Custom Search Providers for Internet Explorer

knom — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:12:00 GMT

I’m sure all of you know the search box in Internet Explorer!

You can search ANY searchable site there via pluggable search providers.

Per default some of them are installed, but you can add your own!

Here’s how to do it:

Go to the page you want to search through.
Search for “TEST”.
Copy the URL of the search result page (where TEST should be in somewhere)
Now go to the Internet Explorer Search Page and paste the URL in the rst textbox.
Choose a name and select install.
Now you have a new search provider in the search box, which will search the wanted page (and substitute TEST with your search text).

Note.. the search providers are standardized and will work in any browser, which supports the open search specification.

Note 2: Some sites are clever enough to include a search provider already!

IE 8 Searchbar – Instant Answers

knom — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:34:18 GMT

Now that I’m running Windows 7 I’m using the new IE 8 as well. Recently I found a cool new feature called “Instant Answers”.

Just enter some queries into the search box and you’ll get the answer in the drop-down box below the search box.

There are different possible queries:

Calculations (2+2, …)	Conversions (75 C in F, …)
Weather (with or without location)	Equations
Definitions (smile)