Googlebar Lite Search Types

April 28, 2009

I got thinking today that it’s high time to update the available search types in Googlebar Lite. Several of the options I provide are outdated: Froogle hasn’t been around for some time now (Google killed it in 2006), and does anyone even know about or use the Google web directory (I don’t even see a link to it from Google’s home page)?

There seem to me to be several new possibilities for search types: Blog Search and Book Search are the two primary candidates that spring to mind.

What would you like to see?

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11 Comments

  1. kip

    May 1, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    What about searching your Gmail?

  2. Jonah

    May 1, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    I have thought about doing GMail search before. Long ago, I poked around in the official Google Toolbar source code, and the logic behind doing that kind of search was pretty big (as I vaguely recall). For example, suppose you aren’t logged in to GMail? Does the extension offer a means to auto-login? If so, how are user credentials saved?

    Maybe Google has made things a little easier to access since those early days. It bears looking into, but GMail search is a good idea. I’m just not sure how much bloat that feature would add.

  3. ii

    May 26, 2009 at 6:04 am

    [bah capcha when imgs off.. see if this succeeds..]
    directory
    I search directory less than once a month, because goodir’s cats tend to be larger than dmoz’s cats (I’ve never looked into why).

    gmail
    gmail seems a mess of scripts. i have a gmail address, but have never used. i think google required a gmail address to get a webpage (which i also never really established. :) )

    regarding gblite gmail search & gmail autologin question.
    scenario 1: ff profile has password stored for mail.google.* (or whatever domain). then, ff password will prompt, fill, etc.
    scenario 2: whether cookies are allowed or not, wouldn’t google redirect to some kind of logon?

    but i think you’re assuming gblite gmail search needs to search “past” usual browser logon interface. also, advanced search options might require knowing user-created folders?
    hmm, so…
    a) what kind of “prior art” might exist for this situation?
    b) it seems not too inconvenient that user has to logon before 1st use of gblite’s gmail search.

    searches
    i was thinking youtube could be among searches, yet doesn’t vidsearch cover youtube (and more)?

    btw, i mod your js a little, including to allow site:google.*

    else { URL = “http://www.answers.com/” + searchTerms + “?gwp=13″; }// DELETE URL BLOAT, becomes:
    else { URL = “http://www.answers.com/” + searchTerms; }

    empty sitesearch is more useful to me. i thought i’d also modded your js to allow an empty site:host.com (with no searchterm), but i’ve noticed i need to fake an empty site: search by entering the dot char :)

    and here’s a more obscure possible js edit: if user attempts site: search when current url is not a http(s|) (such as ftp://host.com), then gblite could produce phrase:
    ftp://host.com | site:host.com SEARCHTERM

    finally, thanks.. cuz this extension is the only “must have” extension (though i also put customizegoogle, and a javascript toggle in other people’s profiles). Imgs toggle would be another “must have”, but that extension mysteriously doesn’t exist (AFAIK).

  4. Jonah

    May 28, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    Thanks for the suggestions, ii.

    Googlebar Lite disables the site search button on everything except http and https, so I don’t see how your ftp example could possibly work (unless there’s a bug somewhere).

  5. FoTam

    August 1, 2009 at 2:59 am

    Hi, am I too lame for this? When using drag & drop, the words not replacing each other in Googlebar Lite’s search box, but the new word goes after the old (without a space of course), and though ‘Automatically search on drag & drop’ is selected in Options, nothing happens. I use NoScript, that may cause this, or it’s a bug or something… I use the latest version 4.7.0.

  6. Jonah

    August 5, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    Hmm. The automatically search on drag and drop option doesn’t seem to be working properly. I will look into why that may be.

    I don’t believe the drag and drop operation has ever done a full replace of the existing text. I’ll look back at some older versions to double check that behavior.

  7. Clay

    August 11, 2009 at 1:24 am

    The previous version (before I upgraded to 3.5) did drag and drop beautifully. I could just highlight some text, then drag it to Googlebar Lite and it would replace what was already in there. Now it just adds it to the end, which is kind of annoying. It’s minor, but if there’s someway to change it, that’d be awsome!

  8. Doug

    August 11, 2009 at 11:53 am

    Could you add functionality to customize the search URLs GBL uses?
    I’ve been trying to add http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

  9. Jonah

    August 11, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    That’s an interesting suggestion, Doug. I’ll think about how this could possibly be done in a future release.

  10. Chuck

    August 26, 2009 at 9:31 am

    I’d like to see froogle added as a search type. Any chances of that happening?

  11. Jonah

    August 26, 2009 at 10:56 am

    Google Product search will be returning to Googlebar Lite in version 4.7.2.

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