Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar

2003-06-16

I thought I had written about this but either way I wanted to mention it again. If you are on Windows YOU NEED TO RUN THIS SOFTWARE.

Forget the crappy google bar. This is a thousand times better.

First, you need to know that it adds itself as an option to your taskbar. That means after you install it NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. In order to activate it right click on your taskbar, from the pop−up menu pick "Toolbars−>Add Quick Search". After it appears you can move it around and size it to your liking. Note that if you locked your taskbar you'll need to unlock it first, then you can add it, then you can re−lock it if you want.

So, what's the point, you probably already have the Google bar installed. Well, the google bar is CRAP compared to this.

First of all, you don't have to have a browser open to use it or even have one visible. At least on my machine, my taskbar is always visible so I can always type a search in.

Second, unlike the google bar, Dave's Quick Search Deskbar (DQSD) will search nearly anything. For example, searches I use often:

type "imdb matrix"

and up comes a list of the movies with "matrix" in their title on the Internet Movie Database.

type "amaz harry potter"

and up comes a listing of harry potter books on amazon.com

type "msdn directx"

to get development information on directx directly from Microsoft.

type "100 jpy>usd"

to convert from 100 JaPanese Yen to U.S. Dollars

type "penultimate:" (the colon is important)

and you'll get the definition of "penultimate" from Merriam−Webster. Even if you don't know how to spell it it will give you a list of possible matches.

DQSD has a zillion of these prefixes but those are about the only ones I personally use. Yours will vary depending on your interests. If you know a little XML and or Programming it's also easy to add new ones.

But, wait!, that's not all

type an expression and it will do math for you

type "77*(8.25+12)"

answer "1559.25"

No need to pull up a calculator app anymore.

type "run notepad"

and notepad will start, (to be honest I don't use that feature much)

Right click and you get a pop−up calendar. Now I don't need to launch outlook just too look up a date. Also, If you are using Yahoo's Calendar service it will connect you to a specific date on their service.

You can also add your own shortcuts. If the window is large enough a small ">>" menu will appear, Pick "Configure−>Local Aliases" and type some in. For example I added this one

forum    http://greggman.com/forum.htm

So if I type "forum" it will takeme to the forums on this site. I also added

tk    http://tokyopia.com

To take me to Tokyopia.com when I type "tk".

There are also preferences. "menu−>configure−>preferences" By default it will open your favorite browser so even if you are not using IE you can still use it. You can also tell it if it should open all things in the same window, same window by category (i.e. all amazon searches in the same window) or everything in a separate window (default). By default it also displays a clock when you are not using it. This is so you can turn the clock off on the taskbar to save space. You can even change it to search something other than google if you prefer something else.

There is also search history. Press Up to lookup your previous searches.

And, unlike the google bar it's not tracking you.

One caveat: As it's trying, based on what you type, to guess which search you want it can guess wrong. As an example, the keyword "rss" is for weblogs.com. So if you wanted to search google for "rss" you need to type "gg rss" (gg is the prefix for google). Another example is "++" If a ++ is anywhere in the search string it assumes you want something from MapQuest. So searching for "C++" I need to enter "gg c++" Basically, I usually type something in and if the wrong page ever comes up I just use the up arrow to show my last search and add "gg" infront of it. Also, keep that in mind if you add your own aliases. I added "tokyo" for Tokyopia.com once but that meant if I typed "tokyo restaurants" it would take me to Tokyopia.com. Pick alias names you are unlikely to use in a search.

I've been using this for I think about a year, maybe longer and it's seriously one of the most used pieces of software on my system. The only things I use more are my web browser an e−mail. Give it try.

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