Kallout is simply brilliant. It’s a tiny Windows utility that integrates web search inside Microsoft Office documents, Outlook email, text files opened in Notepad or even PDF files that you may be reading inside Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Let’s see how Kallout works with Microsoft Word - you make a text selection inside a document and there pops up a contextual menu with links to various search engines. Pick any one and search results get displayed inline in a speech bubble dialog as in the screenshots above.
You may also check this video screencast to get a better feel of Kallout:
With Kallout installed, one can also read Wikipedia articles related to the selected word / phrase without leaving the current app. If there’s a YouTube video or a Google Map, you can view that inline as well as in the following screenshot - YouTube inside Notepad.
Kallout is something really innovative and will save some boring trips to the web browser while you’re doing a report in Word or finalizing that presentation in PowerPoint. All the information you would need can be retrieved with a simple right click.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/kallout-web-search-in-office-documents-notepad/4001/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Wow, this looks very useful.
One thing the screencast didn’t show is how effective it is addresses combined with google maps, which you can see on their website. For that alone, it may be worth the download.
Written by Raj on 07.28.08
good one , the contextual search feature will sell
Written by zwanderer on 07.28.08
Amit,
Great blog and screencast!
It means a lot to our small team at KallOut to get noticed by Digital Inspiration and to get your feedback. We really appreciate you helping us spread the word about KallOut — a new way to search using only your mouse.
Your screencast examples were perfect. The list of BestGuesses when you selected “iPhone” showed how KallOut tries to anticipate what the user might want and puts those menu items at the top of the list. Using the wisdom of crowds these BestGuesses should only improve over time — no matter what word or phrase you select.
While we appreciate you saying KallOut is brilliant, what really makes it so is the level of rich content that is available in our partners’ sites (e.g., Steve Jobs commencement address in YouTube, killer product photos in Flicr, excellent summary articles in Wikipedia, etc.). These sites are the real stars, KallOut is simply a stage on which they can show off their amazing skills.
Our goal is simply to create a platform for improving search through innovation, whether that innovation is in how search is invoked (e.g., over Office Apps, Adobe Reader, etc.), how search suggestions are made (e.g., via our BestGuess menu items) or how the search results are presented (e.g., in floating information palettes that we call KallOuts).
Please keep your feedback coming and stay tuned for future releases of the beta product.
Thanks,
Lee Lorenzen
CEO, KallOut — a new way to search using only your mouse
e-mail: link
Written by Lee Lorenzen on 07.28.08
Looks like IE8 activities but for any app, not just IE. Nice find. :)
Written by someone on 07.30.08