Spoke Software is known for making it easy for business people to gain access to contact information of other business people. The company has just made it even easier. Earlier this week, Spoke announced the launch of free search tools that will provider users easy access to Spoke's online contact directory by enabling them to leverage the search tools with Firefox, Google, Internet Explorer 7 and Yahoo.

Users can add the Spoke search option to Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 to find information about people and companies. From a Google homepage, users can conduct their search with the Spoke person/company finder. And by using the Spoke Yahoo Widget, users can find what they looking for directly from the desktop. Spoke's database contains contact information for more than 35 million people in more than 900,000 companies.

This is the perfect example of providing desktop shortcuts to a publisher's database. As publishers continue to seek ways in which to integrate their offerings into a user's workflow, this is yet another illustration of that strategy. Spoke is already known for easy accessibility, so adding these free search tools is truly a natural extension of the company's mission. Spoke's leadership obviously realizes that usage will increase if you make it easier to users to access your content--it's a simple concept, but one that can sometimes be forgotten. And what could be better than having it right on the desktop?--it doesn't get much easier than that.