Web Browser Wednesday
Yesterday we announced the new Firefox extension that we launched called CyberSearch (our homepage for CyberSearch). It is based on the original version of AwesomeSearch (now called Searchery), and the reason I decided to create the extension was because I saw how it could make me more productive. Hopefully what I’ve come up with can be useful for you as well.
What is CyberSearch? It lets you perform various types of Google searches right from the address bar in Firefox 3. As you’re typing the extension will send your query to Google, grab the results, and then display them along side the history results that Firefox normally shows.
To make the extension even better we’ve supercharged it with a completely customizable keyword system. If you’re familiar with the built-in Firefox keywords understanding how to use these will be second nature for you. The video demonstration below will help put these in perspective, and show just how powerful they make the extension!
–Video Demonstration–
The best way to demonstrate how CyberSearch works is using a video, and so that’s what we’ve got for you. There are also a bunch of screenshots after the video.
–Features–
- Supports Multiple Google Services
You can perform searches and assign keywords to any of the following Google services: Web, Local, Videos, Blogs, News, Books, Images, and Patents. - Customizable Keywords
Pick and choose the keywords that you can remember! You can have one keyword for doing a Google Web search, another for Google News search, and so on. The possibilities are endless! - Restrict Searches to a Site
Using the keyword system you’ll be able to restrict a particular search to a certain site. For example, you can create one keyword that will only return results from Wikipedia while a different keyword will only show results from CyberNet News. Want results from multiple sites using just one keyword? No problem, just separate them by commas!
Note: This feature is only available for Google Web, Blog, and Image searches. - Custom Icons
Assign any icon to be shown next to the search results for a keyword. - Change the Appearance
You can choose a customized background color for results that are retrieved from Google. That way you’ll know at a glance what’s coming from your history, and what’s coming from the extension. - Retrieve Multiple Pages of Results
A customizable “keyword” is available so that you can even retrieve multiple pages of search results. Checkout the video for more information on how this works. - Hide Results when Using a Keyword
You can optionally have Firefox hide the history results from the address bar when it recognizes that you’ve entered in a keyword. That way you see only the search results when using a keyword. - Doesn’t Interfere with Existing Firefox Keywords
If you already have existing Firefox keywords setup this extension will not interfere with them. Our keyword system is completely separate from the one that is built-in to Firefox.
Here are some screenshots from the configuration section of the extension:
(Click to Enlarge)
One thing that we placed throughout the preferences are the small question marks, and you can hover over them at any point to have a feature explained to you.
–Supported Google Services–
Eight different Google services are supported in CyberSearch, and we’re sure you want to know what the results look like in the address bar for each of them. Here’s a screenshot for each of the different types of Google searches that we support:
- Web Search – Your typical Google search. Opening a result will take you directly the site.
- Local Search – Find the address and phone number for any business in seconds! Opening a result will take you to a Google Map that shows where the place is located.
- Video Search – Search Google Video and Youtube. Opening a result will take you to that video.
- Blog Search – Find blog articles that have been written. Opening a result will take you directly to the article.
- News Search – Pull up news items. Opening a result will take you directly to the article.
- Book Search – Find books. Opening a result will take you to the Google Book page for that particular selection.
- Image Search – Searches for images, but isn’t all that useful since there is no image preview. Opening a result will take you directly to the image.
- Patent Search – Search for patents. Opening a result will take you to the Google Patent page for that particular selection.
–Installing CyberSearch–
Like what you see? Then go ahead and download the CyberSearch extension from Mozilla. This extension is still experimental, which means you’ll need to login to the Mozilla site before being able to install it. If you don’t have a login you can use a generic one that I’ve created over at Mozilla:
- Username: firefox@cybernetnews.com
- Password: cybernetnews
Note: If someone decides to be funny and change the password just let us know. Since we have full control over the email address we can change the password back at anytime.
–Overview–
Hopefully this extension will be as useful to you as it has been for us over the last week. If you have any questions or recommendations feel free to drop them off in the comments, but as it stands right now this does just about everything we’d like it to. Our initial focus will be on fixing any bugs that people find.
Regarding CyberSearch for other countries: At this time CyberSearch only supports the use of Google.com. We are looking into expanding this extension to support Google services in other countries. We’ve researched this a little bit, and we don’t believe Google’s API permits the use of the varying country’s Google search engine (eg. google.co.uk).
Looks great! The video isn’t working properly though, it’s stuck on the first picture (although the audio works).
The video seems to be working fine for me. I tried it in both Firefox and Safari. Maybe try clearing your cache?
Could be handy. Thanks. Regarding video, it also seemed stuck to me, but after I paused and restarted it, the video picked up fine (initially it just showed a single screen shot).
this thing looks freaking awesome. I think this is what I wanted the firefox AwesomeBar to be in the first place. Good job guys and/or gals.
well Ryan and Ashly, i hope you are ready, cause now that we know you can write addons, ppl will start to ask for things.
i will think of a request soon. till then, it sounds gr8, and will test it 2morrow at work.
Yeahhhhh… I don’t think I’m ready to become a full-time Firefox extension writer.
I can’t take any credit for this… it was all Ryan!
This is quoted from the pre-launch thread, new comments are in bold in case I didn’t quote correctly
01. I would like to see a separate field for keyword and keyword name,
a lot of people just use one letter for there keywords (i.e. w = wikipedia, i = imdb, g = google, etc.)
But using these for the keywords names could you confusing, so a system such as Keyword = W, Keyword Name = Wikipedia would be perfect.
I thought about that as well, and that’s why the drop-down menu shows the URL(s) that are associated with the keyword. I didn’t want to clutter the interface by adding another field for a name.
That sounds great, except for some reason the drop-down menu is not showing the url for me (I tried with the default FF Vista skin as well but still no go)
Deadman36g wrote:
02. The option to import your already saved search keywords. I currently have 68 keyword searches (yes, I am a junkie) and it would be nice to be able to import them.
That could be possible, but it likely won’t work as people would expect. Current keywords in the browser often look like [en.wikipedia.org] , and with this I would have to trim off everything except the domain. That wouldn’t always work for some sites that aren’t located at the root of the domain.
That is understandable, after thinking more about, this would be hard (maybe impossible) to implement.
Deadman36g wrote:
03. Another cool add-on for Firefox, the Awesomer Bar ([addons.mozilla.org]” rel=”nofollow”>[addons.mozilla.org]), add the functionality to show the favicon for your keyword searches in the normal favicon spot, unfortunately this extension seems to overide it though.
So it would be really nice to either add this feature to this extension or, make it so that the two extensions play nice together.
I’ll look into whether I can override that extension’s icon picking.
Cool, would be nice if this two could play nice as I like the features of it as well.
the password doesn’t work
So you don’t see the URL’s like are shown in the video when I click on the drop-down menu?
Fixed. It should work now. Either the account was deleted or someone changed the email address, too. I recreated the account though.
i noticed google local search by default( if I don’t put address) gives places in california. Is there any way i can make it to my local zipcode by default.
This is first time I am using firefox. Today is second day. It looks great! Thanks for any help.
That’s just the default Google uses, but you make a good point. Unfortunately setting a default place isn’t something Google allows in their search API, and I don’t see a way to efficiently implement this.
for some reason I can’t get this to install
I get this message when I try to install it:
Firefox could not install the file at
[addons.mozilla.org]
because: Invalid file hash (possible download corruption)
-261
I keep getting the following error when trying to install the extension:
Firefox could not install the file at
[addons.mozilla.org]
because: Invalid file hash (possible download corruption)
-261
I cleared the cache and restarted the browser. Unfortunately, the problem still continues. I read the MozillaZine KB article on this, but I cannot save the xpi file from the Mozilla Add-Ons site.
See if this article helps:
[cybernetnews.com]
Thanks!
The second option is what did it!
Good to know for the future as well. I can’t wait to get to use this extension!
Glad you got it to work. The manual installation should normally work for everyone.
Thanks! That worked great. I can’t believe I didn’t think of going through another browser to download the file. Whoops! Now I know in case I ever run into that issue again.
There’s a good chance that you’ll run into the issue again. I’ve had it happen to me several times when trying to install extensions. I wish Mozilla would get that fixed.
In case it’s relevant, Bug 407888 – Correcting an entry in location bar doesn’t update results / awesomebar search not triggered when editing the middle of text is fixed on trunk.
Note to self: don’t put urls in angle brackets.
[bugzilla.mozilla.org]
Sweetness! Thanks for the update.
i can’t download it , i’ve been trying to do that stupid captcha thing for the last half hour given up .
captcha? Last time I checked Mozilla has never asked for a captcha.
the last time i checked to download cybersearch you have to log in and if you don’t have an account you have to create one and at the end they ask for captcha. smartarse!
Ahh, I see. I thought you already had an account and were being asked for a captcha.
Congrats on finally making it to the public addons pages!
A feature request:
Could you add google’s “search only the current website” search to this..
Thanks for making the awesomebar useful!
Check out the “Smart” keywords introduced a few versions ago:
[cybernetnews.com]
It’s pretty much what you’re looking for.
Thats awesome.. Thanks!
One more request:
An option (or shortcut like “Ctrl + Enter”) to open the page in a ‘NEW TAB’ would be great
Disregard this plz..
Found that “Alt + Enter” does this already
Thanks!
this great extension seems to conflict with XUL/migemo extension.
I found a small problem with the Domain Search function. If the search results contain an address with a space in it, it is impossible to scroll past that search result using the arrow keys. For example, typing “[tftcentral.co.uk] 2405″ in the address field gets among other hits the following: “[tftcentral.co.uk] 2405.pdf”. Note the space in the address. When trying to scroll past this hit, CyberSearch sees the space and treats the above address as a new domain search, and the previous results disappears.
That is definitely a problem, but not one I can address without scrapping the feature all together. If you find this being more annoying than helpful you can just disable it in the settings.
Are you still taking ideas for updates? It’s a great extension btw, and i use it all the time.
Requests:
(a) can we put keywords anywhere in the string? Eg: sometimes i’m typing something into the bar and i forget to start with “g” for google, so i just get lots of history results. It’s be nice to just add “g” at that point and turn it into a search. Right now i have to go back to the beginning of the string and add it.
(ps/ i have the show only results when a keyword is recognised option ticked. )
(b) (and this is maybe impossible, but..) Would it be possible to do something like insert the search string url into the history of the opened links? eg: sometimes I search for something and the link looks good, but when i open it it’s rubbish. then i have to type the whole string again, and i kinda wish i’d just opened the google results page. If i could just click “back” and go back to that results page it’d be great.
(alternatively, being able to press a hotkey to repeat the last search would be ok. )
(c) (probably tricky). is there a chance of implementing yahoo searches too? they have a good api right? Recently their search engine seems to have improved a lot.
Bugs:
When scrolling through a list of results, sometimes the list goes screwy and jumps to one of the results.. so you can’t scroll past it. it seems to be mostly pdfs.
Any chance of CyberSearch getting search suggestions or it integrating better with this feature from the Peers extension ([addons.mozilla.org])?