[UK] Hyperwords is a Firefox plugin that has already received glowing reviews. It’s a nifty little program that could completely change the user experience online, if it actually manages to be as intuitive as it promises.
Watch Hyperwords’s pitch at 00:35:15
The selling point is that users can command text online and control the browsing experience in new and interesting ways. Apparently it is what users want and the plugin has been downloaded over a million times already.
Users can select text and then insta-Google it with a simple mouse-click. Wikipedia, Amazon and translation services are also just a click away.
The company will generate revenue through commerce traffic and “useful ads”. They argue that if every word can be a hyperlink, then it can also be an ad. How that actually will work still seems a bit unclear.
Hyperwords grew out of a research project at University College London and has a pretty impressive advisory board, with among others Douglas Engelbart and Vint Cerf as members.
The company doesn’t view Ubiquity as a threat and believes that they will provide a fuller experience for its users.
The service is available as a plug-in for Firefox and will launch a version for Chrome and Safari soon.