Quick.as is Kick.As(s) Or Perhaps Kick.Ars(e)

Start pages are an interesting segment of websites. The idea of getting people to switch to having your page as their homebase is something thousands of companies have tried. Most have failed. But hope springs eternal. Now, I recognize that my Internet use is outlier behavior. I am online perhaps 7 hours a day researching, grabbing, writing, reading. It ends up being like 200 start page loads a day -- meaning that without clicking I am worth pretty good money to my BFFs at Yahoo who give me their pretty homepage so many times a day.

But Quick.as is a really impressive offering. I am not PROMISING that I will fall out of love with Yahoo -- we've had a relationship since 1996 and on some level we've promised each other "for better or worse, in sickness and in health..."

But don't let my Yahoo affair discourage you from learning more about Quick.as. It's a remarkable start up concept that serves up search results in a form that is tailored to the device you are using when you request them. Their goal is to get people to use Quick.as with every device they employ. They're not out to get you to switch search engines -- you actually query your search engine of choice when you use the site. And the results appear in a new window on the page of that search engine.

One advantage of this set up is that you aren't limited to a particular search engine. If, like me, you start with Yahoo, great. But there are times I want to search Wikipedia only. Or a soc net. Or whatever. With Quick.as I don't need to go to those sites piecemeal. I can search each of them right from their Quick.as homepage.

Quick.as also gives you one click access to a variety of popular web properties -- places you are likely to visit frequently.

Here's their 60 second pitch from Tech Crunch, where I first learned about them:

Their web site offers a concise set of reasons why. While a grammarian could improve the parallelism of these statements, you'll get the story from these points, reprinted below:

- It's difficult to type on mobile devices (iPhone and mobile optimized versions, and iPhone app).
- It's hard to remember mobile optimized URLs (example.mobi, m.example.com, example.com/m, etc.).
- Provides consistent method to accessing web content on all devices.
- People don't want to be locked in to walled garden of services/sites/portals.
- Quick.as is independent and does not push services from any particular property (Google, Yahoo, MSN).
- Off-portal mobile browsing is becoming more prevalent yet not simple to access.

- People increasingly go to the same information sources. Quick.as get's them there quicker.
- With intuitive design, Quick.as is bringing keyboard shortcuts to the masses (not just the tech savvy).

Time savings are clearly a central feature of this offer. More from their site:

Search sites. These are sites that you go to to find out about something ... hope that did not blow your mind! You can search for almost anything on Google but often it would be quicker and easier to jump straight to searching another "specialist" site. You might want to look up something on Wikipedia, eBay, or Amazon ... or you might want to do a currency conversion, find out the time in Timbuktu. Using a command in the Quick.as search bar your can perform these searches directly and quick.as-a-flash!

Destination sites. These are sites where you and not going to look for the answer to a specific question, rather you are just going to check things out or perform a task (another knowledge bomb for ya). You might want to read the latest news, do some online banking, see what your hommies [sic] are up to on Facebook, or check out the box scores in the NBA. There are often an handful of sites that you visit multiple times a day ... or week. Put links to these sites on your Quick.as page and you can access these sites quick.as-a-flash!

I like Quick.as. A lot. By joining, you can actually customize your array of links and make them public -- something I never thought of at all, but gives me pause. I think there is potentially a lot of value in this feature.

Your first step now is to surf over to the Tech Crunch site and give Quick.as's vid an up arrow. Then check out Quick.as. You will be glad you did!

It's a siren call to me, even if my marriage with Yahoo is a happy one.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.