Douglas, well, it seems pretty much to be just a cool browser plugin to me.

What I'd like though would be e.g. something where I can mark up the name of Person, e.g. your name or someone else who's (also) publishing on the web and get a list of links to interesting articles, or recent articles by that person from various websites.

Maybe this system would be extendable in this regard; I'd certainly appreciate it.

Cheers

Absolutely hate it. I would never install this. I go online to read news, comics, blogs. I want to read my stuff and get out, not spend half an hour arranging the text the way I like it and generally fiddling with it. And if I go changing it, I've lost what little shred of personality that page might have had, that last glimmer of humanity on the web. I go changing every page I read, everything becomes "my" personality. It's also way too intrusive. I don't mind when some words here & there have hyperlinks that show up when I hover over them- although I don't like it too much, I know what cut & paste is and I can search it out if I want- but every word, it would drive me insane. I don't want to be totally conscious of where my cursor is at all times, and having things pop up on me. The system as it is is working just fine for me and I think I would totally hate this application here.

Will install now and play with it. Thanks.

A hypertext community around a book would be a wonderful thing, either through this plug-in or not. I want there to be some kind of Ultimate Literary Annotation community. Even the most heavily annotated books are only calling out a minute fraction of the text. When I read Melville, I want every single word to have an annotation or twelve, even contradictory ones. I wonder if Hyperwords could be a tool to use towards that.

It really feels like a pumped-up version of that thing some newspaper sites do where double-clicking on a word pops up a definition. Or the sites that randomly attach ad links to words.

It looks moderately cute, but nowhere near cute enough to drag me out of Safari.

Dunno about the product, but that zooming around in the demo video is very disorienting.

Anyway, onto the actual product. It's interesting. Some people would find the highlighting usefull (though google can already do that) when doing research. And it does skip the step where you have to copy paste. It's probably a personal preference.

I wouldn't use it myself for the simple reason that alot of my searching/reading is done on a single page. Anything that i see that warrants further interest(eg, image/wikipedia search of a person) is usually dispatched into another tab for later perusal.

Looks fantastic to me. I think you can probably disable the hover utility, @2 LILorFANNIE.

This would be great for students. I'm downloading it tonight, when I'm not sneaking around on the school network.

Seems particularly useful for things like the Bible or Shakespeare or epic poems- just because allusions can be so irritating in literature if you don't have a background in those allusions as well.

I've been using Hyperwords for a while now but i typically leave most of the options disabled. I have a terrible habit of highlighting anything and everything i'm reading so i dont like that little menu to pop up unless i right click. I also leave the search bar disabled as i have too many other custom searches built into firefox's search bar. That being said i would have a hard time trying to use it for anything "community" related. For me it is a great tool, primarily for searching for definitions and translations. Nothing more.

Um, hasn't this basically been part of Apple's Safari for the past n years? I'm not saying that it isn't a great thing, being able to right-click a word or phrase and have it Googled - or Spotlit (Spotlighted?) - or Looked up in the built in the OS's dictionary, but I am surprised that this wasn't more well known.

it seem sto do about the same as ubiquity plugin does, but with a bad choice of a user intyerface. It's an abuse of the dropdown menu.

Or maybe ubiquity for someone who doesn't like typing and has a great dexterity to move successive nested dropdown menus. In that case it could use more mouse gestures and/or radial menus.

Oh man! and I thought I was wasting time before. This adds a whole new dimension to twaddling around in superfluous info.

Its been around long before Safari. Back in the days of System 6 (maybe) or 7 (for sure), Apple had an extension called Apple Data Detectors that added this functionality. Worked with any app that used the standard Text API's, iirc.

I have it installed, and I very much dislike it. I constantly highlight things to keep track of where I am on the page or to make tracking to the next line faster. I hover my mouse for my own purposes, not to communicate to the computer. When I want the computer to do something in response to my mouse I'll click.

I changed the settings to turn those things off and found that most of the useful things Hyperwords does I already have set up such that I can do them quickly. Usually I can just hit Ctrl+t and enter a keyword and search term (dict, g, wp, etc) to get what I want.

I really find that the combination of my shortcuts, GreaseMonkey, Platypus and Nuke Anything are more useful.

I think it would drive me crazy in the same way that MS Word drives me crazy with that stupid box the pops up and obstructs my view every time I cut and paste something.

Maybe it would be okay if I actually had to push down on the command key and click at the same time to get it to pop up, but to have it pop up for every little thing my cursor traversed would be a complete nightmare.

I hate a cluttered visual field (especially things covering other things) like those banner ads that drop down and continue to cover the thing you are trying to read just because you accidentally grazed the corner of the damned thing with the cursor.

Re #9

Beat me to it.

The Apple control-click (or right-click, I guess) feature brings up a drop-down that includes "Search in Spotlight" (local search), "Search in Google," and "Look up in Dictionary" (also local, an Apple app).

Better, it also works on messages in Apple Mail. Maybe elsewhere too, but I dunno.

That's enough for me. Some of the other Hyperwords frills look kinda cool, but not enough to entice me to switch to Firefox.

I installed it and didn't like the fact, that the thing overwrites my Search-Box in Firefox, when I de-installed it, it killed the Search Box at all and I had to manually re-throw it back to my Browser. The features are nice, but this really sucked.

I think this would be a very useful tool for bloggers that want to add a picture to the reference they are making. If you could just move the cursor over the name of a book or album cover, for example, and you could have that picture come up, I think it would add alot. There may be similar tools out there. I actually hope that it becomes the standard over time. It makes for a richer reading experience. And if it makes it easier for writers/bloggers to hyperlink references, then you are moving toward further democratization of the web, which is a good thing.

I'm thinking about all those comic mentions yesterday. I know how to cut and paste, but what a pain to have to do that for 50 individual look-ups. What if you could move your cursor over those lists of comic titles and have the picture of the cover come up. Something along the lines of what Amazon does. I'd like to utilize that technology, without having to create a hyperlink to the Amazon website, or weird music download sites. I don't want a link to a blog that discusses the reference, I just want a picture. I can decide to navigate from there, but a picture is key.

It's just another useless distraction. I already feel like I have just about enough hypercrap being flapped in my face.

Thanks for putting Hyperwords out there.

The idea is simply to provide the user with richer opportunities to interact with their text.

That means there is a lot it can do and you can also turn off whatever you don't like. It's fully editable. :-)

A cool thing to also consider is the keyboard shortcut interface: Select any text and 'r,w' gives you References/Wikipedia, 'c,c' gives you a Copy/copy text and 'e,e' puts the selected text plus the URL in an email (Email immEdiately) .

(...as for the toolbar taking over the regular toolbar, that was a f-up. You can now easily choose on install what you want... We are continually working to make it more useful!)

Please email any suggestions, feature requests and so on to us directly at contact@hyperwords.net

Thanks!

Frode Hegland

It looks like it might have some useful functionality, but for obsessive clickers and text-selectors like me that are one NY Times article away from complete meltdown, I'm fairly certain it would be the last stop on my journey into madness.

It sounds incredibly annoying. Sometimes you just want to highlight some words, e.g. to copy and paste, and now this gives you a bunch of options that you then have to think about - like the horrible horrible Snap.com popups, or the NY Times "feature" that turns a double click into a search.

No thanks.

About the posts that it is intrusive. Oh goodness this is one we have gone over and over!

And we have still not fully resolved it.

Please help.

The issue is of course very simple: How can we provide powerful tools for you when the you need them without being in their face when you don't?

This is our current solution and we would be very interested to hear what BoingBoingers have to say considering how you really are the target users (serious knowledge workers):

By default the menu pops up when you select text. There is also a Hyperwords Toolbar (optional) where you can type or paste any text.
Hit enter twice and you get the regular search (default = Google but you can change that).
Hit enter just once and you get the Hyperwords menu and you can mouse through it, arrow key through it or keyboard shortcut your way around (oh yes, we like this one).

But this is all very customizable. You can play around and make it all happen within the right click menu, or with F2 or in 'invisibly' mode where you can issue keyboard shortcuts but not see any menu at all.

It's all up to you.

How would you prefer it's set up?

Frode Hegland

I have Safari and Adaptive Blue in Flock, adding this to Firefox would be overkill I guess. I will watch the video however. The product homepage is nice and simple.

This looks very intriguing to me, I will have time to try it out this coming week, and see what it does and can do.

Looks like an enhanced version of the built-in right-click menu in Opera. I can already submit a word or phrase to multiple search engines, check a dictionary or encyclopedia, translate the text, send an e-mail, etc.

Dude, I totally cannot live w/o this thing.. I been using it for an age (although, I admit, I preferred the previous - FF 2.0 school versions where there weren't a ludicrous selection of options, and where there was a straight-up go to link as opposed to copy and go). I don't use any of the weird text rearrangement stuff, just for mostly wikipediaing stuff, and the occasional google.

As for some of the complaints, as mentioned you can totally turn off the popup behavior, and the thing about it is for text selection it really ain't too bad bc for one you can just shift-click again to make it go way, and plus when you highlight some text you can set it to auto-copy it to the clipboard (ala IRC). As for #6 you can set it to open results in a new tab, too..

As for the OSX fanboys, I don't see a wikipedia search there (my main use for this thing).. Sorry..

Lastly, is really is useful, constantly.. I'm always running across terms and such I'm unfamiliar with and this makes it super easy to research them. Though, I kinda wish stuff wouldn't pop-up on hover (like wikipedia entries), it is kinda weird bc you cannot scroll the windows. I always open them in a new tab (but I never use back-forward buttons for the most part now days anyhoo).

Its utility or lack thereof aside, did anyone else notice towards the end when it goes all HotSauce on us that it kept zooming into the word "Brunettes"?

Plus que la change, plus que la même chose.

Also, the text fiddling is a very new feature (I don't think it is in the 4.0 version I'm using atm) and is by no means meant to be central functionality (I don't think). At least, I would never use it..

Also, I use this a heckuva lot for looking stuff up on IMDB (Answering time and again the age old question 'Where in hells have I seen that actor before'?) and the translation stuff can be useful at times (some of those Europeans are way ahead of us in Hacker Kung-Fu and it comes in handy to be able to wring some meaning outta their websites). Also, as a blogging tool the auto copy-paste again deserves mention, and if I used any of the supported blogging services that auto-blog stuff would be handy too.

HyperTeam,
How rare it is that designers/programmers will ask the end user what would actually be helpful. I wouldn't want the hypertexted word to link to a window with different choices. I think the link should just go directly to wikipedia or amazon. Better yet, the hypertexted links would open images, or simple definitions from a central dictionary. I don't think it is that distracting for a key word to be highlighted. If I already know what it is I can skip over it.

By the way, that is a nice feature of some of the nicer textbooks. You will have key words highlighted and definitions will be listed on another part of the page. There will most likely be a picture on the page as well.

One thing that does not jazz me at all is the "customizable" part. Forget it. I know all you lovely geeks out there might relish the opportunities to tweak the tools till they work just right for you. But for me, I have zero aptitude for fiddling with programs (or even trying to cheat them.) I just want things to work in a perfectly intuitive, simple, streamlined, elegant, visual format. Is this really too much to ask?

Thank you for asking, anyway. And thank you for my new career title- serious knowledge worker. Yes, I'm liking this title very much.

I've used this plugin for a while, and I've found it to be incredibly useful. Sure, it takes (a little) getting used to, like browser tabs and drag 'n' drop did. But yes, it can become as fundamentally useful as those things.

Anyone doing research really should try this. I don't mean just heavy-duty academics either (although my BA and MA students seriously appreciate it), I mean anyone tracking down info online. Everything seems just at the tip of your cursor; it is almost like the browser starts anticipating what you want.

Like I say, forget your preconceptions and give it a little time.

Wolfiesma,
thanks for your kind comments.

Bottom line: Customization is nice. But should not be necessary. We agree! :-)

If you're just interested by the "select - type a key - search" functionality, I recommend LookItUp for GreaseMonkey.

The neat thing is that it opens the result page in a popup in the same tab that can be dismissed with ESC.
The size of the popup can be customized.

Hyperteam: maybe just change the default customization options to untick many of the boxes. That would keep the 'knowledge seekers' who don't like fiddling with things happy. Some of the options really don't seem necessary for the average user, like the financial stuff, and they can be turned ON later.

If users go through a new install going "don't want that, don't want that, don't want that or that" it's a negative experience right at the start. Turn it around, and they're looking for the things they like.

Also, when I installed there were two pop-ups explaining how to use the thing. One is slightly irritating, but two is pushing it.

When typing into a text box, if the menu pops up it interupts your typing. This is bad if it's an accident; typing while the cursor is in a text box should cancel the menu.

Also, can the alt key be used to select things from the menu please. So [select text] and then alt-S could be default search, alt-e is default email etc.

Nice program, the people whining above are just whiners, keep working and it'll be so popular!

Hi Felix.
Glad you like Hyperwords and thank you for your suggestions.

Yes, there is a balance to be struck between what should be 'on' in the menu by default to make it as simple as possible and as functional as possible.

However which items are not always so easy to decide on since the 80/20 rule has different user groups. Some users, for example, absolutely want access to financial information and others absolutely do not.

Your second point hits the hardest issue we are facing:

Power & Ease of Use.

When people are living at the speed of the internet there is very little overhead for learning how to use new tools and media. People seem to get old pretty quickly and settle into routines, there is less experimentation, less play. It's a bit scary.

The reason for the Hyperwords Project to start with though, is that we feel (in the tradition of our muse, mentor and friend Doug Engelbart) that the amount of information we are dealing with and the complexity of the problems we face (social, environmental and economic to name but three) are increasing much faster than our ability to deal with them.

We therefore need to build more powerful tools to allow you to better access, view, analyze and share information.

If you were to look at how we deal with the ever increasing amount of information as a race (hey, why not?!, it is in a way), then you'd look at your performance as the crucial factor, not how easy and quick it would be to get into the vehicle right?

You'd probably build a racing bike (let's keep it simple and have an analogy without combustion engines!). Not a tricycle.

However, that is absolutely no excuse to tax the user any more than necessary with learning and customization work to move the users capability to the next level.

This is is why your feedback is so very much appreciated.

(We will look into using the alt key more. Thanks for that)

Frode Hegland

Frode - when we're using 20 different bicycles a day, how difficult it is to get on does make a difference! :P

"Some users, for example, absolutely want access to financial information and others absolutely do not."

If people really want something and are aware it's there, they can turn it on. The way I would do it would not be to try and work out all the different types of users there are, which is very difficult, but design the menus so that whatever a user is looking for he knows where to look.

And I've noticed, the problem with the keyboard not working for text input when the Hyperwords menu is open is very annoying. You can't select text and delete it! I'm deactivating that part now but will keep trying the rest of the program.

Lastly, some of the menu options are not capitalized, omg :o

"We therefore need to build more powerful tools to allow you to better access, view, analyze and share information."

Yes, yes, yes. May I add one more? With this onslaught of information, deleting those things we do not think interesting is very important. The boingboing interface is very elegant, but I would love a simple "x" box that would allow me to shrink or delete those topics I don't want to have to scroll down. Right now, I am following about 5 or 6 conversations on this website, but I have to scroll through a lot of information I'd rather skip over.

In the end, you would have something that looked more like "MyBoingBoing" where your particular preferences were saved.

It would cut down on a lot of conversations about what should and should not appear on the site. It would be different for each person.

So, I take it back. I think we do need customization after all!

My immediate reaction on installing and using hyperwords:
F*$&! It's stolen my carefully customized search toolbar.
My second reaction on trying to reinstate my toolbar:
F*("£! There are so many options the easiest would be to delete it and pray my toolbar comes back. I don't have time for this.

Suggestions:
1 Don't F$*% with the toolbar without asking first!
2 Ask for country locality when installing - I nearly uninstalled it for a second time when I found it was all US-centric and thought it might be a hassle to change
3 You DEFINITELY need a "power-user" checkbox to unlock the extra 3.6 billion options (as handy as they may be).

But otherwise, it looks promising! Good luck

Felix,
By 20 different bicycles do you mean 20 different browsers, apps? Not sure what you mean.

The text input issue is something we are addressing and the capitalization is odd since sometimes it's quicker to cheat, for example 'email immediately' is 'e,e' not 'e,i'

Frode Hegland

WOW Red Zebra, calm your horses! (or zebras!)

We have changed the installation sequence to let you choose whether you want the Hyperwords Toolbar or keep the basic one. So we agree on that one.

As far as asking about country, that is related to having a power-user option. The balance is this: What can we tell you and ask you on install (not a lot, people tend to skip install pages very, very quickly) and what features can we then expect you to find later?

It's tricky and we have not found the perfect balance yet, but thanks for your comments, they are very helpful.

Frode Hegland

I use this, and while it took some time getting used to, (and there are some things I still don't like, such as googling something with it not letting you switch between google tab, such as web to images) I miss it when it's gone. It's more useful than it is obstructing, and with a little more tweaking, it'll be just fine.