If you have begun to play with Internet Explorer 8 you have begun to see some cool add-ons. We had covered Webslices earlier, but now we will tackle Accelerators.Accelerators, were formerly known as Activities, so its not totally new, but they have been refreshed for IE8. Basically, Accelerators are time savers. They allow users to interact directly with a Web service (such as Delicious) or application (Outlook) straight from the browser. So, a user who would typically copy and paste text from one Web page to another, can bypass some steps just by highlighting text on a page and then “accelerate” to a result. If you are using Internet Explorer 8, you will notice access to this service by highlighting text on the page and a blue box (with an arrow will show up).The you select the service you want and off you go! Below is an example:

So how do you write one of these? Actually it’s quite easy being it is written in the easy language of XML, and you can dissect other Accelerators to figure out how they work. We also recommend you read Microsoft’s documentation here. It was quite helpful.

The basics are this. An Accelerator is an XML document that must be hosted on an online server. The XML namespace for an Accelerator is: http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/openservicedescription/1.0

The main components to the format are:
* homepageUrl
* display (Name, Icon, Description)
* activity (Category)
o activityAction (Context ["selection", "document", or "link"])
+ preview (optional)
# parameter
+ execute
# parameter

In the end the only limit is your imagination. You can also check out the Accelerator Gallery for some inspiration. Okay! So, let’s see a complete code. Here is Mark8t’s Accelerator code, which allows you to instantly select a term/text on a page and search our article database:

http://www.mark8t.com

        Lookup Article at Mark8t.com

http://www.mark8t.com/favicon.ico

Click here to add Mark8t’s Accelerator to your Internet Explorer 8

How to Add New Accelerators Add-on in Internet Explorer 8 ?
1. Click on “Page” Menu of Internet Explorer 8 or Just Right click
2. Select All Accelerators from menu -> Find More Accelerators
3. Once you click on Find More Accelerators a new page will load in your Internet Explorer 8.
4. Now select the Accelerator you wish and install. The Accelerator will be installed in background.
5. To confirm new Accelerator is added or not click on Page->All Accelerators.

How to Disable/Remove New Accelerators Add-on in Internet Explorer 8 ?
1. Click on “Page” Menu of Internet Explorer 8 Or right click
2. Select All Accelerators -> Manage Accelerators
3. A Manage- Add-on Windows will open. Select the Accelerators you wish.
4. Click to disable or remove button for the highlighted Accelerator.

We feel there are lots of possibilities for user created Accelerators especially if it is teamed up with the right idea and the right target audience. You should avoid me-too applications, because like a toolbar, there will only be so much room for your Accelerator. Good luck!