CFA/Search-Notes
From MozillaWiki
< CFA
« Comparative Feature Analyses
« Search Research
Contents
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
- 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
