Microsoft has developed the new Windows 7 Explorer search, featured with various little known utilities. One of them is that you can search the web exactly from your Windows 7 Explorer search box by creating your own search connector.
You can also search in the popular search engines or site search providers like Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, Flickr, Google blog and many more within the Windows 7 Explorer.
Let me start with an example. If you want to search in Yahoo from your Windows 7 explorer then follow the steps:
1. Download the search connector for Yahoo.
2. Then double click on that file (.osdx).
3. You may be prompted to add the search connector. Click on “Add”.
4. It will automatically add the Yahoo search connector to your Windows 7 explorer and the explorer window will automatically open.
5. Search your keyword from the search box at the top right corner.
6. Windows 7 Search is featured with instant search. So it will immediately list the result against your keyword when you type.
7. Click on Show preview from the explorer menu bar and select the search item that you want to browse.
You can download more search connectors. Here is a list of search connectors from popular search providers.
1. TechTipsGeek search connector
1. Google Blog Search Connector
2. Google News Search Connector
3. Yahoo Video Search Connector
4. Yahoo Image Search Connector
5. Amazon Search Connector
6. Ebay Search Connector
7. Digg Search Connector
8. Wired Search Connector
9. YouTube Search Connector
10. Flickr Search Connector
11. MSN Search Connector
12. Google Search connector for Windows 7
13. Bing search connector
After successful addition of the search connectors, they will be listed under Favorites at Windows 7 Explorer.
Build search connector for your own website
You can build the search connector for your own Website. This will be very handy if you want to search your website directly from Windows 7 explorer. You can also publish the search connector of your site or blog so that the users can perform the search within their explorer window if they wish. To do so copy the following piece of code and change the highlighted portions with your own website details.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/"> <ShortName>TechTipsGeek</ShortName> <Description>OpenSearch TechTipsGeek via Live Search using Windows 7 Federated Search</Description> <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://api.bing.com/rss.aspx?source=web&query={searchTerms} site:techtipsgeek.com&web.count=50"/> <Url type="text/html" template="http://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}+site:techtipsgeek.com"/> </OpenSearchDescription> Click here to get the text version. After making the changes, save the file as YourFileName.osdx and of course change the file type to “All files” before saving. [via Seven Forum]
That’s all!
Related reading: Add Custom Search Form To Firefox Search Bar.
nice trick thank you!!