Interclue — Take Your Surfing To A New Level

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been playing with Interclue, a browser helper that gives me previews of links on the pages I visit. There are a number of similar programs (Snap and the now-defunct Browster comes to mind), but none implemented as well or usefully, in my opinion. Most of them create more disturbance and give less control of the experience than I care to deal with, opening pop-ups and other distractions without a by-your-leave. Interclue is far more civilized.

In a nutshell, Interclue creates a little icon next to a link when I mouse over it. I can control how long it takes it to appear, so that it and its brethren (sistren?) don’t bug me too much. If I want to see what the link’s about, I just mouse over the icon, and a synopsis of the page with beaucoup options too numerous to mention appears in a separate window. I can cruise the window, click on links therein, open the original page or, by simply removing my cursor, cause it to go away — or, if I want, I can “pin” the window where I want it (it’s resizeable, of course) and all further mouse-overs will open there.

Interclue resides in my status bar to whatever degree I desire. I’ve found that the options button and a couple of others are all I want there, or need. My Firefox status bar is stuffed with tools I use every day, such as Foxclocks, Google Notebooks, SiteAdvisor, the Daily Dilbert, and so forth. I don’t have room to spare, and Interclue is highly solicitous of my workspace.

The degree to which this application can be customized is astounding! I’ve got it the way I like it, and haven’t even begun to explore all the possibilities. I tend to be a sort of default guy when it comes to this sort of thing, figuring the folks who wrote the code have a better idea of what works best than I’m likely to. I do plan to experiment more as time passes, though, since I can envision myself using this tool more and more as I find out more about its features.

Interclue is available only for Firefox, at present. Those of you who are hampered by Internet Explorer will have to do without for the time being. I don’t know if the Kiwis who developed it will be able to monetize it and keep going (I plan to send ‘em a few bucks), but even if they don’t get rich I hope they’ll keep up with the Fx version updates, because I envision myself using Interclue for a long time to come.

Tags: browser helper, firefox, interclue