While video is becoming more main-stream on the Internet, text based articles are still the primary means of communicating to everyday visitors.
But sometimes reading can be a hassle if the author of the article uses an unknown phrase or name of a person, which is not familiar to you (or in another language!).
Sure, you can always visit Wikipedia to find more information or search Google. But it would be a lot easier if the Internet could read your mind and hyperlink those words so you can easily look up the definitions….anywhere.
Now you can with Hyperwords add-on for Firefox.
Hyperwords for Firefox flat out rocks! With Hyperwords, all the text on a web page becomes virtual interactive hyperlinks.
Here's what it can do.
You come across a site and see a word or phrase that you do not understand. Just double click on the word or in between two words (for a phrase), and automatically a context menu appears:
Select how you want Hyperwords to search, in this case, I double clicked the word Computer, so I'll select Preferences and Wikipedia, up pops a window with the definition of Computer from Wikipedia.
Or you can view a picture or video, for example when selecting 'Space Station' from a news article I found, and selected to view a photo for Google.
If you select Google video or YouTube an image will appear and if you click on it, it will take you to the search results to view videos (YouTube can be hit or miss in finding an image).
With Hyperwords, the search selection seems endless from sites like Dictionary.com, Wiktionary, Flickr, Slashdot, Yahoo Maps, Amazon, eBay, Craigslist and more.
Hyperwords also has the capability to translate text from one language to another or you can chose to have it speak the text to you (howjsay.com).
As if all this is not enough, Hyperwords is highly customizable and changes can be made from the User Settings control panel.
Access to settings can be reached by double clicking on any word and selecting Settings from the context menu or from the add-ons window in Firefox (Tools \ Add-ons and select Options).
To install the add-on, go to hyperwords.net, then click on the link to install Hyperwords for Firefox (if prompted by Firefox, allow site to install add-on).
While you are there don;t forget to check out their really quick demo video on the home page.
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