Select-n-Go by Cleeki

CNET Editors' review

by: Jessica Dolcourt on April 14, 2009

Cleeki's Select-n-Go add-on for Firefox is one of many extensions that attempts to solve the problem of looking up information engendered from the content of a Web page, without leaving your current tab. Highlight a word on a Web page to see a tiny blue button pop out below (if the word is on Wikipedia, you'll see a small Wikipedia logo float above.) Click the blue button to open a menu stuffed with more icons that will initiate a search for the word when you click them--including Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, The Free Dictionary, and Amazon. Not only do the results show up in a compact window that pops up on your screen, you'll also be able to bookmark the page, start a blog post, or share it through e-mail, IM, and various social networking services, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and FriendFeed. We just wish we didn't have to log into each account in order to use them from Cleeki.

As a bonus, if you highlight a hyperlink, a similar button hovers below. Click it and you'll be able to preview the Web page without committing to opening a new tab.

Just about everything in Select-n-Go is customizable, from the number of active search channels you've got, to the color of the results window. Don't like having to press the button to see your search choices? No problem--you can set the menu to appear every time you highlight a word. The app's plush feature set and unobtrusive interface make it a shoo-in for those who frequently launch spin-off searches while browsing the Web.