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The New Quick.as - One Homepage for All Devices Written on September 3, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

Over the last few days I have slowly rolled out a bunch of new features for Quick.as. Quick.as is now being positioned as the “one homepage for all devices”. 

Quick.as is now a customizable portal you setup on a computer and can then access from any web enabled device. It provides users with the ability to search multiple sites and access “quick links” (like favorites or bookmarks). Please see the short video opposite for a quick overview.

We are seeing web browsing behaviour being emulated on mobile phones. At the moment, one major problem with browsing on a mobile phone is that there are many different version mobile sites, and there is no consistency in how they can be accessed. Often websites have iPhone versions, Blackberry versions, and version for many other mobile devices. Some sites can be accessed through the “normal” URL (www.example.com) and they do the detection and work out what phone you are using, while others use different sub-domains (i.example.com and m.example.com), different locations on the normal site (e.g. www.example.com/m), and sometimes different sites (e.g. www.example.mobi or www.examplemobile.com).

From A Users Perspective

Quick.as greatly increases browsing productivity, particularly on a mobile where you can access the web like you would on a computer. It reduces typing which is still difficult to do an mobile devices, and it reduces the confusion over accessing the correct mobile website.

In Nielsen Mobile’s report on The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web they have this to say: 

While carrier portals (also referred to as “decks”) provide users with links to specific websites, most mobile Internet users actively seek out websites to visit. 40 percent of mobile Internet users say they find the sites through search engines, 22 percent say they type in the URL directly (underscoring the importance of mobile optimized or redirected sites) and 18 percent say they find the sites through their favorite links. Still, 17 percent of mobile Internet users say they find the sites they visit through their carrier’s portal.

From A Networks Perspective

The days of Telco controlled “decks” or “walled gardens” are surely numbered. We want Quick.as to be the default homepage for browsing the web on mobiles. 

• It is easier for people to access different websites on a mobile - thereby increasing usage;
• It allows easily swapping default search engines (it does not preclude deals with search providers as Quick.as still takes users through to the same search result pages);
• It provides revenue share opportunities with search result ad revenue; and
• It provides branding and contextual advertising opportunities.

 

Update: Intersting discussion on The weird and wonderful world of options for mobile URIs over at mjelly.

Gmail’s Mysterious Grey Box in the Top Left Corner Written on July 7, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

I noticed it a little while ago and did not really think much of it. I read Michael Arringtons post on TechCrunch wondering what it is so I thought I’d look into it. As a few people pointed out by looking at in in FireBug, it is an iFrame containing a Flash Movie (”im/sound.swf”). This is used for playing the sound when using Chat/gTalk withing the browser.

So far no one has explained why the odd grey box split diagonally. I edited the height and width properties of the iFrame and you can see that it is a border around the iframe. Sorry, I have no conspiracy theory. Someone simply forgot to put “border:none” in the CSS file for the iframe!

Click to see larger version.

Adding Google Analytics onLoad Written on July 2, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

I’ve gone and broken up my thumb. 3 breaks, 1 operation 3 pins and 1 plaster cast means typing one handed … painfully slow. I will keep this short then.

I am trying to create a quick loading page. Problem is, Google Analytics is taking a second or two to load (I’m in Australia so it probably is not as quick as in the US) and that makes my page load slower. So, I went searching and found someone had done it using Dojo (via Ajaxian). I don’t use Dojo, so I have come up with an alternative way of loading it after all the other elements on the page load (onLoad). Unfortunately you cannot just put the Google issued embed code all in an onload function.

I first did it using the YUI library. Here is the code (note, you will have to change the Google Analytics tracker number):

I thought that often people will not want to load YUI files also, so here is a version without:

Quick.as Now Easier To Use Written on May 19, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

The switch has just been flicked to make Quick.as 2.0 live! Thank you to everyone for your feedback. Much of it has been incorporated in to this update.  There are a lot of changes so I will be splitting it up into two posts.

The aim of this new version was to make it easier for all to use. We were finding that it was only the “power-users” and people that were fairly tech savvy using it. Some people did not understand the command line component (e.g. “w Boston Celtics” searches Wikipedia). The command line stuff is still in there, but a drop-down box has been added with the site (or search “engine”) that you will search. This means that newbies (people that aren’t very tech savvy) and easily work out what the site does, and use it. It has been designed so that over time a new user will gradually discover how they can save time with their searches using keyboard shortcuts and search commands.

A new user can come to the site and simply select the site the want to search using the drop-down (see the image opposite). The most common search sites are listed or you can select the “more” optinon and other sites will load (around one hundred of them). The search “command” is listed next to the name of the site to help users learn the commands. An example or instructions will load to the left. From here, the user simply types in their search command and presses the big search button.

If you start typing in the search box “auto complete” options will appear below (see image opposite). When options are visible, you can either select them with your mouse, use the arrow keys, or if you have typed the command you want and you press the space bar, the search site will be changed (and the search command will be removed). So when you go to the page you simply:

1. Type “w”;
2. Press the space bar and Wikipedia will be chosen in the drop down and the “w” will be removed;
3. Keep typing in the search term, “Boston Celtics”;
4. Press the Enter key, and you are done.

This may look like the site has been “dumbed down” but it has not. For experienced users it is still just as quick as it was previously.Experienced users can just ignore the drop-down box.

As well as these changes, the site should be considerably quicker loading with quite a number of little tricks employed to reduce file sizes and speed up the site.

I hope you all like the changes!

Better Than Google Written on May 6, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

Quick.as allows access to the search results from other sites in the one convenient location. It provides you with better information than Google (or at very least the same); and after the commands become second nature, it allows you to access to the information you want quicker and with less mental processing.

Google’s well known mission is, “To organize the worlds information”. They do a pretty decent job at this, at least better than any other company. For that information to be useful, people then need to access the information. For the most part Google do a pretty decent job at this too. It implies that there are actually two components to Google’s core offering:

1. Organization of information; and
2. Easy access to information.

Organization of Information

Google is fantastic for gathering information on topics that you have not broached before. But what if you have broached the topic before? What if you are searching for information that you know will be found in a certain location? It would make sense to go directly to that location. People are becoming more familiar with the web and are, in general, a little more discerning. This is what Quick.as allows, and is a premise around which Quick.as was built.

• Who wrote “Confessions of and Economic Hitman” and what other books has he written? - you search amazon.com
• How do I do a regular expression search in PHP (a programming language)? - you search php.net
• What is the population of Toronto? - you search wikipedia.com

Quick.as allows you to put a “command” (a keyboard shortcut of sorts) in front of you search term and you will go directly to the search results of a particular site. Where Google is a “search” site, Quick.as is a “location” site.

Of course, if you do not use a “command” in front of your search term, it simply returns the Google search results. So at very least, using Quick.as to search the web is never going to require more time and mental processing than using Google.

Easy Access to Information

You could go to Google and do a search but if you know what you want is on Wikipedia (for example), that is an extra page load, requires mental processing, and most likely means time-consuming, “spastic lurching” from mouse to keyboard and back. A search on Quick.as avoids this. It gets you there quicker.

The time saving might no seem like much, but once the frequently used commands become second nature, the small productivity gain per search aggregates into a significant time saving over an extended period.

Quick.as also has “Quick Links” which are like bookmarks that appear on the page. They can be customized and have keyboard shortcuts too. This is a further productivity gain as generally the majority of sites people visit are sites they frequent regularly (e.g. social networking, web based email, news, etc.). It minimizes mental processing (you don’t have to remember the URL or select the site form your bookmarks) and time-consuming, spastic lurching from mouse to keyboard and back again applies here. This is discussed quite eloquently in an article called “Return of the Keyboard Shortcut“.

Quick.as allows you to access the search results from other sites in the one convenient location. It provides you with better information than Google (or in the worst case scenario it is the same as using Google). Further, after using it for a little while (and the commands become second nature), Quick.as will allow access to the information you want quicker and with less mental processing.

For more on Quick.as, please visit: http://quick.as.

Quick.as Demo Video Written on May 1, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

I have just finished recording a demo video that helps explain what Quick.as is, how to use it, and why it is so useful. Some people were having a hard time understanding the usefulness of Quick.as at first glance. Often it is only after using it for a day or so that it suddenly dawns on them what this is all about! Hopefully this video helps with that. I have a link to it on the Quick.as site also.

I am not a fantastic presenter, so please forgive me!

If the video is not playing, see it here.

Quick.as Even Quicker with Keyboard Shortcuts Written on April 30, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

There was a great article written about Return of the Keyboard Shortcut and it gave a nice mention to Quick.as. It was referring to keyboard shortcuts in realation to what I am calling commands (or Quick Searches). Pity it came out a few days before I released the keyboard shortcuts for Quick Links.

I will explain here.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Quick Links

Any time you take the focus off the search box (i.e. you click on another part of the page, or you press Tab), if you start typing (e.g. g) a green box will appear in the top right of the screen, and it will display what you type there.

If there are a few Quick Link Labels that begin with what you have typed in, then they will be displayed in yellow. The first one is selected, so if you want to go to that link, just press Enter. If there is only one match, you will automatically be redirected to that site.

Say you want to load Facebook when you load the page. All you have to do is press Tab then type the letter f (this is assuming you don’t have any other Quick Links beginning with f).

Starting to get a bit of traffic Written on April 23, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

Starting to get a bit of traffic to Quick.as. No doubt this is due to postings here, here, and here.

Also got reviewed on KillerStartups.com. If you could go there and vote that would be … super.

Also, if you have previously registered with Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, or StumbleUpon or any of the others like it, please digg/vote/bookmark/comment (hover over the button below)!

Thanks for the support everyone.

 

Changes to Quick.as Written on April 19, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

Based on the stats and quite a bit of feedback I have received over the last few days, some changes have been made to Quick.as.

1. Most people seem to be using the site without registering and customizing the quick links. Yet they are using the example quick links I provided quite a bit … and finding them useful. I have changed it so that there are more “example” quick links on the homepage. They are categorized also.
2. The “example” links on the homepage have a bunch of links that are customized to countries (detected when you visit the site). I currently have custom links for Australia, USA, UK, Canada, and Finland. If anyone else wants to provide me with the 4 biggest banks/financial institutions and the 3 biggest news/newspaper sites for other countries, I’d be happy to put them up.
3. There were some people that were struggling with the concept of search commands. I have (hopefully) made the search commands explanation a little easier to understand.
4. Some people were not sure how to make Quick.as their homepage. There are instructions in the “extras” section but I have added a link on the homepage (if you are not logged in).
5. In the settings section, if you have not specified any custom links, I pre-populate the lists with some common links. This is designed to make it easier for people to start off.
6. I have also made the sample links like a little more obvious and easier to access.

Thanks to all those that have emailed me with suggestions and feedback. It is very much appreciated.

Use Quick.as & Extend Your Life By 15 Days! Written on April 18, 2008, by Raef Akehurst.

– PRESS RELEASE –

Use Quick.as & Extend Your Life By 15 Days!

Melbourne, Australia. April 18, 2008

Set your homepage to Quick.as and save time online using "Command Search" and customizable "Quick Links".

Quick.as (http://quick.as) was launched today by Beep Interactive Pty. Ltd. It is a free and easy-to-use web site designed to save you time by making browsing and searching for information on the web quicker and easier. Get you to where you want to be on the web quick-as … a-flash using:

• Command search. In the search bar, put a "command" in front of your search term and it will search a different resource. E.g. "w Lebron James" will search Wikipedia for "Lebron James" while "gm Mt. Erica Hotel" will search Google Maps for the "Mt. Erica Hotel". There are hundreds of commands, and you can even add your own.
• Quick Links. Once registered, you can add "Quick Links" (like bookmarks/favourites) to your most commonly visited sites. These might include your local newspaper, web based email providers (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace), online banking, your company Intranet, or any other site you visit frequently.

A Penn State research study (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2007.07.015) classified searches on the Internet as either:

• Informational – looking for a specific fact or topic;
• Transactional – looking for information related to buying a particular product or service; or
• Navigational – seeking to locate a specific web site (anecdotal evidence suggests that the people have five to ten web sites that they spend the vast majority of their time on).

"We believe that the informational/transformational/navigational search classification can be used to describe a motivation for initiating a browsing session," explains Raef Akehurst, creator of Quick.as. "Command search can be used to save time for information and transactional motivated browsing sessions, while Quick links can be used to save time for navigational motivated sessions."

To demonstrate how much time Quick.as can save you, let us assume you have just loaded your browser and you want to search for the movie, The Da Vinci Code on Amazon.

A "normal" search:	With your homepage set to Quick.as:
Click on the address bar. Type in "www.amazon.com" and press enter. Wait for page to load. Click in the search box on the Amazon site. Type in "Da Vinci Code" and press enter. Wait for page to load. Scroll down until you come to the DVDs.	Type "am" and select the "Amazon DVDs" from the drop-down, continue typing "Da Vinci Code", and press enter. Wait for page to load.
2 page loads 5 movements (e.g. mouse to keyboard) 7 seconds	1 page load 1 movement 2 seconds

So you can save up to 5 seconds for a search. It does not seem like much but consider…

• 5 seconds per search x 12 searches a day = 1 minute per day saved.
• 1 minute per day x 365 days per year = just over 6 hours per year saved.
• 6 hours per year x the next 60 years = 15 days per lifetime saved.
• Saving 15 days is just like adding 15 days to your life!!

KEY FEATURES

• Command search allows to you to do:
• Measurement conversions (e.g. "convert 1m in feet").
• Time lookup (e.g. "time in Toronto")
• Currency conversion (e.g. "100USD in AUD")
• Dictionary and thesaurus lookups (e.g. "dictionary awesome")
• Stock quotes (e.g. "LON:VOD")
• As well as being able to search all the popular search engines you can search lots of popular sites like Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, IMDb, del.icio.us, Digg, Flickr, You Tube and many more.
• Your country is detected and, if it exists, you will be directed to a local version. For example, if you are in Australia and do a Google Maps search, the results will appear on maps.google.com.au.
• If registered and logged in, you can create your own search commands.
• You can choose to share your customized search commands and Quick links (e.g. http://example.quick.as).

 

ABOUT BEEP INTERACTIVE PTY. LTD.

Quick.as is a brand of Beep Interactive Pty. Ltd (www.beepinteractive.com). Beep was founded by Raef Akehurst and Karl Edwards in 2004. They operate smsGeezer.com (an online bulk SMS sending service, Recordle.com (a service allowing you to record audio, video and take photos directly from a web site), and previously operated 19secret.com (a service that allowed you to send anonymous and masked SMS). Beep aims to keep things simple – make things easy to use! They develop and deploy web and mobile solutions across an array of different platforms and technologies.

High resolution logo: http://quick.as/images/press/logo.jpg
High resolution screenshot: http://quick.as/images/press/screenshot.jpg

– END –

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