Google Deskbar as a generic shortcut mechanism
I thought the Google Deskbar was cool to start with (search engine wars aside), but now I think it’s even cooler. First, I used its customized search capability to add a search for weather… Then I thought how cool it would be to have a generic shortcut mechanism – just hit alt-ctrl-g, type some parameters into the deskbar, hit another control key, and have something useful happen. So, using System.Net.HttpListener from .NET 2.0 (aka Whidbey), and a very few lines of code, I now can:
· Hit alt-ctrl-g, type “Boston, MA” into the Deskbar, hit ctrl-l and have MapPoint (the desktop application) pop up with a map of Boston.
· Hit alt-crtl-g, type “jeromyc,This is a test” into the Deskbar, hit ctrl-n and have a new Outlook email pop up with “jeromyc” in the To field and “This is a test” in the Subject field.
Pretty handy.
