Ubiquity, a Powerful Firefox Extension, Gets an Overhaul

Ubiquity is a very popular Firefox extension that adds a flexible natural language command line to Firefox, and is developed by the folks at Mozilla. It's now out in a more useful new version, with a sleeker look, a more stable core, and the ability to create good looking skins. If you're familiar with using the Awesome Bar in Firefox, you'll take to Ubiquity quickly, although it pays to spend a little time learning how its commands work. Here's a peek at the new version.

The new version of Ubiquity is 0.1.5. It's a quick download, and you can get started experimenting with commands right away by hitting Ctrl-Space to bring Ubiquity up. In the screenshot below, I've started to type in the command "e-mail" because I want to e-mail a web page to somebody, but as you can see, I automatically have access to lots of other commands, including turning the page into a PDF that I can send. This works very much like the Awesome Bar, which will begins to understand the name of a web page you're looking to go to before you type in the full name.

You can find Ubuiquity commands of many types at Ubiquity Herd. There are commands for doing quick Wikipedia, Google and Yelp searches, getting text translated, and much more. The best way to get used to the command interface is to go through Mozilla's user tutorial, and there is also a tutorial for anyone who wants to create Ubiquity commands.

Ubiquity is more stable than it was before, and is emerging as an extremely powerful Firefox extension that Mozilla continues to extend. I've used it and liked it on both Windows and the Mac, and I especially recommend it for writers and bloggers who want to leverage web resources on the fly while creating content. Get to know it.

For many more useful Firefox extensions, see our Superguide.