Transfz – Search the Web From Any Application (Windows)

This application is pronounced as ‘transfuse’. Literally that should stand for imparting something gradually. Functionally, Transfz does the exact reverse – it’s meant to make your search easier and faster from any application.

The usefulness of this tool that lets you search the Internet from any application is what makes us call it an integrated search agent. Look at Transfz from another angle; it takes away the dependency of search from the browser and extends it system-wide.

In this post we will take a look at Transfz v.1.22 (Beta).

Transfz runs from the system tray. All the functions of Transfz are contained within a context menu. The Global Menu is launched with a shortcut key press of CTRL+D. This key can of course be customized to anything of your choosing. The Global menu is not a part of the regular Windows right click context menu but it behaves like one in the fact that it can be called up in any application. We need to only highlight a piece of text and pass it on to any of the search engines that are configured with Transfz. Transfz can be made to work with any of your installed browsers.

The context menu has a few default engines like Google, Free Dictionary, Wikipedia, Digg, IMDB, Yahoo etc. Let’s bring it up with a press of the shortcut key and look at the features it provides…

Transfz comes with a few more helper utilities like a Clipboard History list which lists the last few (5 to 30) copied text selections. Text conversions ranging from case changes to searching and replacing along with functions like counting number of words and characters in the selected text or inserting date and time can be performed using the context menu. The OpenURL option takes a plain text URL and opens it directly in your browser.

But we have been only talking about the default features of Transfz until now. Transfz can be made to do a lot more via a few plugins and extensions. Functionally they are extra micro-apps that inject more power in the way Transfz can be made to perform.

The Micro-Apps That Add More To Transfz

Take a look at the Extensions page of the Transfz website to pick the one you need. The extensions can be downloaded and installed with a single click when Transfz is running. For instance, the TextMagnifier extension magnifies any text that is selected. The AddToNotepad extension helps by adding data quickly to any open Notepad window. Twitter fanatics will find the extension coded for quick posting quite handy.

Plugins extend the search reach of Transfz by giving you site or subject specific search aids. How helpful is a quick Blog Search via the context menu or an image search using Google from any application?

Transfz doesn’t stop there. It also gives the user the ability to create his own custom search plugins in just two steps using the Plugin Creator under the Options tab. Give the plugin a name and then go to your browser, find the site you want to add and search with Transfz as the keyword. Then go to the address bar of your browser and copy the string into the second field box of the Transfz plugin creator. You can now launch any lookup with your custom search engine.

The basic rationale behind Transfz is to bring into the desktop some of the quick search capabilities that are usually browser-specific. Has Transfz succeeded by following that road? With its extensibility and ability to function from any application plus its text handling capabilities, I certainly think so. What’s your take? Use it and let us know.

Transfz v.1.22 (Beta) is a 602KB download only and is supported on Windows NT/2000, XP and Vista.