CFA/Search-Research

« Comparative Feature Analyses
« Search Notes

General Browser Capabilities

• Search Engines
• Address Bar
• Search Bar
• Search Results
• Search this Page
• Future of Search

Purpose

Examine a bunch of browsers, existing Firefox Add-ons, and web services to generate a report that describes:

• Which capabilities each has
• A summary of where each is different/unique
• Some conclusions about which aspects seem most innovative and interesting that we might want to consider for Firefox

Browsers to investigate

• Firefox 2
• Camino
• Flock
• iCab
• IE 7
• Maxthon
• Netscape
• OmniWeb
• Opera
• Safari
• SeaMonkey
• Shiira

Add-ons to investigate

Firefox

• CustomizeGoogle link
• Answers link
• GooglePreview link
• LinkedIn Companion link
• SearchWith link
• DictionarySearch link
• Groowe Search Toolbar link
• Loki link
• OpenSearchFox link

Safari

• Sogudi - shortcut keyword searches
• Saft link
• Insquisitor link - rich search results, autocomplete, search suggestions

Meeting Takeaways

• Search Engines
  • Multiple search engines - slow, not useful for most users
  • Implement default search engine selection and one-time search engine use
  • Need a better way to notify users of the ability to add a search engine; Google Toolbar has a more in-your-face way of asking you
• Address Bar
  • Investigate way to integrate Search Bar and Address Bar into a unified search mechanism
• Search Bar
  • Suggestions are being cut off
  • Word "Suggestion" is being cut off (fixed)
• Search Results
  • We like Inquisitor - use 3 search results because that's all people look at. But, use green URLs, blue Titles, just like Google search results. Does it breach our Google contract though since users can bypass Google search results pages (and ads)?
• Search this Page
  • Search this site should be an extension of Search this Page
• Future of Search
  • Integrate QuickSilver-type functionality into the browser; that is, have hotkeys to do searches on the browser on a pop-up layer above the webpage, w/o needing a search bar
  • Introduce and test a unified address/search bar for the QS pop-up, and then tweak it later for the main browser window implementation