Mashup Engine - Mozilla Ubiquity

Ubiquity is a product that Mozilla is currently working on which is in its 0.1 alpha stage right now. One might call it a "Mashup Engine" in that it is supposed automatically combine different services and web offerings using a simple interface.

In the video below, for example, the user highlights 5 different craigslist entries and then uses Ubiquity to Google map all 5 addresses. You can also use Ubiquity to copy and paste the map into an email, instead of just inserting a link like you would otherwise.

This idea does have real potential, but Ryan Block (of Engadget fame) hit the nail on the head when he twittered:

Mozilla Ubiquity: amazing concept, but inconsistent micro-commands and a text driven interface means it's geek-set only. But it's a start!

I would love to be able to highlight a string of text that contains a date, and be able to right click it into my Google calendar, but I wouldn't want to have to type [Option]+[Space] "google-calendar-this".

We'll have to see where this goes. I'm thinking this is a cool concept for a Firefox plugin. Enjoy the movie below.

Now you know,
Garrett Woodroof