Inquisitor 3.2 adds languages and improves performance

A few months back, Download Squad’s Danny Mendez wrote about Yahoo!’s acquisition of popular Safari InputManager Inquisitor. At the time, Danny was worried that Yahoo’s purchase would make the tool unusable with other search engines, but those fears were unfounded, and Inquisitor continues to work well with either Google OR Yahoo.

Inquisitor is cool because it adds Spotlight-like functionality to the default Safari search box (it’s kind of like the Awesome Bar for Firefox 3), along with easy access to other search results from places like Flickr or IMDB or Wikipedia. The design is also utterly kick-ass.

In the new release, users who choose to use Yahoo! search engine will see much, much faster results, thanks to integration with Yahoo’s new BOSS platform. Like, instantaneously fast. Like, fast enough to make me consider changing my default search engine fast.

Inquisitor now supports eight languages in addition to English: Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German.

The interface has also become more streamlined and looks really, really great.

Inquisitor is free and available for Mac’s running OS X 10.4 and up. [Ysearchblog]

Popularity: 5% [?]

MobileChat now available in the App Store

Today Twenty08 released a new instant messaging client for the iPhone/iPod touch. MobileChat (iTunes Link) allows you to connect to multiple IM services, including:

• AIM/ICQ/.Mac/MobileMe
• Windows Live/MSN
• Yahoo
• GTalk
• Jabber

In many ways, this application for the iPhone looks like a cross between Adium and AIM for iPhone. This application is feature rich, allowing you to take and send images or IM a phone number from any of your 10 supported IM accounts, Most notably, MobileChat allows you to use Apple’s forthcoming “Push Notification” system for notifications when the application is closed. This feature is built into this release, but will not be active until Apple “flips the switch.” You can download MobileChat today from the App Store for $2.99 (USD).

[via MacRumors]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Rhapsody ditches (some) DRM, selling MP3s with Verizon and Yahoo

Rhapsody, the digital love-child of Real Networks and MTV, is best known for its DRM’d subscription music service. As such, the globe’s population of sheep-white-earbudded, sidewalk zombies have been completely off limits to its charms. Until today. While its DRM’d subscription deals remain in place, Rhapsody is now offering unprotected MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody MP3 store and via partners including Verizon’s VCAST over-the-air service and Yahoo. We’re talking 5 million DRM-free tracks (generally priced at $0.99 per song, $9.99 per album) from Indies and the four majors. Uniquely, all tracks can be previewed in full before downloading. Rhapsody VP, Neil Smith said, “We’re no longer competing with the iPod, we’re embracing it.” Perhaps, but Rhapsody’s planned $50 million marketing assault on iTunes with the help of MTV’s TV networks doesn’t exactly make them best of friends. We’re not DRM-free across the industry yet (in fact, far from it), but things are certainly moving in that direction.

Update: Signup now with the Rhapsody MP3 store and get a $10 credit which can be applied to your first album.

[Via Reuters]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Yahoo! and Inquisitor seen sitting in tree

Dave Watanabe’s Inquisitor plugin for Safari has been the source of some controversy for affiliate linking shenanigans, and underwent some changes following the public outcry. None of that seems to have deterred Yahoo! from taking an interest in the search plugin. Yahoo! revealed today in a blog post that they would be acquiring the rights to Inquisitor.

The new version (which is a free download) removes affiliate links (completely, I assume) and updates the preferences interface. There is a reference in the Yahoo! post to a simplification of the process of selecting a search provider but I’m failing to remember what was complex about it in the previous version. Obviously, the top choice on the dropdown is now Yahoo!, but you can still choose to use Google and all of the other secondary search options appear to be intact.

I’ll give Yahoo! credit for recognizing a beautiful interface and what many — myself included — agree is an extremely useful plugin. Whether Dave Watanabe’s existing reputation will affect Yahoo! in any way is debatable, so I’m withholding speculation. Dave has made it clear that he remains an independent developer and is not joining the ranks of Yahoo!, remaining focused on his existing projects.

Thanks, Ross!

Popularity: 5% [?]