Ubiquity for Firefox - has Mozilla got another success on its hands?

Have you seen the Ubiquity plug-in for Firefox yet?

Launched 5 days ago by Mozilla, it’s an “early experimental prototype”. That’s Mozilla’s way of saying it’s not for the faint hearted, but it’s not as rough as the version number suggests and already it’s got many uses.

What is Ubiquity?

In Mozilla’s words: an “experiment into connecting the Web with language… that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily”.

I’d say it’s a funky app that lets you use natural language to command your browser to do complex tasks without getting your hands dirty. An online butler made possible by Web 2.0 technology.

Here’s an example of how to use Ubiquity…

I use Twitter (philsheard) quite a lot. Twitter’s 140 character limit means that big, ugly URLs hog too much space so I use TinyURL to shorten these addresses. If I’m using the web version, I’d need to follow these steps:

1. Browse to www.twitter.com
2. Start typing my message
3. Switch tabs to the URL I want to include
4. Copy it
5. Head over to www.tinyurl.com in a new tab
6. Paste the address copied earlier and hit the ‘Make TinyURL’ button
7. The short address is coped onto m clipboard
8. Switch back to Twitter
9. Paste the TinyURL, finish my message and click ‘Update’

Here’s how Ubiquity simply cuts out some steps. 1-4 are the same, but watch closely after 5:

1. Browse to www.twitter.com
2. Start typing my message
3. Switch tabs to the URL I want to include
4. Copy it
5. Head straight back to Twitter
6. Activate Ubiquity (Option+Space on my Macbook) and type ‘tinyurl’ and paste the URL. Ubiquity interprets the command as I type and goes away to the TinyURL site in the background to shorten the address



7. Press return and voila the shortened address is pasted into the Twitter box. I finish my message and click ‘update’

A basic example to save a couple of steps but already it feels intuitive to type ‘normal words’ into Ubiquity instead of browsing (with its associated pointing and clicking).

The boffins at Mozilla have bigger plans. Imagine typing ‘Add meeting with Steve to diary and email Steve a map of Starbucks, Division Street, Sheffield‘. This one command could add your diary entry to Google Calendar, map the location of the meeting using Google Maps and then compose an email to your contact. It would take seconds and using APIs provided by Web 2.0 services you’d never have to visit any of the sites to achieve it

What does Ubiquity mean for the web as we know it?

If Ubiquity takes off, it could take all the usefulness of the web but consolidate it into one simple interface. No competing branding. No advertising. No page impressions or eyeballs. All the good stuff for the user, but not necessarily the service provider.

It’s also another wedge between companies that enable their products for Web 2.0 and those that don’t.

Ubiquity is a power-user application for the near future, but don’t be surprised if your gran’s desktop has a version of this built into it in 5-7 years time. I believe there’s great potential if Mozilla continue to develop it.