Writing a simple Internet Explorer Accelerator

With the release of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), there is some new functionality that enables a developer to extend the browser pretty easily.  One of my particular favorites is the ability to create accelerators.  Accelerators allow a user to invoke a service from another site based on the text selected in the current page.  Some examples of accelerators that are available by default include:

  • Take what ever text is selected and search on Bing
  • Select an address and see the map inline with Bing Maps
  • Select text in a foreign language and translate it on the fly (below is an on the fly translation from the Al Jazeera site)

image

Read the full post on Joe Shirey’s blog at https://www.joeshirey.com/2009/09/04/WritingASimpleInternetExplorerAccelerator.aspx