Firefox add-ons that improve your search experience

There are so many firefox add-ons it's rare that some catch my eye. I am obviously a little biased because I enjoy search related topics and products but I think these two could be useful for anyone.

These two add-ons are very well designed to not annoy or bug you, they sit there waiting for when you want to use them. They also don't allow you to forget that they exist which is also a good feature, many add-ons can be forgotten once installed.

WebMynd

The first add-on WebMynd sits within Firefox on the right hand side when you are searching for something. It doesn't appear the rest of the time, only when you search.

You have two options with WebMynd, the first is to simply mouse over the familiar icons and a pop up area will apear showing the results available from that specific source.

If you then click on the blue WebMynd button at the top of the bar, you will see a full sidebar expand and display a whole array of options that could help you find something relevant to what you are already searching for.

Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter Tweets, Linkedin Contacts, Amazon Products and Flickr Photos are all available, Google Mail and Facebook were also included as results however I always have these sites open in two separate tabs within Firefox anyway.

The results displayed were for the term "Test" a term which I thought would provide quite varied results and not make it too easy for both of these add-ons.

If you click on the "Add Sources" area you are greeted with a easy to use menu system providing many excellent websites to include in the side bar, some of the ones that I liked were:

• Digg
• Scribd
• Google Books
• Reddit
• LastFM
• MTV
• CNN
• Time Magazine
• Ebay

However there were quite a few more to choose and you can add your own sources if you desire.

Apture

The second Firefox add-on is Apture, it has actually become my favourite of the two. Apture not only helps you search, but if your reading something and do not understand a word or phrase on any web page your are on, just highlight it.

With Apture, once you have selected a piece of text, this is the only time it will remind you that it is installed. A helpful box will appear saying "Learn More" now if your anything like me and you want to understand something more, then you will find yourself selecting text and then pasting it into Google to conduct a 'regular', image and sometimes a news search. So a little box aiding me is the perfect option.

Once you click on the "Learn More" box, an area will display within Firefox. This area is a little like a pop up box, but it doesn’t feel like one and is much more robust. You can click anywhere within the Apture box and you will not navigate away from your current page. Even if you click on an image to view it full size, it will only create a lightbox over your current page. It's like the perfect assistant to help you delve into a understanding another topic, word or phrase. Once understood or you have found what you needed. You can continue reading the page from where you originally selected the text.

The first area displayed in Apture is the explorer area, in this example it displayed a dictionary reference to the word selected, then Wikipedia, Crunch base info and bing search results, it does Google results too. In the other tabs Apture will display Youtube videos and Google image search results. The Google image results seem to open in a new Firefox tab, where I would like to see the option to open it within Firefox or Apture. I would also like to see videos combined from many sources included, not just YouTube. Apart from these things, I think its functionality is great.

I will leave you with a video of Apture in use; it’s quite cool see if you like it. Also try WebMynd it is a nice addition. I hope this hub makes your search experience more interesting.