CFA/Search-Research/SearchEngines

« Comparative Feature Analyses
« Search Notes
« Search Research

Current capabilities

• Ability to manage search engines: add, remove, restore default, reorder
• Automatically check for updates to search engines
• Highlight notification of ability to add search engine

Upcoming capabilities

• 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?
• Support search engine shortcut keys (Ryan Flint) - FF3 P2

Capabilities in other browsers

• Multi-engine search
• Local search engines on default

Screenshots

Set default search engine

Internet Explorer:

Safari:

Flock:

Maxthon:

One-time search

Safari Inquisitor:

Multi-engine search

Maxthon:

Opera:

SeaMonkey:

Conclusions

• Default search engine: if we were to implement a default search engine option, the Safari and Flock implementations are intuitive. A right-click on search bar option to set a default engine would have been nice, but I haven't seen it on other browsers.
• Notify ability to add search engine: none of the sites seemed to do a clear job of this notification. A stronger visual cue here would help.
• One-time use of search engine: haven't seen it implemented on any other site. If we decide to implement this feature, we should make it an option, not a rule.
• Multi-engine search: Maxthon's search is noticeably slow, but highly customizable. SeaMonkey's solution is fast but not elegant, unless the search is esoteric. Opera's is confusing because of the two search boxes.
• OpenSearchFox is a great FF extension that allows you to right-click any search box, and add it as a search plugin. Opera has this functionality built in.
• Loki is a very interesting FF extension that leverages a wifi positioning system to integrate your location to your search. It feels like too much bloat now, but with improved performance, might be meaningful to search.