Are you tired of wasting countless hours searching through the Web? Tired of scrolling down search engine results, opening, reviewing, copying, pasting, saving, going back to the other results then starting the whole process over again? Then OutWit has the Web collection engine for you: dozens of recognition and extraction functions fitting in a free Firefox 3 extension.

OutWit Hub is an all-in-one application for extracting and organizing data from online sources; a powerful automation engine that explores for you large series of Web sources and brings back the answers instead of telling you where they are.

Our mission is to provide the Web community with a simple Web automation environment (finally) allowing everyone to harvest data elements, documents or media from virtually any public (and legal) source of content. The technology is open and will eventually provide an API and wizards to build simple and efficient tools.

The OutWit Platform is composed of a kernel that contains a large library of data recognition and extraction functions, around which an unlimited number of original extensions —called outfits— can be developed, using the kernel’s features for specific applications.

An outfit is a small extension with its own user interface, features, scripts and directory of Web sources. Some outfits will be developed by us, but most, hopefully, will be developed by our users who have a specific need or passion.

Our first outfit, OutWit Hub, is a multi-purpose development & showcase application, in which we have gathered the largest possible number of features, hoping to cover a large spectrum of needs. The Hub will keep evolving and should become a very useful tool for advanced users. However, the real objective of this technology is to build simple, one-function applications like our most recent releases, OutWit Images and OutWit Docs.

• a simple tool to find a document
• a simple tool to find a job
• a simple tool to follow the news in handball
• a simple tool to … (this is why we will never succeed without you.)

OutWit Docs is a simple WebTop Document Finder, based on our Kernel. It allows you to search through Websites and search engines for documents and it will present the results as an operating system would, either in icon view or as a list of files.
OutWit Docs looks for text files, spreadsheets, presentations in various formats (including PDF, MS Office, OpenOffice documents, RTF, CSV…). In this version, the filtering & automatic selection options are somewhat basic (name, file type…), but we are going to improve these along the way.

General Questions

• What is OutWit Hub? OutWit Hub is an all-in-one application for extracting and organizing data from online sources. It offers a wealth of data recognition features to simplify Web searches and operates as a free Firefox Add-on compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

• What is OutWit Images? OutWit Images is an image browser which allows you to search, catch, download and share images. It not only gives you the images of a page, it also explores the Web sources to find high resolution images when they can be found behind the thumbnails.  OutWit Images is an add-on to Firefox compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

• What is the OutWit Kernel? It is the main library of data recognition and extraction functions at the heart of all OutWit applications.  The Kernel itself doesn’t have a user interface, but original extensions, called outfits, can be developed using the kernel’s features for specific applications.  Outfits usually come packaged with the kernel for easier distribution.

• What exactly is an outfit? An application created with the OutWit technology is composed of the Kernel, which contains all the recognition and extraction modules, and the “outfit” itself.  The outfit is an extension with specific user interface and features. Outfits can be freely developed using the kernel’s features for original applications. Currently, two outfits are available to the public: OutWit Hub and OutWit Images but there are many more to come in the future.

• How much does it cost? OutWit Hub and OutWit Images are free. The Kernel, the associated recognition and extraction library, is also free. Their upcoming releases will be, as well. We may decide to release non-free professional versions of outfits or specific applications in the future, but we will keep, augment and enhance our initial series of free feature-full extraction tools.
  

• Do OutWit Hub or Images require any external software to function properly? You will need to download Firefox 3 in order to get started. OutWit Hub and Images come packaged with the OutWit Kernel as separate Firefox extensions. No additional software or plug-ins are required.

• What version of Firefox do I need to run OutWit Hub or Images? Versions 0.7.0 to 0.7.1 of OutWit Hub work with Firefox 2 while versions 0.8.x and OutWit Images work with Firefox 3. The latest features can only be used with Firefox 3 and we strongly suggest you upgrade your browser and download the latest versions of OutWit Hub and Images. When we release new versions, Firefox will ask if you want to update your OutWit extensions and, if you accept, the upgrade process will begin automatically.

• Are tutorials available for OutWit Hub and Images? In the Hub you can click the ‘Help’ button in the toolbar to access the quick start tutorials or general information. You can also refer to the online tutorials. If you do not find the answer there, then drop us a line using the ‘Suggestion’ option found in the ‘Feedback’ menu on your toolbar. We’ll reply as soon as possible.

• What languages do OutWit Hub and Images come in? The current versions are in English and French. Additional languages will be released in the future.

• Is OutWit Hub or Images compatible with Internet Explorer or Safari? Not yet, but we are definitely working on it.

• From which sites can I download images or data? Information made readily available on the Internet is there for you. However, certain Web sites may limit the use of data or media they display and the content may be protected by copyright laws. Do not use proprietary information against the will of its owner and do not infringe on intellectual property rights. Surf the Web: there are millions of legal sources out there and more than enough public data on all subjects.

Source: OutWit Technologies