Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Internet Tools, First Look
TUAW First Look: Google Quick Search Box for Mac
The application takes up about 18 MB of space on your Mac hard disk, and once it is installed a small search box hovers on your screen (see above). You can toggle the presence of the box by pressing Control-Space Bar. The keyboard shortcut, as well as the appearance of the search box, can be customized in a very thorough preferences panel.
Once the search box appears on your screen, you can type anything into the box and QSB will immediately search both your computer and Google for items that are close to your search criteria. Want to search something other than Google? There's quite a list of built-in locations (below):
While I was writing this post, a massive thunderstorm went through, dumping rain and hail. Can you check weather with Google QSB? See for yourself:
Of course, the dark skies, rolling thunder, and marble-sized hail on the ground should have been a clue about the weather.
I could go on for a while about this cool little application, but I think I'd better serve the TUAW audience by saying "go out and download Google Quick Search Box -- now!"
I could go on for a while about this cool little application, but I think I'd better serve the TUAW audience by saying "go out and download Google Quick Search Box -- now!"
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Ian said 7:41PM on 6-10-2009
That's pretty neat. At first, I thought it was just another finder/launcher like spotlight or QuickSilver, but I could see myself using this and QuickSilver at the same time.
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mando said 7:56PM on 6-10-2009
same here, i just need a plug in for controlling iTunes....
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d said 8:01PM on 6-10-2009
Here's the trick I used for my mighty mouse and use for this, too:
Dockables (google it)
I just command+command the action, than the dockable comes up and I click it. It performs the action and quits itself. It works real well for mighty mouse, been using it for years. I haven't used this much with qsb as this was just released today.
Manu said 12:02AM on 6-11-2009
I like how QSB controls itunes. QSB autocompletes actions and show partial search results, thus removing the need to memorize it.
I have written a guide on QSB. See it for a step-by-step explanations of QSB's features.
http://www.manu-j.com/blog/google-quick-search-box-guide/329/
Paul Mensah said 8:08PM on 6-10-2009
How is this different from spotlight? I'm not trying to be a smart ass I really want to know
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Jon said 8:13PM on 6-10-2009
That's just what I was thinking.
I would imagine this would have to run some form of indexing...does it turn off spotlight, replace it, compliment it etc...how about some details in the post?
mickeys said 8:33PM on 6-10-2009
This *is* different then spotlight.
GSB and Quicksilver, both work on a 'object' + 'action' structure.
You type stuff in, to determine what the object is going to be, then you select what type of action to perform on it.
For example, your object might be a file on your desktop, and your action might be open, open with.. or copy or email...
assuming that GSB has the same type of extensibility as quicksilver we might see various plugins that allow for new Object types.. like Twitter, Adium, or Mail.
So very different then Spotlight.
:D
Martin said 8:47PM on 6-10-2009
And if I'm not mistaken, Spotlight doesn't search the web, just your web history.
Andrew Warner said 8:09PM on 6-10-2009
It's kind of frustrating that I need to have it running in the dock. I wish web and gmail search was built into spotlight.
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marden72 said 2:01AM on 6-11-2009
Actually, in preferences, there is an option to hide the dock icon.
Andrew said 8:10PM on 6-10-2009
This guy lives in Highlands Ranch, cause thats my zip code
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thinktwice said 8:10PM on 6-10-2009
Is this was what Nicolas Jitkoff (Alcor) has been working on at Google since abandoning Quicksilver?
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bjhanifin said 2:32AM on 6-11-2009
Yes.
Rock said 8:12PM on 6-10-2009
The creator of Quicksilver is leading this project, no?
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Merlyn3D said 8:14PM on 6-10-2009
Um...this has been around for a year now.
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KarlW said 8:46PM on 6-10-2009
True. I've been using it for ages.
bjhanifin said 2:28AM on 6-11-2009
Yes. But it was just featured on google.com/mac for the 1st time today! So, I think that signifies a public release.
Harvey said 8:15PM on 6-10-2009
Is this from the guy who wrote QuickSilver? I think I saw via a tech talk that he works at Google.
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Rock said 8:17PM on 6-10-2009
Also, is this actually a new release? I seem to have version 2.0.0.1053 in my downloads folder...(current on the site is 2.0.0.1447)
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Tamara said 10:56PM on 6-11-2009
1447 would be greater than 1053, no?