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February 5, 2007

Centralized Search

I mentioned some time ago about YubNub, a site that wants to be the one-stop for searching on any site. If you want to search on Yahoo, you type y, followed by your query. If you want CNN articles about Bush, type [cnn bush] and search using CNN's search engine. The idea is simple and can be extend to user-defined commands.

OiHoi uses the same idea, but it adds auto-complete. The site has less commands than YubNub, but it also has something unique: a way to search Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and Wikipedia simultaneously. You can try it by typing all in front of your query.

In case you didn't know, the address bar of your browser can be used in a similar way. For example, Firefox and Opera let you define a new command by simply right-clicking on a search box from a site and selecting "Add a keyword for this search" (in Firefox) and "Create search" in Opera. For Internet Explorer 6, use TweakUI to add address bar shortcuts, while for IE7 you can use this page.

So there are many ways to directly search a site without going to its homepage, finding the search box and typing the query. When you want to find some information quickly, and you know where to find it, it's nice to have a centralized search box.

5 comments:

  1. I am also developing something similar, but cooler. (with not auto completion though)

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  2. I love YubNub. I have been using it for about a year now. I use the Slick Run program showed in the yubnub installation tools!! This way I use no address bar whatsoever and actually have more functionality than when I used the address bar. I use Slick Run for yubnub and all other address bar features plus I can call up programs, search any site I want, eneter web addresses and a whole lot more. I have actually got rid of my address bar in Firefox. By the way I absolutely love your blog!!

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  3. Now you can take advantage of OiHoi's "all" command on YubNub. Use the keyword "entire" and then your search term on YubNub and it calls OiHoi's search all page.

    ReplyDelete
  4. and you can use the "oihoi" keyword followed by your search term on YubNub to search OiHoi :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Something that Opera browser has for ages. Type 'g query' into address bar to search with Google.

    The thing about Opera is that search engines may be added instantly :D

    ReplyDelete

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