Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Search

You have probably noticed this yourself: when you do a search on Google there tends to be a lot of unfilled, unused, or otherwise blank area to the right of the search results that could be used for better things. Things besides ads that might relate to your search. Such as Wikipedia summaries for your search term, or related images and videos, and dictionary definitions. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Well, If you’ve ever had such dreams of grandeur, that wish has been fulfilled.

It’s called Google Extra, a Greasemonkey script that adds just that extra functionality you’ve been looking for in your Google searches. Let’s state you search for the term “monkeys.” Not only are you served your usual search results about “monkeys” on the left, but results from an image search, video search, a Wikipedia entry on “monkeys,” and the dictionary definition of what monkeys are on the right.

The nice thing is, you can organize the stack of result boxes in any way you want. So, if for convenience’s sake, you preferred a dictionary definition at the very top before your image results, you can do that. The script remembers your preferences, locking in each last ounce of goodness from your searches. That, and the extra results load after your primary ones, which keeps the experience quick and snappy without a noticeable increase in page load times.

[via CyberNet]

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Filed under: Productivity, Google, Beta, Search

Google Toolbar version 5 for World wide web Explorer has just been made available as a public beta. Does the beta tag scare you? Not to worry; Google’s beta tag has traditionally meant something a little more polished than most beta software (for example, Gmail is still in beta, as is Picasa).

Version 5 introduces a number of new features, including access to your Toolbar settings from any personal that you log into with your Google Account, improved recommendations for broken links, and new keyboard navigation and access.

The keyboard navigation is simple and sweet. From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut Alt+G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and left arrow keys move focus between buttons.

The capability to access your Toolbar settings after signing into your Google account fits into Google’s focus for giving unity to your browsing experience, whether you be on your home, work, or laptop personal. Google already has other tools to help accomplish this (e.g. Google Browser Sync, though that’s only available as a plugin for Firefox), and Toolbar access is a nice addition.

You’ll need Internet Explorer 6.0 or later in order to install Google Toolbar version 5.

[Via the Google blog]

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