If your browser supports OpenSearch, you can add dedicated search engines for the CDS portal, SIMBAD and VizieR in your browser search toolbar. Just click the search toolbar to install or manage them.
The SIMBAD output preferences can be configured from the output options page.
Be careful that these preferences apply until you reset them. In particular if you change the output from HTML to another format, you will no longer see the HTML results.
You can query VizieR in batch mode using the cdsclient routines available in the Developer's corner.
You can access the Aladin source code, or develop your own plugins for Aladin.