Comet Systems has added features to make its cursor product a reference
tool. By using Smart Cursors, Web users can click on any word on any Web
page and gain more information about that word or term.
“Smart Cursors is our way of taking the cursor experience to the next
level by turning the cursor into a powerful tool for information, search and
much more to come,” said John Reid, president and CEO of Comet Systems.
The service presently includes a dictionary cursor, an encyclopedia
cursor and a search cursor. When users click on a word, they can access
entries from Britannica.com and The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, Third Edition, as well as obtain information from
Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, the Compact American Dictionary of
Computer Words and Wall Street Words.
The search cursor lets users query search engines, and get results from
Yahoo!, Google, AOL, Lycos, NBCi, and Goto.com.
Partners in the endeavor include American Heritage Dictionary,
Britannica.com’s encyclopedia, RollingStone.com, SmartMoney.com, The
Sporting News and Houghton Mifflin Company.
“By working with these partners, we can provide information that goes
beyond the dictionary,” explained Ben Austin, director of marketing. “For
instance, if someone wanted information on Bob Dylan, our cursor feature
will ask users if they want a discography of his work, if they want to buy a
CD by Bob Dylan or if they want information on the artist,” he said. “Little
buttons pop up with links that will take the user to the information they
are seeking.”
The pop-up windows provide links for any term clicked on by the user,
such as the map of a country or the stock quote of a company.
Comet Systems is the developer of Comet Cursors, which lets Web users
implement customized cursors, such as cartoon characters or animals, in
place of the traditional arrow cursor.
