RoamAbout browser plugin brings web services to any page

22 04 2008

RoamAbout browser plugin brings web services to any page

Posted by: in Services

Filed under: Internet, Features, Web services, Beta, Search, web 2.0

What do Gmail, Facebook, MapQuest, and Weather.com all have in common? They’re web sites, but they’re also web-based services, providing access to interactive tools like email, mapping, or weather forecasting. Typically, if you want to take information from one web page and enter it in another, you have to do a lot of replicating and pasting. For example, if you find an address online and want to see it on a map, you’ve to duplicate the address, open a new window or tab, open a map service like Google Maps, and paste the address before you get your results.

But why take the data to the web service, when the web service can come to the data? This morning Vysr is launching a new browser plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer called RoundAbout. It lets you access a series of web tools from any page.

At launch, a handful of services like Facebook, del.icio.us, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, MapQuest, and Google Maps will be supported. Users can highlight an address on any web page, and click a button in the toolbar to plot the address on a map and then email the map to a friend. Or you can choose a zip code or city name and check the weather by hitting another button to pull up the Weather.com interface.

Gallery: Vysr RoamAbout