Clui

On the desktop, users are accustomed to having visible handles (icons) to objects that they want to organize, share, or manipulate. Web applications today feature many classes of such objects, like flight itineraries, products for sale, people, recipes, and businesses, but there are no interoperable handles for these kinds of things.

As a Google Chrome extension, Clui is a platform for exploring a new data type, called a Webit. Webits provide uniform handles to objects found on the web. You can drag and drop Webits between sites to transfer data, auto-fill search forms, map associated locations, or share Webits with others. See our paper in ACM UIST 2012.

As a technology preview, Clui is still experimental and in pre-alpha state!

HOW IT WORKS

HOW IT WORKS

RICH OBJECTS

Webits represent and embed blocks of information about real world objects (e.g., apartments, products, people)

WEB WORKSPACE

Drag Webits from the web to the Clui workspace to organize and inspect them

DATA TRANSFER

Drop Webits on web applications to transfer the embedded data, e.g., in order to map places, fill forms, or search

RICH OBJECTS

Webits represent real world objects (like an apartment) that you can drag and drop

WEB WORKSPACE

Drag Webits to the workspace to organize and keep tabs on them

DATA TRANSFER

Drag Webits to existing web applications to transfer all their relevant data

WEBIT-CREATING PLUGINS

WEBIT-CREATING PLUGINS

Listed below are sites that create webits, along with what part of the site the webits actually come from.

Facebook

(Friend profiles)

ACM Digital Library

(Papers)

Craigslist

(Apartments only)

Amazon

(Product Pages)

Newegg

(Product Pages)

Reddit

(Stories)

WEBIT-ACCEPTING PLUGINS

WEBIT-ACCEPTING PLUGINS

Listed below are sites that accept webits, along with what part of the site the webit can be applied to

Facebook

(Search)

Gmail

(Email fields)

Twitter

(Tweets)

Amazon

(Search)

Google Maps

(Search)

Google Spreadsheets*

(Spreadsheet)

*Requires that you install a Google Apps script for your spreadsheet.

SOURCE CODE

SOURCE CODE

Clui is licensed under the MIT License. Check out the source, or better yet:

git clone http://clui.csail.mit.edu/git/clui.git

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is sponsored by the T-Party Project, a joint research program between MIT and Quanta Computer Inc., Taiwan.

CREDITS

Clui is developed by Hubert Pham, Justin Mazzola Paluska, Stephanie Yu, Rob Miller, and Steve Ward. Contact us at clui-dev@csail.mit.edu.

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