Mozilla recently released a prototype add-on called Ubiquity. It’s a difficult add-on to describe, because it has no single use, and it’s a work in progress. The best way to describe it is a command line interface in Firefox to perform a number of frequently used commands over the course of browsing. It manages to streamline all open API software services like Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Twitter, Wikipedia, Flickr, etc. into a pop-up interface and allow me to perform “mashups”, interactions with the data from these services on the fly.

The best way to explain Ubiquity is to use examples:

– I can highlight some text and open the interface and type twit and then it will send the text to Twitter with additional comments. I can also automatically shorten a url in a moment.

– I can highlight a word and type define.

– I can highlight an address and create a map and then send it to an email recipient.

On and on and on. The potential is unlimited. Ubiquity is not for the faint of heart. It’s meant for the power user, to perform a large variety of tasks quickly and on the fly in the course of their browsing. I’m anxious to see the future potential of this early prototype. This is a far more interesting technology solution than anything Internet Explorer 8 is offering to the browsing experience.