On a tablet, searching for Web pages, e-mails, and documents can be very inconvenient: a user must either write her query terms in a search box that's supported by handwriting recognition, or she must type text directly into a search box in a browser. And even then, the fruits of that search--links, names, and shortcuts--must all be manually typed back into the notebook work space.

Now Microsoft researchers have made searching for information outside the notebook work space a seamless experience. By simply circling words written with a stylus, a user can search the Web or her hard drive in one fluid motion.

One of the more interesting things about InkSeine is that it represents another step in a general movement away from the standard keyboard and mouse-click paradigm. Microsoft currently allows employees to download the program, and the research team says that an external version will be available soon.