Anyone who runs IE 5.5 or higher and loves Google as much as I do should go get the Google Deskbar. It's a little desktop toolbar that lets you search Google. That's nothing new, but it's got a lot of novel features. For one, it lets you view and browse search results in a little "mini viewer" which is very handy. It also lets you define custom searches on non-Google databases. For instance, I added the empeg bbs to my custom search list, and now I can click on the Google deskbar, type in a search query, hit Ctrl-E ("empeg") and it'll search this BBS. Mozilla has kinda had this functionality for awhile, but for my use, this is much easier. You can choose to keep browsing in the little mini-viewer, or you can have your search results fire up a browser window (probably a better idea since the mini-viewer is, well, mini.)

Still a couple quirks I'd like ironed out (the search button is always underneath the search box, I'd rather have it to the right like it is on the Google Toolbar) but this is definitely a keeper. Check it out.

BTW, the URL specification for searching the BBS as a custom database is:

http://empeg.comms.net/php/dosearch.php?Cat=&Forum=All_Forums&Words={1}&Match=And&Limit=100&Old=allposts

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Google in any way. Though if they were hiring....

Cool! I used it to find this post (searched for "google" and hit control-E)! Thanks for the link! '

EDIT: How'd you find what url was needed to search the BBS? I'm trying to think of some others to add.... allmusic.com? (cntrl-A), dictionary.com (cntrl-D) ?

Yep. And with the shortcut key (default Ctrl-Alt-G) searching the BBS is a snap.

Oh, for an empeg FAQ search, this URL spec works:

http://www.riocar.org/searchfaq.php?query={1}&type=faq

Unfortunately you can't change the shortcut keys for Froogle, Google Images, etc. so "F" is already taken. I guess "Q" is a good second choice if you disable Ctrl-Q in the "Stock Quotes" custom database.

allmusic.com? (cntrl-A), dictionary.com (cntrl-D) ?

Holy cow! That's a great idea!

*edit*
I would also use it for price searches, like for Pricegrabber or Amazon.com. It would also be great for so many other sites like IMDb.

*edit edit*
I'm not sure what you mean, Tony. Which search button are you speaking of? the button on mine is to the right of the search box.
Anyway, thanks for the link, it's a great tool.

Yeah, mine's to the right too...

Where'd you get that list for the default shortcuts you can't re-assign?

Would it be as simple as plugging "http://allmusic.com" into the box?

I'm not sure what you mean, Tony. Which search button are you speaking of? the button on mine is to the right of the search box.

Mine's to the right and *below* the search box. I'd like it to the right on the same line. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Edit: Ah, okay. If I move it around such that it's on a full row of the taskbar, the search button moves to the right of the search box. But I want my Deskbar to be on another toolbar I have docked on the side of my screen, and for some reason, it moves the search button underneath. Oh well. Not that big of a deal.

Where'd you get that list for the default shortcuts you can't re-assign?

Um, from what I can tell, the shortcuts for Google Definitions (Ctrl-D), Froogle, News (Ctrl-F), Groups (Ctrl-G) , Images (Ctrl-I), "I'm Feeling Lucky" (Ctrl-L), and Search the Web (Ctrl-W) are hardcoded.

EDIT: How'd you find what url was needed to search the BBS?

Just looking at the HTML form for the search functionality. It uses a POST method but GET is also supported. Some sites won't support GET, and thus the deskbar won't be able to search them... But we do support it here.

AllMusic is a little funky. It sorta works, but they don't use the + character to indicate a space the same way other searches do, so some things don't work. I tried the following URL's with some limited success:

Artists: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?P=amg&sql=1{1}
Albums: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?P=amg&sql=2{1}

With multi-word searches, results were pretty poor. Not sure how else to hack the URL to get it right.

But I want my Deskbar to be on another toolbar I have docked on the side of my screen

Oh, well you should have told us you had a funky setup

I'd actually be curious to know how people set up their desktop, but we don't usually have threads like that on this board