Quick Web searches in Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 has a new feature that lets you get a lot done just by highlighting words on a Web page. Here's how to take advantage.

Highlight any text on a Web page by holding down the left mouse button and dragging your cursor over the words. You'll see a blue box with an arrow. Click on that and you'll get a list of options.

If, for instance, you're highlighting an address, you can choose to map it on Google Maps, pinpointing the location. It can also do regular Web searches.

Let's say you're reading a column and you want to know more about the author. Highlight the author's name and choose search. You'll get search results for that person. You can also translate a phrase, e-mail certain text, and even blog with Windows live.

These options are called Accelerators by Microsoft. If you want to customize your options, highlight text, click the blue box, then select all accelerators--that gives you a bunch more options, including the capability to manage accelerators. Select that option. From there, you can disable or remove accelerators. Or click Find more accelerators and you'll go to a page where you can add many more.

[Lee_Lorenzen]

Tom,

I wanted to make sure that your readers were aware that if they like IE8?s new ?selection-based search? feature called Accelerators, that KallOut had already shipped a version of Accelerators for Firefox (see https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10722 ).

NEWS ALERT: KallOut Accelerators for Firefox was shipped in the Firefox Public Directory on March 5, 2009

Since KallOut Accelerators for Firefox works as a browser add?-on, it is available for Mac, PC, Linux and KallOut also features all the best-of-breed sites on the web in its context menu. I encourage you to check it out and predict that you will come to love its ?BestGuess? search suggestions which are at the top of KallOut?s context menu that lists each of the sites that the user can send their selected text to as part of a search term.

This new category of ?selection-based search? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection-based_search ) has the possibility of becoming as important as search toolbars which now account for 10% of all searches (NOTE: roughly $2 billion in CPC revenue is derived from searches that start in search toolbars). In the same way that search toolbars allow consumers to search faster by avoiding going to Google?s home page, KallOut takes search outside the box by allowing your to search using only your mouse.

Please try the product out and see if you don?t find it extremely useful. And, once you?re comfortable with it in your Firefox browser, you can try out the Windows desktop version of KallOut that gives you the same functionality over IE6, IE7, Chrome, Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel, Adobe Reader, etc.

Thanks,
Lee Lorenzen
CEO, KallOut
[e-mail]