CFA/Search-Notes

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« Comparative Feature Analyses
« Search Research

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

Research

General capabilities

The following will be done in a table with notes and observations following as footnotes.

Search Engines

  • Ability to declare a default search engine - FF3 P3?
  • Ability to use a temporary search engine and then restore the default (one time use) - FF3 P3?
  • ability to manage, add, restore default, and reorder search plugins - FF2
  • ability to add search plugins - FF2
  • multi-engine search
  • automatically check for updates to search engines
  • local search engines on default
  • highlight notification of ability to add search plugin
  • Support search engine shortcut keys (Ryan Flint) - FF3 P2

Address Bar

  • Unified search - results include bookmarks, URL history, search history and the web
  • Search bookmarks and history from Address Bar
  • combine bookmark keywords and bookmark search - FF2?
  • ability to browse by name from address bar (keyword.URL)
  • keywords (search from location bar)
  • keyword web searches - opera
  • customize address bar search - maxthon
  • URL alias - maxthon
  • autocomplete keywords
  • drag and drop search

Search Bar

  • keyword web searches
  • Search bookmarks and history from Search Bar
  • support for multiple search boxes - FF2?
  • site-specific search using search box
  • highlight entire search field when clicking in the box
  • SnapBack - safari
  • button to clear search field - safari
  • search this site - camino
  • wrap up feature for search engines, to search all at once
  • targeted search options: audio/video podcast, photo, code, technorati searches
  • drag and drop search
  • highlight, right-click, and search
  • button information on mouse-over
  • Resizable search bar (Neil Deakin) - FF3 P2

Search Results

  • Rich search results (Gavin Sharp) - FF3 P3
  • offer suggestions to autocomplete searches - FF2
  • google calculator suggestions in search box - FF
  • display in new tab vs. this tab
  • display in new window
  • display in sidebar
  • preview search results - safari
  • show matching bookmarks when searching - flock
  • show recent searches/search history

Search this Page

  • search on webpage
  • highlight search text on webpage
  • match case of search text on webpage
  • search for text when i start typing (quick find)
  • dim background on search w/in webpage - safari
  • match whole word only on search w/in page - opera
  • option to search in current window, local files, internet, web cache - iCab
  • option to search 2 search engines at once - iCab
  • search and replace - omniweb
  • search for regular expressions - omniweb
  • find in all tabs - shiira

Other

  • writing direction in search and location bar - safari
  • user profile to save search and other settings


Browsers to investigate

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

Add-ons to investigate

Firefox

Safari

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


Web services/apps to investigate

Desktop apps to investigate

Results

Summary of unique and/or innovative features

Conclusions

References