Lost "Search Web" Button?

[graham]

Has anybody noticed that Google changed the button layout in Gmail?
I'd like to say I love the change except only one thing. I know with
Google Chrome, I can easily input the keyword in the URL bar and press
Enter to start searching the web, but I'm also so used to put the
keyword in Gmail serch bar, and click the "Search Web" button which is
next to "Search Mail".

Today, they removed the button! I hardly think this is a smart
decision, since there are definitely sufficient spaces to place the
button, and more important, this button makes it so convenient. Is it
sure that the button has already waves us goodbye?

[Pratik Dubey]

Alas !

:-(

I am already feeling bad about it..!

--
Pratik Dubey
+919867020500

Visit me at:
http://oopsified.blogspot.com/

Follow me at:
http://twitter.com/oopsified

[Zack (Doc)]

I still have it. Either it's a rolling change, and you've gotten it
before me, or there's a problem with yours. Try clearing cache and
cookies to see if it comes back.

--

Emerson Pugh - "If the human mind was simple enough to understand,
we'd be too simple to understand it."

[Julie]

Mine has gone too.  But is it that important, you just have to adjust to using the search button in the toolbar.

[christina]

I am missing the "search web" button too! I don't have the toolbar
search box installed on my work computer, and I am sooo used to
searching for things straight from my Gmail account. I hope they bring
it back!

[David]

Yes, it is important to me. I access gmail from several different
computers, with different browsers. I would like to have the "search
web" facility available in the same place, in all the enivornments.

On Feb 5, 12:57 am, Julie <julieja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Mine has gone too.  But is it that important, you just have to adjust to
> using the search button in the toolbar.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 9:04 PM, Zack (Doc) <z...@tnan.net> wrote:
>
> > I still have it.  Either it's a rolling change, and you've gotten it
> > before me, or there's a problem with yours.  Try clearing cache and
> > cookies to see if it comes back.
>

> > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 04:45, graham <miao.gra...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Has anybody noticed that Google changed the button layout in Gmail?
> > > I'd like to say I love the change except only one thing. I know with
> > > Google Chrome, I can easily input the keyword in the URL bar and press
> > > Enter to start searching the web, but I'm also so used to put the
> > > keyword in Gmail serch bar, and click the "Search Web" button which is
> > > next to "Search Mail".
>
> > > Today, they removed the button! I hardly think this is a smart
> > > decision, since there are definitely sufficient spaces to place the
> > > button, and more important, this button makes it so convenient. Is it
> > > sure that the button has already waves us goodbye?
>
> > --
>
> > Emerson Pugh  - "If the human mind was simple enough to understand,

> > we'd be too simple to understand it."- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Peirce]

I noticed it immediately and miss it very much. I wonder why they
would make such an arbitrary change?

[tb79]

Just hit the "older version" link. You'll find it on top of the right
side. The you'll get your "search web"-button back!

[Rinda]

I use the "older version" which has the "Search Web" bar. I prefer
this lay out. Can anyone tell me how to make the "older version" as
the default version? Whenever I open G mail, it defaults to the "newer
version", and I have to click on "older version" to revert to the
version I prefer to work with.

[Evolver]

The "search the web" button is very useful when you use gmail as your
main page. The problem with searching from the toolbar is that it
opens the search in the same page. So, instead of just hitting the
search in gmail which opens a new tab/page, keeping your gmail page
open, you have open another tab and search. This is a real pain if you
do it 100 times a day like I do (I'm a researcher). The older version
has the button but is missing many of the lab features. Why would they
remove a button that is so obviously useful when its removal adds
nothing at all to the functionality of gmail? It's strange that this
little thing is the first time I've been pissed at google.

[Zack (Doc)]

Your toolbar should be able to be set up to create a new tab/window
for each search... Mine functions that way.

--

Hesketh Pearson - "Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege
of the learned. A widely- read man never q...

[Sean Murphy]

    Mine is missing too, although I never noticed until I started seeing posts about it. I use Firefox, so there is automatically a search bar no matter what page I am on. But even if I was stuck using Internet Explorer, I would just click on the "Web" link in the upper left corner of the browser window - which opens up Google's search page. I don't get why clicking on one link is a bigger deal than clicking on "Old Version"...

-Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice...

[Pratik Dubey]

 Don't you Guys think we lost the topic..!

The topic was Why Google dropped the curtain on the 'Search Web' button of Gmail?

and not the toolbar and various merits of toolbar..!

I don't want to use the older version..! I dun like the older version..! 

I am just want to  know / discuss out the purpose Google is trying to solve by doing these magic tricks !

"Hasta la vista baby (Search web button)"

;-)

--
Pratik Dubey
+919867020500

Visit me at:
http://oopsified.blogspot.com/

Follow me at:
http://twitter.com/oopsified

Know me at:
http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/118414782005441199334

[Zack (Doc)]

I don't think the topic was lost. Either in this thread, or another
on the same topic, it was proposed that they probably removed it as a
form of redundancy since other options are there. From that, the
other options are being discussed in case some people were unaware of
them.

--

Robert Chapman - "A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and
then be welcomed only for some propriety ...

[Sean Murphy]

    That is my take on this as well - they were just cleaning up redundant code, leaving out a couple of paragraphs that just duplicated stuff easily available elsewhere.

-Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice...

[worth...@gmail.com]

Why so sanguine about the elimination of the "Search Web" button, you
moderators? Many times I have looked in my archives for something and
then gone right to the Web with that button when it wasn't initially
found. What could it cost Google to leave it in?--it seems to me
that's the question, rather than how you can work around not having
it. If they need users to affirm that it is indeed useful, I'm there
and am visiting the suggestion page to say so.

Worth

On Feb 6, 1:56 pm, Sean Murphy <smpara...@gmail.com> wrote:
>     That is my take on this as well - they were just cleaning up redundant
> code, leaving out a couple of paragraphs that just duplicated stuff easily
> available elsewhere.
>
> -Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice...
>

[Sean Murphy]

    Well, I'm not a Moderator, but you replied to my message with this, so I'll pop in my 2.44¢ worth (adjusted for the exchange rate). I am sanguine about Google removing a redundant feature because it is redundant, and it being removed does not impair my use of Gmail at all. It might even improve Gmail's performance by some imperceptible amount - it is one or two fewer paragraphs of HTML that have to load when I log in to Gmail after all. bottom line for me though, is i log in to Gmail to check my Gmail, and I use the search bar when I want to do a search (or just highlight a phrase and right-click on it - I do use Firefox after all).

-Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice...

[Richard Carlson]

I greatly miss the Search Web option.  As a technophobic senior citizen, I accept there are other options---please describe in detail how to find and use them.

 

Thanks much.

[Julie]

Firstly, which browser do you use?

Julie

[Andy]

> I greatly miss the Search Web option. As a technophobic senior citizen, I
> accept there are other options---please describe in detail how to find and
> use them.

I've been reluctant to add to this thread ...

... but one of the simplest options is to just use the 'windows' operating
system you are probably using. Microsoft Windows, Apple, and just about
every modern PC operating system has a windows-based GUI.

Just open one window with Google search in it, and another for Gmail.

Then you can use Alt-Tab, or a mouse click, to swap between them. When you
want to do a web search, highlight and copy the text you want, switch to the
Google window, and paste it in. Works for me. Might not work for you, I
realize; but it works with anyone's web browser.

On the other hand, I didn't use the Gmail "Search web" button, so I don't
know if I was missing something. I'm beginning to think I must be missing
something.

Andy

[Richard Carlson]

Internet explorer 7.0

[☼Sun]

oooo I noticed it has disappeared immediately and out of habit I go
there just on reflex and end up accidentally clicking Show search
options or
Create a filter But, I have to consciously click on web LOL, so it
kinda works for me.... I use Firefox browser.

Hugz
Sun

On Feb 7, 4:30 pm, Richard Carlson <recid...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Internet explorer 7.0
>

> On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 2:29 PM, Julie <julieja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Firstly, which browser do you use?
>
> > Julie
>

> > On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 7:40 PM, Richard Carlson <recid...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >> I greatly miss the Search Web option.  As a technophobic senior citizen, I
> >> accept there are other options---please describe in detail how to find and
> >> use them.
>
> >> Thanks much.
>

> >>   On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 5:38 AM, worthban...@gmail.com <

[Julie]

OK Richard,

you can follow Andy's excellent instructions, or

with IE6 (sorry I don't have IE7 but this probably hasn't changed) there is a row of symbols one of which is a magnifying glass.  That is Search.  It will bring up a box in which you type what you want to search for.

With Firefox there is a similar box into which you type what you want to search for, and simply press Enter.

Or install the Google Toolbar, (search for Google Toolbar), and that provides the same functionality.

It is perhaps because such searchs are so easy to do from so many places that Gmail has removed this duplication.

[Richard Carlson]

Julie, Andy, et al

 

As a retired 74 yo physician (who happens to have Parkinson's), please know there is a cohort of us folks who are devoid of training in the cyber world, and as such, are most grateful for elemental suggestions when providing solutions for the very basic problems.  We are probably a tiny minority, so realize the priority must be for helping the majority.  Regardless, thanks much for the good responses.

 

REC

[jillybee72]

I don't WANT to open two windows or tabs, and I can't download the
google toolbar or a different browser because I'm at work.

If anyone from Gmail reads this, please put the button back, it wasn't
hurtin' nobody.

[Zack (Doc)]

Sorry Jillybee... they don't read this. Nobody here but us users.

--

John Lennon - "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making
other plans."

[Margot Pratt]

If you aren't seeing the Search the Web button then you're getting the
"Newer Version", aka User Interface 2. The temporary way to get the
"Search the Web" button back is to click on "Older Version" at the top
right, which puts you back in User Interface 1 (the digerati's name
for "Older Version": old is 1, new is 2, get it? What on earth will
they call 3?). You'll notice that when you hover over "Older Version"
the status bar at bottom left shows http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1
And when you click on it, that's what shows up in the address bar at
top left. ui=1 means "Older Version," ui=2 means "Newer Version."

Ok, so that's the temporary way. The permanent way to get your
Search the Web button back is to use that URL, exactly as I typed it
above, including ?ui=1, in whatever you use to invoke your browser in
the first place. Most people who want the "Search the Web" button
should be happy to make exactly that URL the home page for their
preferred browser. This will work whether you are a PC, a Mac, a
Penguin, or any other member of that silicon kingdom.

If you don't want to change your browser's main home page and you're a
PC (others feel free to chime in here), then another way (assuming
you're using XP or Vista and not Windows 7) is to put a shortcut to
your favorite browser in the Quick Launch bar and customize it to your
heart's content by right clicking on it and then left clicking on
Properties. In the Properties window, click on the Short Cut tab.
At the end of the Target field add the above URL (with a space in
front of it). And you may want to Change Icon to something more
suggestive such as the envelope icon (since this Quick Launch button
will bring up your browser in mail-reading mode). If you want a
different name for that particular Quick Launch button (the name that
shows up when you hover over the button), click on the General tab at
the top and rename the button to Mail or whatever.

You can put multiple links to your favorite browser(s) in the Quick
Launch bar, each customized with its own name, its own icon, and its
own starting URL. Your fetish here.

Sadly Windows 7 has taken all that customizability away and replaced
it with a taskbar with an IQ of around 65 that thinks it's smarter
than you and can therefore customize itself far better than you ever
could provided your IQ is below 60. Enjoy the customizable Quick
Launch bar while it lasts, then surrender to The Matrix (= Windows 7,
which should be in the shops some time in the next 6-12 months, right
now it's in beta and likely there'll be a couple of Release Candidates
before launch).

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:13, jillybee72 <jillbern...@gmail.com>

[Sean Murphy]

    Actually, I use a significantly more customizeable program that replaces the Quick Launch bar. I like being able to add menus to my taskbar instead of only being able to add shortcuts. I jsut gave in and moved to Vists, and it ported no problem, so it shold port to 7 too...

-Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

[Richard Carlson]

My response to the 'elegant' treatise below is similar to that of patiets who gave me the glazed look as I tried to explain the physiology of their vertigo problem.  They were duly impressed, but understood not a word.  Such is life in the high tech world for us neophytes/seniors.

 

I'll continue to miss the convenience of the Search Web button until some future visitor will guide my shaky mind/hands to a more inferior option.

 

Thanks much.

[Margot Pratt]

On Feb 12, 1:15 pm, Richard Carlson <recid...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My response to the 'elegant' treatise below is similar to that of patiets
> who gave me the glazed look as I tried to explain the physiology of their
> vertigo problem.  They were duly impressed, but understood not a word.

Sorry about that. The simple solution is to change your browser's
home page to

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1

In Internet Explorer click on Tools > Internet Options > General.
In Firefox, click on Tools > Options > Main.
In both cases, cut and paste the above line into the Home Page field.

That way you'll always get Gmail when you start your browser,
including the Search the Web button.
Those who don't wan't Gmail when they start their browser are either
unlikely to want the Search the Web button or will be motivated to try
the other solutions.

[Richard Carlson]

What a marvelous example of a simple and effective response to an old guy's lack of tech understanding or experience.

 

Thanks a whole bunch.

 

REC