Where in the World is OpenSearchFox?
OpenSearchFox is a great Firefox add-on that makes it easy to add search engines to the search box in the upper righthand corner of the browser. I use OpenSearchFox on a regular basis, and after upgrading to Firefox 3.0 recently, I was pleased to see that OpenSearchFox is compatible with the latest version of the browser. Last year I wrote a post recommending OpenSearchFox, and explaining how OpenSearchFox works:
When you find a webpage with a search function that you’d like to add to your Firefox search box, simply right-click on the search input field; from the choices listed on the right-click menu, select “Add OpenSearch plugin.” A dialog box will appear which will allow you to modify the name and description of the search engine that you’re adding to the search box, and even to change the search engine icon; make the changes that you wish to make, click on the “Next” button and then on the “Finish” button, and you will have successfully added the search engine to your browser’s search box.
Recently, however, I browsed through the list of Firefox search tool add-ons at mozilla.org, and noticed that OpenSearchFox wasn’t on the list. Not to worry, though: If the capability to add search engines to the Firefox search bar with a click of the mouse appeals to you, there are a couple of available options.
- First, although OpenSearchFox is not on the list of Firefox add-ons at mozilla.org (for reasons that are not readily apparent), this add-on remains available online. Go to Softpedia.com to download OpenSearchFox.
- Second, another add-on with essentially the same functionality as OpenSearchFox is available at mozilla.org. Download Add to Search Bar 1.7 to add this capability to your Firefox browser.
Whether you choose OpenSearchFox or Add to Search Bar 1.7, I think you’ll find that this extension to the Firefox browser will be very useful for your online research activities.
The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines List
If you like lists (and let’s face it - if you’re doing research, what’s not to like about lists?), we suggest that you check out the lists over at AltSearchEngines.
Charles Knight at AltSearchEngines unearths, tracks, and reports on niche and alternative search engines. At the beginning of each month he publishes an alternative search engine “Top 100″ list. The March 2008 Top 100 list is available here.
The list can be downloaded in either PDF or .xls spreadsheet format. I usually download the monthly list in both formats, but find the spreadsheet format to be more useful, in a couple of ways. First, the spreadsheet’s URL links to the search engines are clickable. Second, the Top 100 list is arranged alphabetically by search engine name, but with the spreadsheet format it is possible to sort the list data so that the list is arranged by search engine category (e.g., health search, games search, blog search, video search, wine search).
Whether you’re doing online research in an area covered by a niche search engine, or whether you’re interested in trying out an alternative approach to general search, the Top 100 list is a good starting point for exploring the world of alternative search engines.
Doing Research, Taking Notes - Zotero
Situated on the status bar on the lower-righthand corner of my Firefox browser is the icon for Zotero — a research tool that I find myself using more and more each passing day. This add-on for the Firefox browser is described as an “easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects).”
The primary audience for Zotero seems to be students and scholars, whose work involves gathering and organizing bibliographic data, references and citations. However, Zotero seems well-suited for just about anyone whose work or avocational interests involve doing research online.
From the point of view of this writer-researcher, Zotero is the most useful tool that I have found thus far for collecting and organizing online information. Zotero makes it easy for me to save website links, take snapshots of web pages, clip portions of web pages, save metadata from online sources, annotate the information I’ve collected, and organize and search through the information I’ve collected. Zotero also incorporates a bit of Web 2.0, with its capability for adding tags to the items that you’ve collected. The tagging feature is just one of the many aspects of Zotero that I find myself using on a regular basis.
Searching the German language Wikipedia Plus
The latest addition to our collection of custom search tools is Wikiplus Deutsch. This custom search engine searches across the German language versions of the MediaWiki (Meta-Wiki) projects including Wikipedia (auf Deutsch), Wikimedia Commons – Medien, Wiktionary – Wörterbuch, Wikibooks – Lehrbücher, Wikiquote – Zitate, Wikiversity – Lernplattform, Wikisource – Quellen, and Wikinews – Nachrichten.
It is also possible to refine your search to one of the Meta-Wiki sources. For example, our test search for “Johann Sebastian Bach” turned up search results not simply in Wikipedia, but in several other of the Meta-Wiki sources as well.
Give Wikiplus Deutsch a try. We welcome your comments and suggestions.