This is an unbelievably useful tool. Everyone is well familiar with hyperlinks. But what about all of the other words on a page? What if you want to investigate them? Now, you can… and very, very easily. They’re called hyperwords, and I strongly suggest you check out the demonstration as I feel this will be one of the most useful web tools you’ve come across. Ever. I’m not kidding.
Basically, hyperwords allow you to click or hover on any word on a web page and surface a menu that provides you with a whole range of search, capture, translate and organize options. Very, very cool. I just activated the program for Firefox and experimented with it for about five minutes and literally had my jaw dropped. It took me about two seconds to decide to share with you here.
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November 8th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Have you ever noticed the Reference Search functionality on NYTimes.com? When reading an article, just click on any word and the site pops open a definition, encyclopedia entry, etc… It even seems to do a decent job at pulling phrases instead of individual words. I’ve never seen this functionality written up, or discussed, but it certainly is cool. As is the Hyperwords extension.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I have not noticed that functionality on NYTimes.com, which is odd as I am at that site multiple times each day. Both of these examples, Reference Search and hyperwords, are how the information provided to us on the web is becoming increasingly interlinked, contextual, and ultimately useful beyond typical encyclopedic exercises. Very cool.
December 10th, 2007 at 2:53 am
I just tried hyperwords for five minutes, amazing. I share your fascination of such a new powerfull webtool!
December 12th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for checking out schneiderism. Glad you came across hyperwords here.