by Steven Musil
August 26, 2008 8:45 PM PDT

Mozilla released an experimental browser plug-in Tuesday that aims to connect the Web with language to help users perform common Web tasks more quickly and easily.

Ubiquity, created by Aza Raskin--son of Apple Mac pioneer Jef Raskin--is a command-line interface that allows users to use plain language to manipulate Web tasks, such as mapping, translation, shopping, or retrieving entries from Wikipedia, Yelp, and Twitter.

The free Firefox plug-in allows for the creation of "user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs," according to a post on Mozilla's site Tuesday. "In other words, allowing everyone--not just Web developers--to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing."

The challenge, as Mozilla sees it: Mashups help in some cases but they are static, require Web development skills, and are largely site-centric rather than user-centric. It's even worse on mobile devices, where limited capability and fidelity makes this onerous or nearly impossible. Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. ......