Introducing searchboxing.com

searchboxing.com is a new site that uses content from lookpicking.com to create a list of OpenSearch plugins, which are usable with OpenSearch-enabled browsers. It is my attempt to make the great content from the main app — lookpicking — available to browsers other than Firefox, and also to reach those who don’t want to install the add-on. Of course, it might also help to make more people curious about lookpicking. Please check it out, I think it is one of the easiest ways to test and add OpenSearch plugins to your browser as of now.
Go to searchboxing.com!

All is working

So apparently it was just a problem of the specific DNS server that I was using. Maybe somehow related to the recent censorship efforts of our administration? Well I switched my DNS servers, problem solved. Should anyone be having similar issues, please let me know.

Down (from Germany, at least)

Weird, probably a DNS-related issue. Investigating.
*edit*
Hm, probably there’s nothing to be done for me. Seems to be working fine from the US. Hope it will fix itself. Will doublecheck everything anyway.

Up again

As far as I can see, everything is up and running now. Since this is a completely new environment, I cannot be completely sure though. Please let me know if you find anything that doesn’t work.

Currently down, will be right back up

Lookpicking.com is down right now, explanation soon to follow. Will be up in a few minutes, and faster than ever.
*EDIT*
Ok, now while the new DNS entries are distributed, let me quickly explain what happened: I was planning the perfect transition to a new, better host, Mosso/Slicehost/Rackspace. It was scheduled for today, since I have payed my old host for a period that ends today. Not yesterday, I have payed for a year on the 18th of April last year. So my old host apparently decides to drop my account one day early. Well, this means that I have to use yesterday’s database backups. Everything from then on is lost, I’m sorry about that. Also, we have this stupid downtime. Apologies for that, too. But there is hope: I have tried the site on the new server, and it’s much faster. It is probably also going to be less expensive for me. To conclude, there is a ton of other reasons to favor Mosso over Hostingrails, but I wont go into all the dirty details. Just trust me. Or ask me.

Added OpenID support

Users can now sign up and log in using their Yahoo or Google accounts, as well as those from many other OpenId identity providers. Existing users can log in, go to ’settings’, and add as many OpenID identifiers to their account as they wish to. New users that initially sign up via an OpenID provider can set up a password later on. I have decided to go with an OpenID ‘aggregator’ called rpxnow for starters. Please let me know how this works out for you.

Search in page shortcut

There’s a tiny new feature in the newest version of the add-on: Hit ctrl-return, and your current search query gets copied to the in-page search bar at the bottom of the browser window. Hit return again, and it shows the first match in the current page. Or, hit ctrl-return to highlight all occurrences (cmd-return on MacOS). Get the newest version here.

Added a howto video for multifield forms

The newest version of the Firefox add-on supports controlling multiple form fields from the search bar (get the newest version of the Firefox add-on). Just input your query separated by forward slashes. All the details on how to easily create and use them are in this new screencast:

I have added some examples that are tagged with ‘multifield’. List them by clicking here (provided you are logged into lookpicking.com).

If anything is unclear, please feel free to ask your questions in the comments!

Added some howto videos

As my little utility is constantly getting more complex, I’m pretty sure not many people know how to use all its features by now. To change that, I have started to make some screencasts. This time they include audio, so I apologize in advance: I’m not a native speaker! If you find them useful, I will add more in the future. These are the first two (somehow the youtube high quality trick isn’t working from here, so you may wanna go here to watch them in better quality):

Lookpicking Howto 1: Searching with the Firefox add-on

Lookpicking Howto 2: Adding new search engines

Not to forget one that has recently been posted on CNET TV, showing the lookpicking add-on on Mac OS.

Firefox Add-on version 0.20081127 released

The new version has a few features that are not completely self-explanatory. I will write about them in detail as soon as I can. So far, the add-on has not been set to public at the Mozilla page, so you would have to get it from my page. Since it is so new, please let me know about any problems or suggestions you are having here.

Just to give you an idea about what is new, this is the feature list:

1. Autodetect search engines in OpenSearch format
   Just install the add-on and go to a page like this. You will notice a little blue shade in the left part of your search box (just as in the standard search box). Click on the menu and add any search engines to your profile that are provided by the site you’re on.
2. New alternative Opensearch-like URL syntax
   When adding search engines by hand (go here and click on ‘add one’ next to the title), you can leave ’search field name’ empty and put a placeholder in the result page variable (example: http://google.com/search?q={searchTerms}). This allows for more flexibility when the result page url doesn’t follow the classic GET-variable pattern.
3. Multi field forms (manual creation, look for examples tagged with ‘multifield’)
   You can add more than one placeholder in the above URL patterns. The first is the same as above {searchTerms}, the next ones are {%2}, {%3} and so on.
   Then, you can separate the parts in your search box using one of the following characters: ‘/’, ‘|’ or ‘>’. Please note that the ‘test’ function directly from the list does not yet work for these (neither for the URLs from 2.).
4. Improved “Lookpick this…” dialog
   Not much to say here. Adding search engines via the context menu still works as usual, but now you can directly add a description in the dialog. It tries to prefill the description from the page’s corresponding meta tag (which is not always present).

In general, I will be moving more in the direction of Opensearch, as it seems to be a natural fit. Oh, and please don’t ask about the logic behind the version numbering