The New York Times has a great website. One feature I accidentally discovered today (although I believe it has existed for several months) allows you to select any word from within an article and bring up the definition of the word. The feature uses this Javascript to place a little question mark icon next to the word when you select it:
Clicking the question mark opens a new window with the definition and even an encyclopedia entry (if one exists) using a Reference Search powered by Answers.com.
Some would argue (and I would tend to agree) that such a feature should be left to be implemented in a browser extension. Never the less, it's a really cool feature and it reminded me how much of an effect technology is having on print publications. Just think, 20 years ago reading the newspaper and instantly getting the definition of a word by selecting it would have been science fiction.
Pretty cool…Thats something I would like to impliment on one of my sites but I think my users wouldnt appreciate it as much as me :p
It’s been there for a really long time. It’s really annoying to me since I like to randomly click the page and highlight things while I’m reading.
From what I hear, it used to be that (in early 2008) when you select a word it automatically pops open the window with the definition. I can see how that would be incredibly annoying. At least now they’ve made it so you have the option of opening the definition after selecting a word.
I find those URL Preview popup’s incredibly annoying (the one’s that attempt to load a preview of the web page when you hover over the link). Whoever thought those were a good idea should be shot.
It’s bad enough having right click twitch bringing up tons of browser menus. Now NY Times adds to the Left Click Twitch adding more popups for me to deal with. LOL