Re: google box

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Irene Silverman"  on Fri,
14 Nov 2003 17:42:38 -0500

> From: R. E. Stannard Jr.
> Was it here someone posted how to put a google box on a
> toolbar directly accessible even when not browsing?

> I don't think it was here, but here it is: Go to Google,
> type Google toolbar 2.0, follow the very clear instructions.

Isn't the Google Toolbar only for Internet Explorer? I
prefer Netscape. There's a suave toolbar for Netscape
(a.k.a. Mozilla), supposedly more powerful than the IE
version, at:

 http://googlebar.mozdev.org/

But to my mind, less is much more. Google Toolbars are
incredibly cluttered, with so many useless "who cares"
options. I've always adopted a narrowly targeted approach:
from the Desktop (whether the browser is open or not), or
within the browser itself -- note that these are the three
main situations anyone confronts -- click somewhere, e.g. in
the SysTray, and open a query input box that *directly
performs* the searches that I really use. Those searches
are two: DejaNews (a.k.a. "Google Groups", a singularly
dull appellation), to me the single most important Net
asset; and also, but less important to me, regular Google
search.

Let's focus on DejaNews|Google Groups, as example. On the
Desktop and/or in the SysTray, you might as well just call
DejaNews Advanced Search directly. You have to input your
query somewhere, and it might as well be there, where you
are offered a lot of Boolean and date-delimited flexibility,
and don't need to think about "" quotes, OR, or AND
operators (even though it is faster to input them directly).
So make a Shortcut (and then drag it into the SysTray if you
want), e.g.:

 d:\path\Netscp.exe
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?num=100&as_drrb=b&as_miny=1999&as_minm=1&as_mind=1&hl=en

[Beware of broken URL above!]
(I like to limit my queries to messages from the past 4-5
years, so I don't get a lot of DR-DOS and WordStar hits --
but you can adjust mind[ate], minm[onth], and miny[ear] to
taste -- my "min"imums, above, are 1 1 1999).

[If you really _want_ to shape queries directly, without a
fill-in-the-blanks form, here's a recipe. Unfortunately,
the following Javascript code is too long to
fit on a DOS command line (max 255 chars), so we resort
instead to calling a local disk-based webpage that uses the
"META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT" redirection tag, which can
specify a URL of any length. We'll call this webpage
DEJA.HTM:
***************************



***************************
Beware of broken URL above! That META tag is just one long line.

Don't like 100 hits per page? Change the "num=" spec.
Change anything you don't like. Note that a "max"imum date
has to be established, in order to get flexibility to adjust
the dates on the result page. Theoretically, you'd like to
set that to year 2010, so you'd never have to fuss with it
again; but Netscape only understands the current year, so it
is set here to 12 31 2003. Must be changed to "2004" at
the end of this year!

Now establish your Desktop|SysTray Shortcut -- the "Target"
is:

 d:\path\Netscp.exe d:\path\DEJA.HTM

Finito.]

That leaves the situation where your browser is open and you
want to jump directly to a DejaNews query. In this case, a
simple Toolbar button in the browser is the best idea. To
create a Mozilla Toolbar button, you need an HTML webpage
where the "tool" is embedded, ready to be dragged and
dropped onto the Toolbar. I've prepared just such a
webpage, and I attach it to this message: TOOLBAR.HTM. The
procedure is:

Launch Netscape
Browse to local file TOOLBAR.HTM
Make Netscape a small-ish window -- filling half the screen
Click on Bookmarks ==> Manage Bookmarks [or Ctrl-B]
Position (drag) "Bookmark Manager" so that you can see both
 TOOLBAR.HTM and Bookmark Manager simultaneously
Drag (LeftMouseButton) the appropriate URL (DejaNews or
 Google Search) in TOOLBAR.HTM into Bookmark Manager's
 "Personal Toolbar" list, and position it where you want
 it
Close Bookmark Manager
Close and relaunch Netscape

The result is, when you click on the tool, a window opens
that allows you to directly input query keywords (and
operators, etc). When you hit , query results are
returned by the search engine.

Good luck. Let me know (if anybody tries this).

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------

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TOOLBAR.HTM

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