Hi,
I recently completed a beta of a plugin for maya that allows artists to search for reference images online without having to leave the application and I thought I would share it with you all.
All the web interactions happens asynchronously so maya does not get blocked when images are being downloaded.
It requires the qt libraries in order to work.
Demo video:
If anyone is interested the plugin is available for free at htttp://www.imgfunnel.com 