Some time ago I played around with a new Firefox extension called Ubiquity. It is a graphical keyboard user interface allowing the user to easily execute various commands without cluttering up the interface with buttons.

I have created a summa command on top of our OpenSearch interface. In many ways it is similar to the iGoogle gadget I mentioned in a previous blog post. One of the key differences is of course that a Ubiquity command is present as a feature of the Firefox browser whereas an iGoogle gadget is only available on your iGoogle page.

Some screenshots of the command in action.

To try it out you first need to install the Ubiquity Firefox extension. After having restarted Firefox go to the Summa Command’s github page. There you will be presented with a message allowing you to subscribe to the command. As Ubiquity considers all sources to untrusted you will have to acknowledge a security warning message before actually being able to install the command (read here for more details).

Using your new command should now be as simple as pressing the Ubiquity hotkey and entering summa followed by your query. Read the Ubiquity Tutorial for more information.

Further details are available at the Sandbox page in our Wiki.