Let’s just say that you have stumbled upon an interesting topic while you’re reading a blog post or web article. Apparently, your curiosity will lead you to know more about that topic. Thus, you end up navigating away from the post that you are currently reading just so you could open a new tab to search for more information about CES, MWC, SMW, etc. At times like these, don’t you wish to have a simple yet efficient quick search tool that would let you search for interesting terms without having to navigate away from the page that you are currently on? If you do, then you better check out this free Chrome browser extension called “Curiyo”.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Curiyo is a free extension for Chrome that you can readily use whenever you want to search for more information about a particular word or term. The purpose of this tool is to feed your curiosity with relevant and helpful answers. All you need to do is to long-click on a word or phrase and Curiyo will immediately show its pop-up interface. You will then see a list of relevant search results – all of which will be generated from various sites and content sources such as Wikipedia, Wordnik, CrunchBase, Twitter, YouTube, etc. With the help of this tool, you can easily do a quick search without having to leave the page that you are currently on.

Pros

• Easy to use, convenient
• Slick pop-up user interface – immediately appears on your page so there’s no need for you to open a new tab or window
• Quick search – just long-click on a word or term for a full second to search for relevant information (typing is optional)
• Generates search results from various sites and content sources such as Wikipedia, Wordnik, CrunchBase, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Search
• Automatically identifies and subtly underlines those interesting words or terms
• Smart word identification – no need to highlight the entire word or term (For example, if you long-click on the word “Mohandas”, you will get the most relevant information about Mahatma Gandhi)

Cons

• None so far except for the fact that the functionality of the current version could still be improved in many ways and could, therefore, become even better especially if it opts to add the following features and options:
  • Advanced search for news, tweets, YouTube videos and images
  • Resizable/adjustable pop-up user interface
  • The option to follow a specific word or search term

Discussion

Curiyo is similar to Kikin for Chrome. Both of these extensions are designed to provide you with quick search results without having to leave the page that you’re currently viewing. Just long-click on the word and this tool will immediately show all relevant search results thru its pop-up window. You can also sort out the results according to their sources.

Upon installation, the extension will automatically add its shortcut icon to your Chrome browser’s omnibar. If you click on this icon, the Curiyo pop-up user interface will appear and you can manually type any word or term that you want to search. Alternatively, you can just browse or read a post like you usually do and whenever you encounter an interesting topic, just long-click on that word or term and the tool’s pop-up window will automatically appear on the page that you’re currently on. It is also important to note that the information that will be provided by this extension will come from various content sources and you’re free to click on these sources to obtain more info. This also means that the extension will show you relevant details that will be taken from Wikipedia, Wordnik, YouTube, CrunchBase, Twitter, Google Maps and even Google Search. So if you just want to see tweets about the latest Android KitKat update, just click on the Twitter icon.

Another notable feature of this tool is its ability to identify those interesting words or terms. This could be a name of a place, a country, a celebrity or even a movie title. Other than this, Curiyo can also recognize a topic even if you do not highlight the entire phrase or term. Just make sure that you long-click on that word for a full second or else, the pop-up window won’t appear. A small green progress bar will also appear while you click on the word that you want to search.

Functionality wise, I can say that this extension performs well. Its pop-up window opens quickly and it responds easily to every word or phrase that I click. Furthermore, the information that it provides is correct and appropriate. It will also provide you with a list of meanings for ambiguous terms. So far, this extension proves to be really useful especially when I am searching for unfamiliar words or terms. It’s just that this extension could have been much better if it allows its users to adjust its pop-up user interface. It would also be great to see more options that would allow users to narrow or broaden their search.

Conclusion and download link

I find Curiyo really interesting. It also proves to be efficient especially for multitaskers. With the help of this tool, you can easily do a quick search without having to open a new tab. You don’t even need to type the word. It is already good enough as it is now but there are still a couple of aspects that it needs to focus on such as providing its users with more search tools and options. Anyways, feel free to check this tool out and you might also want to try a similar tool called Kikin for Chrome.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.25.30

Requires: Google Chrome on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Linux and Mac OS X

Curiyo on Chrome Web Store