> We've definitely thought along these lines before, and I personally
> think something like this would be a really great addition to the
> extension system.

> A few thoughts I've had on this idea:

> * It would be neat if the keyword ("gtalk" in your example) were
> derived automatically from the extension name, and if the omnibox were
> clever about matching. So if you have an extension named "Google
> Talk", typing "gt" or "gtalk" or "googletalk" would all match. This
> also elegantly handles the issue of conflicts.

> * It would be cool if the extension could interact with the omnibox
> session, rather than just accepting all the input. The way I imagine
> this working is that if you type "gtalk", you get all the usual
> suggestions, from your history, bookmarks, etc, along with an
> additional suggestion for the "Google Talk" extension you have
> installed which declares it interacts with the omnibox:

> [☆| gt ]
> -----------------------------------------------------
> [ icon | http://www.google.com/talk ]
> [ icon | gtalk ]
> [ icon | Google Talk ]
> ...

> If you select the "Google Talk" entry and press "Tab", you enter a new
> mode where you've accepted that you're only dealing with the
> extension. At this point, the extension could expose additional
> information to help the user enter the query. For example, it could
> expose how many arguments it wants, or help with autocompleting, or
> whatever. So, for the gtalk extension, maybe it takes one argument
> which is the person to talk to. The omnibox might change to:

> [ icon | Google Talk: <contact name> ]
> -----------------------------------------------------
> [ icon | Google Talk: b...@gmail.com ]
> [ icon | Google Talk: na...@gmail.com ]
> [ icon | Google Talk: s...@gmail.com ]
> ...

> And of course as you type, the system could keep sending the current
> query to the extension, which could refine the suggestions.

> ===

> As for how to get started, the best thing to do is to fix some smaller
> bugs first to get the hang of working on Chromium. You'll have to work
> up to bigger features over time. If you're interested, there's more
> information on how to get started here:

> http://dev.chromium.org/developers

> - a

> On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 10:26 PM, Zoran Rilak <zoran.ri...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi devs,

> > this is a proposal for a new extension API to would allow invoking
> > extensions by entering text in the Omnibar.  In brief:

> >  [☆| gtalk dilbert                ]    // user enters "gtalk dilbert"
> > in the omni-bar and hits Enter

> >  // behind the scenes, ExtensionsService is queried for one that has
> > registered "gtalk" as its trigger keyword.
> >  // The extension is then sent the contents of Omnibox, which it uses
> > to do its thing, for example:

> > +---------------+    // extension opens Gmail, pops ups a chat with
> > Dilbert
> > |Gmail          |    // and focuses the textarea.
> > |   ..........  |
> > |   ..........  |
> > |       +-------+
> > |       |Dilbert|
> > |       |       |
> > |       |       |
> > |       |[#    ]|
> > +-------+-------+

> >  This would allow extensions to register interest in processing user
> > input from the Omnibox.  The basic premise is simple enough; I for one
> > love the Omnibar and off the top of my head I can think of half a
> > dozen different ways to put it to even heavier use through extensions
> > (see [1] for a couple more use cases), but I suspect it would be a
> > fairly major feature to consider adding.  I'm willing to dig down into
> > the code base and start implementing it but I'd really appreciate a
> > few pointers first.  Should this idea be pursued?  Does it have a
> > future in Chromium?

> > ---
> > [1]
> http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-discuss/browse...
> >     More thoughts on this and a few use cases written in a case of a
> > severe sleep deprivation; caveat emptor.

> > --
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> >    http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-dev

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