March 24, 2008

Expandable Google Search Box

If you entered long queries in a Google search box, you would notice that it's difficult to edit them because Google optimized the size of the box for short queries. Things have changed and now you can much bigger queries and Google will adjust the search box's size after you perform a search.

Google limits queries to 32 words, but most people don't need that many words. The average number of words in a Google query was 4 at the end of 2007.


Here's a comparison between Live Search, Yahoo Search and Google Search for the query [how do you distinguish between a 64 bit and a 32 bit operating system], one of the most popular queries that start with "how do you".

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9 comments:

  1. MichaelMarch 24, 2008 at 2:26 PM

    I noticed that the other week but I thought it was always there. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. macbeachMarch 24, 2008 at 2:52 PM

    Is the advanced search box bigger too?

    Ideally a nice big multi-line box would pop up with that.

    Best way to search for a poem or speech that you have forgotten the details about is to cut and paste as much of it as you can find (or remember), you know like that former president, what-his-name, who said:

    "four score and seven years ago our fathers"

    Only if you cut and paste from a multi-line source sometimes you get strange results when you do the paste part of it... either incomplete text or added non-printable characters.

    Generally though I haven't had too much trouble with Google search in that regard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 24, 2008 at 4:40 PM

    I'm using it for more than a year actually with the help of stylish plugin

    Google Wide Searchbox for Firefox Stylish/ Greasemonkey

    ReplyDelete
  4. JyvynMarch 24, 2008 at 11:29 PM

    And for anyone using the Opera web browser, they may be interested in this UserJS file, which allows you to change the size of any input field or text area. Visit http://my.opera.com/IceArdor/blog/2007/11/26/resize for the link to the UserJS file and instructions on how to install.

    ReplyDelete
  5. HansMarch 25, 2008 at 1:58 AM

    If you search for "Googleplex" there is the "image-button" removed on the link bar ;-) no images thus.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dwight (Monty) StegallMarch 28, 2008 at 1:48 PM

    If they limit the query to 32 words why is the maxlength in their form set to 2048 characters?

    input type=text name=q size=41 maxlength=2048 value="google" title="Search"

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 21, 2008 at 2:45 PM

    I dont realy fink it makes a diffrens, you can still type it in the URL

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousAugust 11, 2008 at 8:11 PM

    whats the code in connecting the words you type in the textbox to the exact result on another page bcoz im making an online system (thesis) and i planned to put a search box..
    - what i mean is what code shall i use to detect/find the one that u search?

    pls help me pls30x...
    email me at kingdom_g123@yahoo.com
    tnx a lot ..

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousNovember 9, 2012 at 10:59 AM

    my google search box is too small . How do I expand it?
    I would like to show you a screen show, how do I do that?

    ReplyDelete

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