I'm usually not in favor of browser toolbars because they take up valuable space, but I may keep ChunkIt on Firefox to use when I'm running Windows (it's also available for the Mac). The reason: This free add-on, which also works with Internet Explorer, saves time in going through search results, taking you to the information you need without excessive mouse clicks.

Think about the average search, either on a search engine or a Web page with built-in search function. You type in your keywords and generate a list of results, often with a snippet of text that contains your keyword. To find out which pages are the most useful, you need to click to look at them.

You can always open up multiple tabs to do this, but you're still going through each page looking for your search terms within the text. Often that involves extra keystrokes running the search function in your browser.

ChunkIt simplifies this by splitting your screen. On the right are your search results. On the left are what we might call "deep" results, meaning chunks of text showing your search terms in context.

The chunks ChunkIt extracts are usually far more useful than the bare-bones descriptions provided by the average search engine. Your search terms are highlighted within them for quick reference. Click on the icon next to any chunk and the page opens in the right panel, with the information you need already targeted and highlighted.

This is useful stuff if you do a lot of research, and it works across a wide range of Web sites as well as documents. Hunting down what you need in a lengthy PDF file you've found on the Net can be exasperating.

Here again ChunkIt quickly extracts the information, with the added option of letting you highlight links you find in the text and "chunk" them with a single mouseclick. All of this saves you the back and forth of opening Web pages and clicking the back button as you move through your results. The product of San Jose-based TigerLogic, ChunkIt is available at www.tigerlogic.com/ChunkIt.

WiFi networks of the kind many of us use in our homes to connect PCs are spreading into small devices throughout the electronics industry.

In fact, 294 million consumer devices with embedded WiFi chips shipped last year, with market researcher In-Stat projecting that the number will grow to 1 billion by 2012. All of which means that we'll be seeing more and more interesting applications and hardware that enhance our mobility and offer useful location-finding tools.

Apple's numerous iPhone users know how handy it can be to pull up information about local restaurants and other businesses on a location-aware phone, but watch as so-called geolocation features begin to appear in our Web browsers.

A wireless positioning service called Skyhook, for example, maps the location of WiFi access points and uses them to triangulate your position. Most Web sites don't offer location awareness, but you can see a bit of the future in Geode, a Firefox extension that can pinpoint your location within 10 to 20 meters, assuming you're on a laptop with WiFi connectivity.

I expect geolocation to work its way into Web pages via WiFi and other methods as its advantages become clear, but we're only at the beginning of that process.

Thus does the mobile revolution reinvigorate the broader Web.

If you're an early adopter, you can find the still experimental Geode at labs.mozilla.com. But consider other ways of putting universal WiFi to work. The hottest webcam available this holiday season may well be the Rovio Robot, from WowWee (www.meetrovio.com). Think of it as a WiFi-enabled surveillance camera on wheels that can be controlled from any connected Net device. Once again we're talking about location awareness, but of a different sort. The Rovio uses a technology called TrueTrack, which functions like a GPS for small places such as your home.

Put the Rovio in your home, and you can establish routes for it to follow. From then on, a simple series of commands via your phone or laptop lets you drive it, or use it in automatic mode to send back pictures of specific places you want to keep an eye on while you're away.

Rovio senses when it's running low on power and navigates back to its charging station. The $300 robot's streaming video might give you peace of mind if you want to see what's going on at home while you're away, and it comes with built-in microphone and speaker, letting you talk to family members or use the device for videoconferencing in business.

Look for wireless technologies including WiFi to begin appearing in TV sets, too, connecting peripherals to the set without the need for cords.

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