User:Auk/Search Model

The search box should be enhanced to enable some of the features of keyword bookmarks, such as faster load times and quick engine-switching. The redundant appearance of keyword bookmarks and the search box search engines in the UI should be abolished. No connection with bookmarks (upcoming as tags) should be kept.

Favicon drop-down

Click on the favicon at the left end of the search box. A drop-down menu appears with the layout:

Search Tagged Pages [Ctrl+?]
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Google [Ctrl+K]
Yahoo
Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Wikispecies
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Manage Engines...

Searching with engines

To search with a specific engine, you can:

Select an engine from the drop-down menu. Then, the engine's icon appears and the user may type thier query.
Type the appropriate key shortcut (hereafter reffered to as the engine-selector shortcut) (see according section), and a special meta-sub box appears. Type the said engine's keyword (e.g. g for Google, wp for Wikipedia, wkt for Wiktionary), a space, then your query. At the firt SPACE, the focus should shift from the meta-engine box to the search box proper.

Engine Selector shortcut suggestions

Ctrl+'
Visitors add here.

Adding, deleting, and managing engines

The search engines should be completely organizable through the "Manage Engines..." dialog. 'Organizable' here means:

Reorderable into a user-defined order (DnD)
Creation of sub-directories, that show as sub menus in the drop-down
Creation of seperators
"Alphabetize" option
Editable "Properties..." dialog, where the Name, Keyword, Icon, and Path (url w/ %s, JS file, ...?).

The Manage Engines dialog should also be accessible through the main prefs window, e.g. Edit → Preferences → Advanced → Search and amongst other things, a block with a button for the "Manage Engines..." dialog.

Advanced search dynamics

Ability to combine engines in one search with the "+" operator, e.g. g+wp+wkt nitrogen would search both Google, Wikipedia and Wiktionary for the text "nitrogen". This would open a tab for each engine. (Depending on the user prefs, the first engine in the list may load in the present tab.)
Perhaps JavaScript-enabled searches, to integrate with unyielding sites and create custom mini-search engines.
Visitors add more here.

Gripes

Should Ctrl-K focus the search box, or should it swap the search box to the default engine (likely Google) and focus at once?
Should the engine-selector shortcut be active from anywhere in the UI, or only once focused the search box?
The current box is a little small to display both the meta-engine box and the query box as it is. Resize searchbar?