July 24, 2006
Smart Menus: introduced and explained with videos
Did you ever wish you could get a quick, preview map of an address you’re looking at on a web page?
I do! It’s such an inconvenience sometimes to have to switch to another page just to search for an address. (And, I’m also a Map Geek.)
Here’s a practical example: one day I was looking for a DHL drop box near the hotel I was staying at, so that I could mail home some of the extra clothes that I couldn’t fit in my carry-on luggage (long story!). This is what the DHL drop off location page looked like:
I’ll be honest - there’s a map below the "fold". But I don’t have the patience to scroll down, and often times, those maps are of a few locations at once. I just wanted a map of the first address on this list, right then and there. I also wanted an aerial view so that I could get a sense of where the box was.
Fortunately with Smart Menus, a new feature of Windows Live Toolbar, I was able to do just that. To do this, I simply selected the address with my cursor, clicked the map button when it appeared, and used the map when it dropped down.
Huh? Whuh? Here’s a picture that I hope will help clear this up a little:
Nifty huh?
The official Marketing-speak is that Smart Menus allows you to "Get smart, relevant information about the Web page youre on such as driving directions. stock quotes, weather reports, click to call a phone number and more. I prefer to think that Smart Menus allows you to get cool previews of stuff you’re interested in!
Here are some more examples of Smart Menus at work. They’re in WMV format - I hope you can see them!
In this example, I’m trying to find a DHL drop box near my office:
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
In this example, I’m trying to find a Ralph Lauren Polo store (I collect Polo shirts) that’s near the beach - but before I go, I wanted to check the weather first.
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
This is my favorite example - the Windows Live Local knows about things like "Empire State Building" and "Space Needle" even though they’re not real U.S. addresses. So, even if you select something that you know is a valid address, but Smart Menus doesn’t detect it - you can override it and have you show a Map anyway:
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
You can get instant stock quotes…
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
If you have Windows Live Messenger installed, and an account on Windows Live Call, you can actually call phone numbers too:
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
Finally, does it just bug you when you have to copy and paste a url because the page author didn’t hyperlink the address? Well, now you can just click on it:
Click here to download this video for viewing in an external application
People all across the Windows Live organization, in both Redmond and Silicon Valley have put a lot of effort into this project. We hope you find it as useful as we do. This is very v1, very innovative, and very blends-web-services-with-desktop-software.
I think we’ve done a great job of creating something that enriches the browsing experience, but isn’t annoying. What do you think? Please try it out and leave feedback!
In the meantime, enjoy!
P.S. Right now most of these features are U.S. only. But rest assured that we are working on plans for support for additional countries in the near future.
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25 Comments to “Smart Menus: introduced and explained with videos”
July 25th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
This looks really cool. I proceeded to install the toolbar but cannot get smart menus to pop up when I highlighted an address. I turned off my Yahoo Toolbar and reopened my IE7 browser and it still does not work.
BTW, one thing on Yahoo Toolbar that I use is the dictionary. I don’t see the option on your new toolbar. Thanks.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Sorry for the difficulty John! Let me follow up offline.
July 25th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Dennis - the videos are awesome - I’m linking to you from my blog.
July 26th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Though it’s cool, but that’s not enough.
When it display a map, the map menu should provide an option to save the address and map to personal Windows Live Local account. It’s same to the stock code, phone number, email address. All kinds of information should be saved to the corresponding Windows Live service.
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July 26th, 2006 at 12:24 am
That’s a great suggestion. Thanks for trying it out.
July 28th, 2006 at 12:21 am
[...] The part I put in italics is probably about Smart Menus. To be clear, you don’t need to right-click anything for them to appear. In fact - one of the ideas behind this feature was to eliminate the need to right click - all you have to do is select the text you’re interested in. Check out the videos on this page to learn more about Smart Menus. Maybe I should’ve called them “No more right clicks” Posted by: dtc @ 12:20 pm [...]
August 2nd, 2006 at 12:50 am
Hey Luke,
Ouch - you’re totally right. I even said so at the end of the post. Part of the challenge is that each nation has its own address format - though I guess you probably know that. It’ll take us a little time to get address detection right, and make sure the map services can handle those addresses.
Trust me, I want this for addresses in other countries - it’ll make planning vacations that much easier!
August 8th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
The videos are so cool.
I wish, ASAP I can use it.
August 27th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Updating today’s posts on Gallery and Toolbar…
A couple of bits on the news of the day: First, on10 posts a video on the Windows Live Gallery , with…
September 13th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Windows Live Toolbar: Introducing Smart Menu…
Check out this great blog entry of Dennis, a PM in the Live Toolbar team. In my opinion this is by far the best feature of the Live Toolbar. It’s worth installing the Live Toolbar just for SmartMenu a ……
October 1st, 2006 at 4:32 pm
I would love to see this feature in action, but I’ve gone to several different sites and can’t seem to get it to work. I also have a problem when trying to close the browser. It hangs up everytime and does not want to close. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled it but still have the same problems.
Other than these two issues, I love everything else. The tabbed browsing and auto-fill features are great for someone who works online like I do!
October 9th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Great feature.
A couple of suggestions when selecting text with Smart Menus:
- Ability to do a Desktop Search on selected text
- Ability to do a Desktop Search on selected text WITH content detection (e.g. selected “Joe Bloggs” searchs for “kind:contact Joe Bloggs” in WDS).
- Ability to add selected Addresses, Phone Numbers, Names, E-mail Addresses to Outlook, or Windows Live Contacts.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Thanks for the suggestions!
February 8th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
[...] this? Well… since Decemberish, I’ve been working on Windows Live Hotmail, instead of Windows Live Toolbar. This is the first time I’ve worked on an entirely web-based product, and it’s a [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Is it possible to extend the built in functionality of smart menus?
For example, can write my addin which finds my customer details if I have selected name of my customer in webpage.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Not at this time. I don’t work on the Toolbar project anymore so I don’t know what the future may hold.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hi,
I am looking at developing a similar thing to smart menus .. which will need to be able to run independent of LIVE toolbar…
Can you send me in the right direction… I was going to try and develop a VBASIC client that gives a “smart menu” on any highlighted text
I want this routine to run in ANY program .. eg work only on the highlighted text … and then interegate a online form
does this make sense.. eg the could have an excel spreadsheet of numbers that when highlighted they had the option of sending them to our website in a form…
or a bit of text from MYOB or Quickbooks could be sent to our website
Do you think there is an easy command in vbasic or sometime esle that deals with highlighted text on screen… and not in the program itself
I need some direction only to start stalking to the right sort of programmer…
regards
Stewart
April 26th, 2007 at 5:09 am
[...] Windows Live ????????Smart Menus??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Windows Live????????? ???????????????????????Smart Menu?????Dennis Cheung????????????????????? [...]
April 26th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
[...] information (address, phone number etc) and right click to view the available Smart Menu options. Dennis Cheung has a great set of videos that explain the possibilities in more [...]
April 27th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
[...] 10. Windows Live ??? ????? Smart Menus ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Windows Live ????????? ??????????????????????? Smart Menu ?????Dennis Cheung ?????????????????????(via) [...]
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
[...] information (address, phone number etc) and right click to view the available Smart Menu options. Dennis Cheung has a great set of videos that explain the possibilities in more [...]
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:20 am
[...] information (address, phone number etc) and right click to view the available Smart Menu options. Dennis Cheung has a great set of videos that explain the possibilities in more [...]
September 18th, 2007 at 2:29 am
This is cool….. try similar things in google spreadsheet, with GoogleLookup feature… Its is more cool than this.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Entity Extraction…
Using machine learning to identify meaningful text in documents, we can turn the unstructured web into a rich set of semantically tagged documents—enhancing search, providing interoperability, and facilitating interaction between unrelated system…
May 14th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Entity Extraction…
Using machine learning to identify meaningful text in documents, we can turn the unstructured web into a rich set of semantically tagged documents—enhancing search, providing interoperability, and facilitating interaction between unrelated system…
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