A Look At Yubnub a (social) command line for the web

[Hraefn 0]

I wonder why nobody has posted about this yet, but anyway... Take a look at this funky logo:

That funny little logo you're looking at belongs to YubNub (obviously enough), the strangely-named brainchild of Canadian programmer Jon Aquino. Weird as the name might sound, YubNub may very well prove to be one of the most important web apps to be developed in 2005âand to think it was a submission for a 24-hour programming contest! It's not often that you see an idea that's unique, simple, and innovative all at the same time. It's only been a couple of weeks since I've bumped into it (completely by accident, too!), but since then I've been YubNub-ing like mad. It's fun and it's addictive... and it's also immensely useful.

 

But first, let's answer the question of just what YubNub is. To quote Jon:

 

YubNub is a command-line for the web. After setting it up on your browser, you simply type "gim porsche 911" to do a Google Image Search for pictures of Porsche 911 sports cars. Type "random 49" to return random numbers between 1 and 49, courtesy of random.org. And best of all, you can make a new command by giving YubNub an appropriate URL.

One interesting thing about searching through YubNub is that you can do split-screen searches. For example, typing "gimyim porsche 911" searches both Google Images and Yahoo! Images for pictures of Porsche 911 sports cars, which comes to your browser in a split-screen like in the screenshot below (click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized image).

 

Split-screens can be fun, and it's not just limited to the 'gimyim' command. The 'split', 'splitv', and 'splith' commands split the screen in different ways. Here are some examples that uses the various split-screen commands to show Xisto, Xisto, and Xisto - Web Hosting websites all at the same time: split, splitv, splith.

 

Sounds pretty straightforward enough. But YubNub is more that just a super-powered searching tool. Since YubNub can interact with any existing web service as long as it has a submit form, it's highly extensible. You can do some really interesting things with YubNub. Just take a look at the most used commands. For a list of the choicest YubNub commands, check out Jeremy's Picks or the YubNub Golden Eggs.

 

While you can of course use YubNub like any other website, doing it that may not be what you want. So I suggest that you visit their guide on how to install YubNub. I recommend the search plugin because of its simplicity. If you want to go the toolbar route, you can try out the RubNub for YubNub toolbar. Sorry, it's for Firefox users only, but folks who use the Flock browser can convert the RubNub toolbar to make it compatible for Flock by using the Flock'd Online Converter.

 

So where is YubNub heading in the future? Perhaps only Jon knows. But if you're curious, then go have a look at the official YubNub blog for a glimpse of things to come.

 

And now you know all about YubNub. So what are you waiting for? Throw out those old search plugins and start YubNub-ing! =^^=

[evion 0]

It looks interesting, yes i agree. But who would deny that Google has most of the features YubNub has? Of course you wouldn't be able to split screens with Google and technically YubNub USES Google to make its searches but i don't see any need for split searches. Even old fashioned searching for images through a normal web search works fine with me. At first sight though, i thought YubNub sounded something like "Friendster" kindof service. I guess the program will work with most other people but the most simple of things are usually the best correct?

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Oh yeah that sounds interesting - at least the coding behind it. Unfortunately, it simply loads a BLANK site for me

[Hraefn 0]

I'm sorry to sound so short, but did you even read the article? Because YubNub does not use Google to makes is searches. Google, Yahoo, Answers.com, Wikipedia, blah blah blah. Even your e-mail, in fact. YubNub accesses practically every kind of web service on the Web as long as the service it's trying to access has a submit form and has a YubNub command for it. If no command for a certain web service exists, then anybody can create a new command for it.

 

YubNub is versatile. It's a command line, not a search engine, and it comes with several powerful tools that are unique to YubNub. You can string together different or related commands using such commands as the recently created 'mash' and 'multi' commands, to powerful effect. You can use YubNub to retrieve stock quotes, convert currency, strip the RSS feed from a site, generate the source HTML or PHP code of any webpage, pull up programming reference pages... there's practically nothing that YubNub cannot be made to do.

 

No, it's not a simple search engine. If you think it is, I advise you to take a look at it again. =^^=

 

to m^e: It loads a blank site for you? Seems to work fine for me. Are you under any browser or firewall restriction, perhaps?

 

Okay, I just found out that the server that YubNub was on had to be rebooted due to an error, which accounts for why m^e got only a blank page. Well, everything's up now and working fine, so anyone who's interested can go check it out. =^^=

 

About the coding behind YubNub, Jon hasn't made it open source yet but he did indicate that that would definitely come along in the future. Why he didn't make it open source in the first place may be because of security concerns, but at least there are definite plans of releasing the source to the public in the future.

 

One thing that intrigues about YubNub is the programming system used. According to its creator, it was designed using Ruby on Rails, an open-source web framework for database-backed web applications. The Rails framework certainly looks elegant, and I can't help but wonder just what else can be done with. Definitely something worth looking into.

 

Going off on a tangent here, but is there anyone iinterested in writing a YubNub command for Xisto and Xisto? If there is, then you might want to check out YubNub's advanced syntax for creating commands. =^^=

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Hahahah this toool is SOOOO COOOOL

 

I created two quick search commands for asta and trap...

 

Just try these out:

1. astah keywords

2. trap keywords

 

Example:

astah yubnub

 

Experimenting with more Seems like not many ppl have heard of this thing. Extremely interesting concept.

[Pina 0]

I don't thing YubNub userfriendly. I thing is more complex than the originals search engines.If you want to use Google is better go to google.com.Now I'm waiting Quaero (European Search Engine)

[ram130 0]

Its great so far, i have not found a better one, not saying that this is bad at all! This is great. Yubnub should get an adward

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

I don't thing YubNub userfriendly. I thing is more complex than the originals search engines.

If you want to use Google is better go to google.com.

 

Now I'm waiting Quaero (European Search Engine)

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You guys are missing the whole point. Yubnub is not meant to be a search engine. Rather it provides you with a centralized web-based console to perform almost any web-based task using brief keystrokes. It's quite a unique concept and you have to give it to the guy who thought of this - both for his ingenuity and implementation.

 

It's not AT ALL meant to be a search engine tool - but as you can see searching is the most popular task and hence a few commands have already been created for various search engines. But with the advanced command creator, you can go about creating commands for any web-based task you want. These's even a handy command tester panel - where you can first check whether your command works or not - and then hit the CREATE button.

 

Then again - this tool will never appeal to people who don't venture beyond the Point-And-Click interface of windows and the web in general. But for the adventurous ones and the command-line lovers, this is a tasty delight.

[Hraefn 0]

Then again - this tool will never appeal to people who don't venture beyond the Point-And-Click interface of windows and the web in general. But for the adventurous ones and the command-line lovers, this is a tasty delight.

 

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And that's probably why word of YubNub hasn't spread far. YubNub, not being a commercial site, relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth advertising. The fact that this web tool appeals only to a limited audience prevents it from gaining instant celebrity status (although to web programmers, especially those from the Ruby on Rails community, YubNub is a celebrity). What's interesting is that of the top three winners of the Rails Day 2005 24-hour programming contest, only YubNub (the 2nd placer) prospered as a web tool. Sheets, which won first place, has a demo that's inaccessible, and 3rd place winner Fichebowl's website returns a 500-error page.

 

BTW, thanks m^e for those commands, they made searching Xisto and Xisto much easier for me, especially since I can now search both Asta and Trap at the same time using the 'mash' command, or run several searches at once. Much better than using Asta or Trap's search box (although this site's search flood control does limit the number of multiple searches you can do at a time). =^^=

 

For those wondering what I'm talking about, here's an example.

 

To search for threads about operating systems in both Xisto and Xisto, type:

????mash operating-systems astah trap

 

Or to run multiple searches in Xisto for operating systems and browsers, type:

????multi astah operating-systems browser

 

Remember to join multiple-word searches with a dash (-), otherwise YubNub will read the second word as a command. Also, both Xisto and Xisto implements a search frood control, which means you will only be able to run up to two simultaneos searches at a time.

 

The more I get into YubNub, the more I like about it. The concept behind it is so mind-bogglingly simple, yet the execution was pure genius. By itself, YubNub is practically nothing, but there are an entire host of web services out there, and when YubNub is integrated with them, it becomes a powerhouse. There's quite a lot that can be done with it, and even after several weeks, I'm only scratching the surface. =^^=

 

Making commands looks like fun, though I only created oneâand recently at that. The command I created is the flockd, which is for those who use the Flock browser. What it does is use the Flock'd Online Converter to convert a Firefox extension and make it compatible with Flock. A simple command, really. =^^=