Ubiquity accessible outside Firefox browser

it would be great

me too! This idea is more that a browser extension!

Yeah it'd be awesome to be able to use Ubiquity in multiple applications as if it were a part of the OS itself. It's amazingly powerful and yet brilliantly easy to use!

I could even see it as part of an interface for a smart phone/PDA. It seems like it would be a real time saver as compared to navigating through a lot of different menus and applications, especially when one considers how limited the inputs of smart phones/PDAs are in comparison to a full blown PC or laptop.

The word Ubiquity means that it is everywhere, so it would be a big step in the right direction to have it on the desktop, phones, and integrated to every program on the computer, like this "command": googleearth to newyork do screenshot

You don't really want Ubiquity itself to be accessible outside Firefox; you want a program that does the same thing as Ubiquity for your whole OS instead of just the web. There are lots of launchers and language-based interfaces like this already. We need a standardized cross-platform version that can be extended as easily as Ubiquity.

This is how I imagine the future of open source software. What's supposed to happen is that users download software, modify it for their own use, and then redistribute the changes, and "free software" is supposed to be important because it protects our ability to do this.

But 99% of people can't code at all, and consequently don't care a bit whether their software is open source or not. There are lots of users, and very few developers.

I imagine that in the future, we'll have much higher-level languages and (interactive) programming interfaces, almost like plain English. Instead of a complex process of filing bugs, making patches, etc, the commands that people create by combining other commands will be uploaded back to the central repository for others to use immediately, with trust metrics in place to keep people safe and maintain high quality of the routines.

This would be the ultimate quicksilver style application for PC. I love quicksilver on mac, and would love a similar application that integrates itself into the web. That's a limitation that quicksilver has yet to overcome. And having UB integrate with other applications too?? That would be phenomenal.

@Manveru
basically you want UB to be your browser?? If UB becomes a desktop app within itself, I dont believe that FF would have to be open to use it, however, if you wanted web functionality (like emailing using gmail) you would need FF. When you execute a command, like google search or wiki search (anything other that paste), Ubiquity would most likely open up FF (or your default browser[which should be FF ;)]??)

I want the ability to incorporate UB with any desktop app. While that incorporation would most likely be cut and paste, I would love it to be compatible with outlook or entourage...etc.

Agreed, this would be an awesome external app to extend firefox. My first thought is something like gnome-do, or quicksilver, but based on ubiquities abilities. quick key combo and it brings up the interface, typing a url would launch firefox, etc etc.

only prob is that it is outside of the firefox box, so that adds LOTS of development time for the different platforms, but it would make a sweet app.

I think it should be possible to build UBIQ into a small frameless firefox window, so that it's still in firefox, but in its own, custom window.

i see what youre saying. Personally i think ubiquity would be phenomenal as a separate application and worse than it's current state if it was a pop up window rather than the keyboard combination. i think nicolas doesnt like the fact that if he clicks off the ubiquity window onto the web page after running the ubiquity command, it closes. making it a separate window would solve this issue but would make it more intrusive, IMHO

This is something like what i meant

Not instead of the nice idea of having UBIQ as a standalone outside FF, but since that will take time to come up with, just do some tricks with FF.
Then maybe add a hot Key to launch the UBIQ window

heh, love the wallpaper. also, thinking about it a bit more, yeah, that would be cool. but how about instead of a window (i dont know why but i hate having a bunch of windows open) how about a growl type interface like quicksilver or launchy, that isnt a part of firefox?

if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. why half ass something because it's faster? you'll lose client base because the product was released too soon...
I hate it when software gets released too soon (final versions)