Searchling - The ultimate Google search tool
Dec 02, '02 11:31:42AM
Contributed by: robg
The macosxhints Rating:

[0 to 10 lights; 10 = perfect!]
Those of you who have read the site for a while will be familiar with my interest in finding the perfect Finder-based web search tool. I'm not talking about Sherlock or Watson, where you're looking for something specific. Instead, I'm always looking for the next great tool that makes it easy to run a search in Google without first switching to the browser, loading google.com, and typing the search terms. I want something small and unobtrusive and yet (almost conversely) easy to find and use in a hurry. Until today, I'd been using ShadowGoogle (Aug 5 2002 Pick of the Week.
As of today, however, Searchling has become my Google search tool of choice. It's a menubar add-on (installation = one double click) that, when clicked, opens a one-line search window with options for which site to search (Google, Dictionary, ebay) as well as what type of info to search for (web, images, news). When not in use, all I lose in screen real-estate is one small character on my menubar, and yet it's easily reached from every application.
The only reason it's a 9 and not a 10 is that the toolbar icon is not movable, as are the Apple-provided toolbar widgets (this may well be a limitation imposed by Apple, however, so maybe it's really a 10).
Sorry, ShadowGoogle (still a great tool), but recovering desktop space is a big plus for Searchling. Unobtrusive, easy to use, easy to install, free, and it works perfectly ... Searchling has earned a permanent spot in my menubar!
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