We recently passed the 10,000 download count based on the stats from our addon page.  Although this number pales in comparison to some of the well established addons available, it does represent an important milestone for us.   You have sent in dozens of completed surveys, valuable feedback, and many suggestions that will absolutely help shape the roadmap for the upcoming releases.

The reviews left on our addons page tells us a couple of things:
1) People generally like what we are building, which tells us that we are adding value to their web browsing experience.  This is an important point that really hits home for us.
2) They see potential in KwiClick.

We are trying to reshape the way certain tasks can be accomplished, using more efficient methods.  Whether that is sharing videos with your friends, or getting search results, the goal is the same: make web surfing flow.

We’re planning to release some pretty interesting new features within the next few weeks.  Please do continue to send in your feedback, and let us know what you think of KwiClick.

We recently rolled out an update for KwiClick to address the conflict with the NoScript addon.  If you are running NoScript and KwiClick, you will now see the NoScript notification box to allow KwiClick to view videos, maps, etc.  Thanks again for all the feedback everyone sent in regarding this issue.  If anyone happens to notice any issues with another addon, feel free to send it our way.

Head on over to our download page to grab the latest version of KwiClick.

We’ve received feedback about a conflict with KwiClick and the Noscript addon. We’ve developed a fix and will be releasing it shortly. If you have any other feedback about KwiClick, let us know on Get Satisfaction.

KwiClick 2.1 is right around the corner and I want to share some of the exciting new upcoming features.

Firefox search box integration – KwiClick can now display the results from searches performed using the Firefox search box.

Customizable favorite providers – choose which search providers appear by default on the KwiClick panel.

Panel Close Icon – Minor usability tweak that will let you close the KwiClick panel without clicking outside the panel chrome.

Open Link Options – Added additional click options like Shift + Left Mouse, Shift + Right Mouse, and functions to Save Target to Disk, Copy link to Clipboard, etc.

Open Results in Browser – Open search results, videos, and images from KwiClick in the browser window.

New Providers – We’ve added a bunch of new providers for video and search. On page detection for all video providers is built in.

Yahoo
Live
Vimeo
Veoh
Viddler
Live Video
Howcast

Thanks for your continued support and please provide us with any feedback you may have.

A number of people have been asking us what exactly does KwiClick do? Our short elevator pitch of “KwiClick enhances the way you view and retrieve information from your favorite sources” doesn’t really paint the clearest picture in everyone’s minds. So, we’ve decided to create a brief video highlighting a number of things that KwiClick does. Have something else you think KwiClick could do? Tell us about it.

The web is the perfect medium for information retrieval and discovery.  You can find a video about skiing in the Swiss Alps and then moments later read the latest review of a new book by Stephen King called Duma Key.  Everyone that has used the web has most likely used a search engine such as Google.  When using a search engine, you type in your query, view a list of pages that contain relevant information, then choose one which might provide the most relevant information for your needs.  Oftentimes the page chosen is not exactly what you were looking for.  So, we click the back button, look at the set of pages again, and choose another.  It is in between clicking the back button and choosing another page that we have chosen to focus our core business.

When web browsers first introduced the integrated search box (whether through a toolbar or built directly into the browser) everyone rejoiced as their information retrieval process had just gotten a bit easier.  No longer would we need to type www.myfavoriteengine.com, and then type our query.  Now we can instantly jump to a search results page.  This has become one of the most popular ways of using a search engine.  But do we need to always look at a ‘search results page’?  We think there’s still room for improvement.

Imagine you are reading that book review about Stephen King’s latest book Duma Key that I mentioned above.  Somewhere in the second paragraph of that review, they mention “The Dark Tower”, another book by King.  If you wanted to find some web pages about The Dark Tower, you would put that in the search box, hit enter, and look at a page worth of search results.  You are no longer reading the review on Duma Key.  Your attention has now shifted over to the new search results page.  Either you opened a new tab/window to keep your place on the Duma Key review, or the search results have replaced the Duma Key review in the same tab/window.  Maybe you want to look at The Dark Tower search results later and finish the Duma Key review, so you click back into the review.  This whole process requires more ‘clicks’ than is truly necessary.

KwiClick attempts to solve some of these workflow pain points by presenting search results without the need to view a new page.  The search result set is organized within an intuitive panel that can be moved, enlarged, docked to the side of your screen, or hidden when not in use.  There are two main goals: remove unnecessary steps to retrieve search results, and help you stay focused on the task at hand.

Let’s think about skiing down the Swiss Alps one more time.  When you are at the top of a fairly easy trail, there isn’t much getting in your way on the path towards the bottom.  Let’s call this the ‘path of least resistance’.  Now imagine you are at the top of a double black diamond trail.  You look down and you see numerous moguls and trees.  You’ll need to pass through a number of obstacles before you can get to the bottom of this trail.  This is, obviously, not the path of least resistance.  Searching on the web is not that different from the scenario described above.  There are easy ways of accomplishing tasks, and then there are hard ways of accomplishing that same task.  KwiClick flattens out some of those moguls to make your path a little less bumpy.

Over the next few months we will be releasing a set of tools built into KwiClick that flattens out more and more of these moguls to help you accomplish your tasks easier than before.  Stay tuned, as we’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg.

We’ve been working for many months on a way to change your web browsing experience.  The result is KwiClick, an intelligent contextual panel that rides along with you.  It’s available for download now.