Quicksilver

If I had to choose one application that every Mac user should have, it would be Quicksilver. At a first glance, Quicksilver's main use seems fairly redundant. It launches applications. So what? The Dock and the Finder can do that just fine thank you very much. And to be fair, they can. But nowhere as near as well as Quicksilver can.

One main advantage to Quicksilver is its simplicity. To open an app using the finder, you need to click the finder icon, go to the applications folder, and then find the application you want. In Quicksilver you simply need to press the shortcut combination, (Mine is F5, although you can change it to whatever you want), and then type in the name of the app you want. Or, if the whole name seems like it'd take a bit too much effort, you can type in only part of the name. E.g: When I press F5 and type in "sa", it comes up with Safari straight away. And Quicksilver's nice enough to remember what you use the most, and return those results at the top of your list. This function can be used with any file, not just applications. So if you want to open a text document, just start typing in the name of it, and it'll show up in the bunch of results.

Another killer feature of Quicksilver is the iTunes compatability. After downloading the plugin, you simply need to assign a shortcut key to the iTunes plugin, and then with a press of a button, your entire iTunes library is available. Without even exiting the current window. E.g: I'm browsing through digg.com, and feel like changing song, but don't want to stop reading my current article. All I do is press F6, then start typing in Bananarama, press enter, and let the fun commence!

Quicksilver Homepage