maps, Flickr, Wikipedia, Amazon, Technorati, Viddler, Yahoo, del.icio.us, and more. You can even pin the floating window so that it will remain on top while you browse around. The example they give where this could be handy is for browsing the web while wanting to watch a video at the same time. You can open up a YouTube video in KwiClick, and pin the window so that it will remain open even while you browse in the background. Very slick!
Personally I love it for the mapping capabilities. As you can see in the screenshot above you can highlight an address, open KwiClick, and have a map instantly slide out from the side of the screen. I love the fact that it’s extremely unobtrusive since the window will disappear as soon as you click back on the website, well, unless you pin the window.
The developers have definitely gone out of their way to make this as useful as it can be, and I’m impressed with how they were able to stray away from making this more annoying than helpful. It seems like all the other extensions with similar features get in the way more than anything else, but this one is definitely different. Job well done guys!
Get KwiClick for Firefox
Not a bad review Ryan. Your mapping capabilities example is so much better as it shows a practical use for this application. The ‘watch a video while you surf’ example is just lame. The question I ask is ‘why are you surfing the web while you’re watching a video?’
Here’s an example of ‘watch a video while you surf’:
Lets say you are keeping track of a baseball game on MLB.com and dont want to miss any of the action when the stats/score is updated. your friend then sends you a link to a video. Using KwiClick, you open the video and watch it, while the MLB scores are still in view. Essentially, you are able to keep track of both things at once.
Do you know Ubiquity ? ([ubiquity.mozilla.com])
It does quite the same stuff in my opinion
I use it to watch YouTube videos while surfing. Thanks, Ryan!
Well, a good reason I can think of is if you’re on Digg people are posting all kinds of videos. So maybe you want to see what a video is about while you continue reading through the rest of the entries.
It’s the same concept, but a slightly different implementation. Ubiquity I’d say is more for the keyboard-focused audience while all you really need to use with KwiClick is the mouse.
Really good firefox Extension, I am using this daily..
thanks.