Monocle: Spotlight-like Search For the Web

In this information-driven society, it seems like every day we try to discover new ways to access information just a bit more quickly and easily than the day before. Apple has done a great job fulfilling our needs in this space by introducing Spotlight and making powerful search frameworks available to developers. Even then, we often find ourselves wanting more. Well, today I bring you Monocle, a tool for lightning-fast web searches.

Monocle is a slick web search interface with a few really cool features. First, it sits in your menu bar and is accessible at all times from any location with a simple customizable keystroke. Second, it incorporates “callwords,” or quick keyword searches similar to those available in Firefox. This means, for example, you could search the Internet Movie Database for an entry on Martin Scorsese just by calling up Monocle and typing “imdb martin scorsese” in the search field and hitting Return. Monocle’s search engine list is completely customizable, so you can add any search you want along with its own callword.

Until Apple decides to incorporate web searching into Spotlight, Monocle is a very good solution for a system-wide web search at your fingertips. Download it for free right here.