GoogleResultsWalker Firefox addon: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:06, 18 September 2008

Google Results Walker in action

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Description

This Firefox addon enables fast navigation of google results, while still retaining the google "feel". Navigate the results using the mousewheel, and mouse over a result to display it in a window to the right. Try it, it's fast and fun!

Documentation

When you search using google, the results page will be changed as follows.

The results on the lefthand side will be placed in a scrollable container. Google results are 48 "small" characters wide. The container will be sized to hold the results exactly as google provides them.
A second container is placed in the remaining space on the right. Hover over a result link with the mouse and it will be displayed in the righthand container.

There are two checkboxes in the bar above the results: [ ] Preview [ ] Hover

Turn off Preview to remove the Google Results Walker preview window, and restore the results as they were.
Turn off Hover to disable hovering. To view a preview, click the "Preview" link at the end of the result block.

Markup buttons will be provided to allow you to "tag" important results with a color, or remove uninteresting results. The markup is temporary - if you refresh the page, you will start with the original unmarked results again.

Use a high resolution (1024x768 or higher) to really get the most out of this addon. If you run at a very high resolution of 1600x1200 or higher, you will most likely be able to see the full result page. Good times!

Status

Personally, I need this addon, and I'll be maintaining it into the foreseeable future. But I've decided to try a digital-economy experiment: my development on the addon will be strictly dictated by donations. If you're the first to donate $5 and you want a flashing hot pink border, I'll give it my best shot. Fly me, I'm yours. Updated daily.

Request	Donation
Allow preferences to be saved	$20
Prevent result from taking over entire window	(may not be permitted by Firefox)
Improve initial size/resize of results container
Provide buttons to zoom in/out results
Add Options to split preview into 1, 2 or 4 panes and each roll over puts the preview in the next pane

Click here to join in. There will be a "Request" field
at the end of the process. Tell me your bidding.

Send gripes, hellos, patches, death threats, love letters to: resultswalker@gmail.com

Addon Compatibility

I've tried this with the following addons, with pretty good success. Let me know if there's something specific that doesn't work for you.

GooglePreview - Seems compatible, even though we're both mucking with the same results. In fact, the two add-ons seem to complement each other pretty well. The preview thumbnail is small and can be out of date, but it gives you a quick visual cue. Then, for the real deal, you can pull up a live preview. Note that unlike GooglePreview, Google Results Walker doesn't know anything about your searches (it doesn't need to). But I wouldn't worry, GooglePreview's privacy policy is reassuring. Recommended.
NoSquint - Improves Firefox's text resizing ("zooming"). Makes a great companion for Google Results Walker. Zooming out on the page is a great way to make the preview fit better. Without this addon, Firefox 3.0.1 forces a text size reset when you load a new preview. I may try to get Google Results Walker to prevent this silly resize, but until I do, there's NoSquint. I recommend setting the zoom to 100% after you install, instead of the default 120%.
CustomizeGoogle - Be careful, this add-on includes a "stream results" option that pulls down more than the first page of search results. I typically ask google for 100 results, and with this option on, I was pulling down thousands of results at a time. Before long, google was suspecting spyware involvement, and I had to answer some captchas to get to results. I recommend this add-on with "stream results" turned off.
Fasterfox - This add-on includes link prefetching (controversial topic!) that makes for even faster mouseovers (and massive bandwidth usage!). Has this fallen out of favor? If I was connected to the backbone, I'd probably be all about combining this one into the mix. Let me know about your experiences.
Surf Canyon - similar goals - need to test compatibility, check features, etc.
Better Search - similar goals - need to test compatibility, check features, etc.
The usual popular ones (Adblock Plus, ColorfulTabs, TabMixPlus, Greasemonkey, etc.) seem fine.

Changelog

0.5.7 09/17/2008

Request	Donation
Handle font size change	Handled by NoSquint addon, see compatibility notes
Make Preview window resizable	Just turn off preview to get it out of the way.

Added results markup, allowing results to be marked with a color or entirely removed from the results list (until the next search).
Added preview link at end of each result. You can now toggle off hovering and decide when you want a preview.

0.5.6 09/07/2008

Request	Donation
If browsing in preview window you can get far away from the original google result. Create a way to open the current preview window in a new tab, window, current tab, etc.	Just right-click in frame and use the frame menu.
Toggle on/off addon (big button linked to a preference?)

Added preview toggle. The add-on will now get nicely out of your way whenever you like.
Hovering is properly disabled when preview is toggled off.

0.5.5 09/05/2008

Request	Donation
Toggle on/off mouseover with a big lightswitch	$5

Updated icon, description.
Added subtle highlight to hovered results.
Added hover toggle.
Added Dan, Gary to contributors.
Determined that CustomizeGoogle "stream search results" with 100 results will quickly get you banned by Google! Proceed with caution...

0.5.4 09/02/2008

fixed default "no results" page
reduced size of javascript

0.5.3 09/01/2008

updated to skip table#nav in height calc if it doesn't exist (before it would error out)
removed "get lucky" autoload until I can prevent iframe from taking over window

0.5.2 09/01/2008

iframe resized on window resize

0.5.1 08/30/2008

two-columns, sized correctly on first view (but not on window resize)

0.0.1 2008

originally named "google unsucked", not very nice

ancient past 01/14/2004

Birth: the original (currently broken) perl webscrape version was called GoogleFramed

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * The results on the lefthand side will be placed in a scrollable container.  Google results are 48 "small" characters wide.  The container will be sized to hold the results exactly as google provides them.
 * A second container is placed in the remaining space on the right.  Hover over a result link with the mouse and it will be displayed in the righthand container.
-* There are two checkboxes in the bar above the results: [ ] Preview  [ ] Hover
+There are two checkboxes in the bar above the results: [ ] Preview  [ ] Hover
 * Turn off Preview to remove the Google Results Walker preview window, and restore the results as they were.
 * Turn off Hover to disable hovering.  To view a preview, click the "Preview" link at the end of the result block.
-* Markup buttons will be provided to allow you to "tag" important results with a color, or remove uninteresting results.  The markup is temporary - if you refresh the page, you will start with the original unmarked results again.
+Markup buttons will be provided to allow you to "tag" important results with a color, or remove uninteresting results.  The markup is temporary - if you refresh the page, you will start with the original unmarked results again.
 Use a high resolution (1024x768 or higher) to really get the most out of this addon.  If you run at a very high resolution of 1600x1200 or higher, you will most likely be able to see the full result page.  Good times!