Quix: One Click Access to All of Your Bookmarklets — On Any Browser
March 4, 2010 by Bobby Travis 
4 Comments
Using bookmarklets has become a staple item for me in internet browsing — I use everything from Readability2Evernote, to a multitude of sharing and tracking tools, each with its own nifty difference from the other. My only qualm has been the way they clutter up my toolbar. No longer! I have now installed the bookmarklet to end all bookmarklets. Quix — as they say it "Your bookmarklets on steroids". Quix does everything. It comes with most things you might need already built in and even leaves you the ability to add your own. Want to search IMDB, for example? Click Quix, type IMDB and your search term and hit enter. That easy. I fully expect that one day I will ask it to make me dinner… and it will. At the very least it will point me to a really good recipe with just a couple of keystrokes and then allow me to quickly share it with the world at large.
Quix installs easily, with instructions for every major browser, including Mobile Safari. Once your connected it is a simple matter of a click on the fancy new button and typing the word "help" into the little command-line type box for a list of the pre-installed commands. There are a lot of them (search commands, social sharing commands, SEO, analytics, URL shortening, App integration (Evernote!) and more, more, more!). Learn your favourites.
In fact, the only drawback of Quix is that it can do so much that you can get lost in the shortcuts, so to speak. I say again… learn your favourites and then forget the rest. Especially considering that you can easily add your own custom shortcuts and javascript bookmarklets for all of the services that are close to your heart (I added Redux and ShareIn for example), even replacing the defaults altogether if you choose, leaving you with just one happy button that is useable almost anywhere, and will do the job of multiple bookmarklets and even some browser extensions — which is important if you use Google Chrome Extensions and ever want to see your URL bar again…
If you need some convincing, check out their quick (no pun, I swear!) intro video. Give it a try. Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Pretty cool. I see this as one of those things that requires dedicated effort to use it in the beginning, after which it becomes old hat. I put it on my toolbar. Now well see if I remember to use it!
Heh – I hear you, man! Shortcuts are always a bear for me to remember at first, but if I use it on my phone as well, it should be working for me in no time.
I actually read about this from the Smashing Mag Newsletter. Pretty neat idea. Though I won’t be using it. It lacks that last “punch” I expect. Shrug.
What Quix really needs to be truly effective is an easy GUI for adding new commands to the file. If they had that, the application would then be accessible to regular users and would open up their market.