A colleague just brought the coolest feature to my attention: on the NY Times' website, you can bring up search results on any term they use in an article merely by double-clicking on the words in the article itself. You don't have to go typing in a search box, or pull up a contextual menu with a right-click.
The search results are provided by Answers.com, and the feature is powered by a JavaScript called altClickToSearch.js, which is written by Answers.com. What the script does is to capture alt-clicks and double-clicks, select and capture the word or words you clicked on, and then send them to a popup window that returns search results. I find it very smart, and very convenient.
The script on the Times' web site is copyrighted by Answers.com, but the technique is well worth duplicating on any other content-rich site where you want to make keyword searching even more convenient for your users.
Post a comment