site-specific search using our search box
Myk Melez
site I was browsing, then hunting around the page for the site's own
search box (which is often well-concealed), I had a thought:
What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
site's search?
We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this would
look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
And for sites which don't provide their own search, we might make the UI
do a site-specific search using our default search engine, so the search
always works even for sites which don't provide their own.
Thoughts?
-myk
Asa Dotzler
> After instinctually pressing ctrl-k today when I wanted to search the
> site I was browsing, then hunting around the page for the site's own
> search box (which is often well-concealed), I had a thought:
>
> What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
> site's search?
>
> We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
> identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this would
> look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
What UI? A favicon? Something more?
>
> And for sites which don't provide their own search, we might make the UI
> do a site-specific search using our default search engine, so the search
> always works even for sites which don't provide their own.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> -myk
I think this is a fantastic idea. It could look something like this.
.--------------------------.
|[G] some tex |
'--------------------------'
| some text |
| some terriers |
| some text missing |
| some test |
| some team names |
| some teams have m... |
+--------------------------+
|[E] Search Using Ebay |
+--------------------------+
|[Y] Search Using Yahoo |
+--------------------------+
|[A] Search Using Amazon |
+--------------------------+
|[ ] Search this site |
'--------------------------'
We could even grab the favicon from the site and put it in the list so
that the user would be more likely to see that option. We might even
place it further up in the list of available searches if it proves to be
a common action.
At one time, didn't we have find in page in there as well? What about
going further and adding a search Bookmarks and search History to the
dropdown. One interface to rule them all!
- A
Myk Melez
> Myk Melez wrote:
>> We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
>> identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this
>> would look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
>
> What UI? A favicon? Something more?
I'm not sure. If we decided to add alternate engines to the search
suggestions dropdown menu, it could be another entry in that menu. If
we went the multiple buttons route, it could be an additional button.
Or perhaps there's some other approach.
> We could even grab the favicon from the site and put it in the list so
> that the user would be more likely to see that option.
Good idea.
> We might even
> place it further up in the list of available searches if it proves to be
> a common action.
Right.
> At one time, didn't we have find in page in there as well? What about
> going further and adding a search Bookmarks and search History to the
> dropdown. One interface to rule them all!
Hmm, it doesn't seem like these are as related to web search as is site
search, and find in page has some additional UI requirements that it
seems hard to integrate into that box, so I'm not sure integrating them
all together would improve usability.
-myk
Chris Ilias
> What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
> site's search?
I have no constructive feedback. I just want say that I love this idea. :-)
Has there ever been discussion about adding "Find in this page" to the
search bar?
--
Chris Ilias
mozilla.test.multimedia moderator
Mozilla links <http://ilias.ca>
(Please do not email me tech support questions)
Pam Greene
> After instinctually pressing ctrl-k today when I wanted to search the
> site I was browsing, then hunting around the page for the site's own
> search box (which is often well-concealed), I had a thought:
>
> What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
> site's search?
>
> We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
> identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this would
> look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
Back in August, but a bit too late to go into FF2, we had an
implementation for allowing an autodetected OpenSearch engine to be
set as the current engine for all pages on that site (i.e., in that
domain), without permanently adding it to the list of engines or
changing the current engine on tabs open to other sites. The
discussion, UI ideas, and patch are in
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=339735 . Of course, a
much simpler mechanism could probably be used now that we're able to
make more significant changes to the searchbar infrastructure.
> And for sites which don't provide their own search, we might make the UI
> do a site-specific search using our default search engine, so the search
> always works even for sites which don't provide their own.
Cool idea.
- Pam
Wildmyron
Asa Dotzler wrote:
> Myk Melez wrote:
> > After instinctually pressing ctrl-k today when I wanted to search the
> > site I was browsing, then hunting around the page for the site's own
> > search box (which is often well-concealed), I had a thought:
> >
> > What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
> > site's search?
> >
> > We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
> > identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this would
> > look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
>
> What UI? A favicon? Something more?
A thought about required UI: Many site searches have alternate search
functions. For example, http://www.ecu.edu.au/ has a search from the
front page with three options:
1) ECU Staff -- search the local staff directory
2) ECU website -- Google search of ecu.edu.au
3) Google -- Search the web with Google
I think this should be incorporated in the UI if this feature is added,
but at the same time I don't see much point including the Google
search. Could there be some way for a site to say "these search options
are local searches" and the rest would be ignored?
Arie.
Myk Melez
> A thought about required UI: Many site searches have alternate search
> functions. For example, http://www.ecu.edu.au/ has a search from the
> front page with three options:
> 1) ECU Staff -- search the local staff directory
> 2) ECU website -- Google search of ecu.edu.au
> 3) Google -- Search the web with Google
>
> I think this should be incorporated in the UI if this feature is added,
> but at the same time I don't see much point including the Google
> search. Could there be some way for a site to say "these search options
> are local searches" and the rest would be ignored?
Yes, we should certainly let sites specify which searches they provide
so that sites like ECU can specify some searches and leave others out.
One possible mechanism is the <link> tag, i.e. something like:
<link rel="search" title="example.com" href="http://example.com/s?q=%s">
For ECU, this might look like:
<link rel="site-search" title="ECU website"
href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:ecu.edu.au+%s">
<link rel="site-search" title="ECU Staff"
href="http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/EdithCowan?sitesearch=ecu.edu.au&q=%s">
A second possible mechanism is a microformat which decorates search
forms with metadata, i.e. something like:
<form class="hSearch" hSearchName="example.com Web Site">
<input type="text" class="hSearchTerm">
</form>
For ECU, which bundles multiple search engines into a single form, the
microformat would decorate the elements which define the different
search engines, i.e.:
<form>
<select>
<option value="">Google</option>
<option class="hSearch">ECU website</option>
<option class="hSearch">ECU Staff</option>
</select>
<input type="text" class="hSearchTerm">
</form>
-myk
Mike Connor
On 7-Nov-06, at 2:24 PM, Pam Greene wrote:
> On 11/6/06, Myk Melez <m...@mozilla.org> wrote:
>> After instinctually pressing ctrl-k today when I wanted to search the
>> site I was browsing, then hunting around the page for the site's own
>> search box (which is often well-concealed), I had a thought:
>>
>> What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
>> site's search?
>>
>> We might specify a mechanism (<link> tag?) by which a site could
>> identify its search URL template plus some UI (not sure what this
>> would
>> look like) for invoking a site-specific search.
>
> Back in August, but a bit too late to go into FF2, we had an
> implementation for allowing an autodetected OpenSearch engine to be
> set as the current engine for all pages on that site (i.e., in that
> domain), without permanently adding it to the list of engines or
> changing the current engine on tabs open to other sites. The
> discussion, UI ideas, and patch are in
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=339735 . Of course, a
> much simpler mechanism could probably be used now that we're able to
> make more significant changes to the searchbar infrastructure.
There's some more stuff beltzner and I discussed around how to handle
temporary engines that I don't think made it into the bug. I think
that making the UI per-tab is possibly confusing, and switching tabs
shouldn't lose the temporary search engine. If I search with alt-
enter, I want to keep that search engine active and selected, even if
the site search takes me to a google results page (more and more
common, these days)
>> And for sites which don't provide their own search, we might make
>> the UI
>> do a site-specific search using our default search engine, so the
>> search
>> always works even for sites which don't provide their own.
>
> Cool idea.
This, in theory, should be trivial, as we could create a temporary
engine that searches using the root of the domain (this needs the
effective TLD API that's on trunk to work properly, of course).
Probably would end up being a little per-site specific, but we'll see.
-- Mike
Gervase Markham
> What if we provided a way for our search box to invoke the current
> site's search?
This might lead to a problem where search engines made deals with big
sites to put their engine as the "suggested" engine on that site. So if
you normally searched with MSN, on Slashdot you'd end up searching with
Google if you pressed Ctrl-K and typed.
Gerv
Mike Shaver
Only if the way for the search box to invoke the current site's search
was to override the usual search interaction, which I would be
surprised to see anyone suggest.
Mike
Myk Melez
Indeed, it's not what I'm suggesting. The usual search interaction
should still be to search with the default search engine. I'm just
suggesting that it should also be possible to select a site search.
-myk
Gervase Markham
> Indeed, it's not what I'm suggesting. The usual search interaction
> should still be to search with the default search engine. I'm just
> suggesting that it should also be possible to select a site search.
Ah, right. I misunderstood you. Sorry.
Gerv