Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software
Google Buddy brings searching to the menu bar
- Simple Search - this presents a spotlight-esque menu item that allows you to search for any web page using Google
- Advanced Search - this allows you to use the advanced features that Google offers, such as searching using modifiers (all, exactly, any, none) or searching a specific site
- Image Search - just as the name hints, it allows you to search Google images
- Advanced Video Search - this allows you to search Google Video (however, since Google now owns YouTube, they should have included a YouTube search feature as well)
- Advanced News Search - allows you to search Google's News archive
- Special Searches - this feature allows you to search for movies, weather, links, and phone numbers
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David Vriezen said 9:51PM on 1-08-2008
The thing about this? I can replicate the exact same thing with Quicksilver and a few bookmarked searches. Right click on a search box, save search as with a keyword like g for google, gi for google image, etc. Then you've got all the power of Google at the convenience of QS. And then all you have to do is manually use the advanced features.
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Centurious said 10:35PM on 1-08-2008
I've used Butler (http://www.many-tricks.com/butler/) for a couple of years now. In addition to many other features it can insert a little Google search window in your menu bar that lets you search images, groups, dictionaries and many more. Totally customizable. Leopard compatible, so far. Add other search engines such as Yahoo, Hotbot, etc. While it doesn't offer Google Buddy's "advanced features" it seems to offer about everything else - and it's FREE!
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ramond said 10:40PM on 1-08-2008
Ok so you said it allows you do make different kinds of searches, but please tell us HOW you do them. e.g. shortcut key, choose from menu item.
Then we can decide if it is an improvement over Quicksilver or Inquisitor.
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Cory Bohon said 10:45PM on 1-08-2008
You can get to Google Buddy by either clicking the icon or assigning a keyboard shortcut. Each of the functions can be switched between by another shortcut.
Chad Kirchner said 11:01PM on 1-08-2008
Why does this program cost money? Do they not have it set up to receive money from Google whenever someone executes a search. Seems to me they could use that model to make money and offer the product for free.
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FamousPete said 11:13PM on 1-08-2008
Save some dough, and stick w/ QuickSilver.
Life is good with QS + YubNub.
http://www.lifeclever.com/quicksilver-yubnub-rapid-web-searches-and-more/
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John Russell said 11:31PM on 1-08-2008
I would recommend Waffle Software's Monocle.
http://wafflesoftware.net/monocle/
It does pretty much what this app does, but it's free, and you can easily expand it to work with almost any search engine.
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C said 11:12AM on 1-09-2008
I second Monacle. It does what it's supposed to and it's free.
falcn said 11:42AM on 1-09-2008
Monocle doesn't do autocompletition and real-time results like Inquisitor. And it's seens to be abandoned.
John Russell said 3:32PM on 1-09-2008
I wouldn't say it's abandoned, it looks like they even made an effort to make it Leopard compatible.
Grog said 12:45AM on 1-09-2008
While I'm pleased to see a useful article that doesn't deal with the iPhone (not all of us bought one!), is there a reason why we so often get these advertisements for pay software that is inferior to free software?
I'm more than willing to support good developers, but only if they do more for me than the ones who don't ask $10 for a pretty small function...
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Think Adrian said 2:14AM on 1-09-2008
So, now we get TWO search icons in the menubar? Nice.
There must be a google plugin for Spotlight somewhere on the net...
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Scott said 9:29AM on 1-09-2008
There are that many people who don't have a browser running? They all have that box in the top right corner, and it's more flexible, at least in Firefox, where you can set it for any of hundreds of sites and pick from a list of selected ones with 2 mouse clicks (I use the Amazon, Wikipedia, and Pricegrabber searches all the time). (I don't know if Safari supports this--I use it as my secondary browser)
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Praveen said 12:26PM on 1-09-2008
I second "Where's the Google Search for Spotlight" comment - at least for Leopard. There WAS one for Tiger, but it broke for Leopard and is no longer supported. Any replacements? I want to integrate google searches into spotlight now that i've ditched Quicksilver (i know i know - but I'm trying to get rid of unnecessary wares and i only used qs as an applauncher - something spotlight is good for).
Off topic - anyone else notice that spotlight is slow (misses key strokes etc) the first time you use it but after that its fine?
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booble said 4:41PM on 1-09-2008
I've noticed that Spotlight is slow... all the time! For me, it's very unresponsive to keystrokes and crashes often. Much worse than in Tiger. The overall functionality of Leopard Spotlight is much nicer, but I've been having reliability issues since day one.