Wundrbar Just Got Way Better: Introducing Live Results and Pegging.

Today Wundrbar is unveiling two big improvements that give users faster, greater control of web content and information. We call these features Live Results and Pegging.

Live Results

Since Wundrbar's launch in March, our users have consistently told us how much they like Wundrbar's immediate, dynamic interpretation of what they enter. They've also told us that they wish the results of actions could be displayed in the same immediate, automatic way. Well, starting today, we're doing it: for many actions, Wundrbar now brings back live results from commands as they are entered. Instead of just redirecting the user to results on another website, Wundrbar brings the results back to the user. Instantly.  

Here's how it works.

Let's say I want to search YouTube to find video clips.

I start by entering something like y or yt or youtube to begin my action. Wundrbar displays a list of possible actions on the left. I select YouTube search, if it's not selected already.

Then, I just enter my search term.

As I do, Wundrbar queries YouTube and immediately brings back a selection of links for me, with thumbnail images, titles, and clip length information.

I can then click on the link to the video I want to watch. Or, if I don't see the video I want, I can simply modify my search, and Wundrbar will fetch a fresh set of results for me.

In this next example, I'll search Yelp for restaurant reviews.

I start with something like yelp. Then, I enter what I want to search for, and where. I'll search for thai food in my neighborhood.

Wundrbar instantly lets me know that it's searching Yelp for my results.

Then, Wundrbar displays a selection of listings for me, with thumbnail images, addresses, phone numbers, and star ratings:

In one final example, I'll use Wundrbar to pull up events from my Google Calendar.

(I can do this because I've signed up for a free account at Wundrbar.com -- and so should you!)

To start, I can just enter a keyword like cal, then select Show Google Calendar events from the action list, and enter a date, like thursday.

Wundrbar accesses my Google Calendar and brings back the events I have scheduled for that date.

Wundrbar has hooked into some of the most popular services that make their data available via APIs to bring users these live results. They include Google web and images searches, Google Calendar, Yahoo web search, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, GasBuddy, Weather.com, and Yelp.  And we're going to keep adding more services every day.

Live results are now available both at our website and via our Firefox toolbar. To get the live results with the toolbar, just be sure to download the latest version.  Live results work in all major browsers, although Internet Explorer users will only see them for a subset of actions at the moment.  We're working hard to have full compatibility with I.E. soon.

Pegging

The second enhancement that we're introducing today is something we're calling pegging. It's a great way to compare results from different providers, to keep track of your commands, and to save your results for later use.

Say I want to search the web for halloween costume ideas. I enter something like "find scary halloween costumes" into Wundrbar.

When Wundrbar interprets my command, it now shows a small pushpin icon on the top-right side of the preview pane.

Clicking on this icon will save the contents of that preview pane to an area on the page below, with a helpful timestamp telling me when my results were pegged.

I can then do another search, and my pegged results will remain on the page. They'll stay there until I navigate away from (or refresh) the page.

Pegging also lets me perform one action with multiple providers. For example, I could leave my search term ("find scary halloween costumes") in the search bar and simply select Yahoo search. The preview pane is immediately updated with results from Yahoo.

I can then compare these Yahoo results with my results from Google, which I had pegged below.

If I want to save these new results, I can peg them as well. My pegged Google results are pushed down, and my Yahoo results are pegged above them. I can keep repeating this pegging process as long as I remain on the page.

To remove a pegged item, all I have to do is click the x in the top-right corner of the pegged results pane. The pegged item immediately disappears.

Pegging is a really great way to compare results from different providers. It's especially useful for tasks like shopping.

For example, let's say I want to shop for a new iPod. Because I do.

I can enter a command like "buy 8gb orange ipod nano", preview the results from Amazon, peg them, preview the results from eBay, peg those, and compare the results -- all without leaving the page.

Then I can just click on the result I want, and I'm taken to that product page.

One final note about pegging -- in some cases, it will happen automatically. For example, if you search for gas prices, or get your calendar events, or retrieve your latest twitter messages -- basically if you execute any action that brings back information -- we'll automatically peg the results, so you can easily keep a running feed of your command results.

So, those are the two improvements we're unveiling today -- live results and pegging. We think these are great additions to Wundrbar, and a big advancement toward our ultimate mission of creating a completely user-centric web experience.

There's starting to be significant movement in this direction, between the Ubiquity plugin for Firefox, and features in Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome.  We're working hard to stay at the forefront of this trend while maximizing our compatibility with different products. In fact, there's good news coming about compatibility between Wundrbar and Ubiquity - but more on that in a later post.

Please keep in mind (as we do) that this is pretty new territory, and we're constantly iterating to provide the best experience for our users. So these features are certain to evolve. But we're excited about the new functionality. So give the new and improved Wundrbar a try today, and let us know what you think!