Comments on: Search tools for Directgov: Puffbox vs Microsoft

By: Add LGSearch to your browser | DavePress

Add LGSearch to your browser | DavePress — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:22:38 +0000

[...] inspired by Simon’s recent efforts on behalf of DirectGov, I thought I would make it easy for Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 users to [...]

By: tony molloy

tony molloy — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:13:35 +0000

Opera's right-click menu also allows you to send selected text to the Directgov search if you've created it

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:35:55 +0000

Great spot Stuart: I must admit, I've pruned my right-click menu down to the absolute basics, so that's not the case on my own (main) system. But you're absolutely right, the default Firefox right-click menu does indeed include a 'search' option which sends the query to the search engine you've got selected at the time.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:27:24 +0000

"You will have to do the copying and pasting manually though, so apologies for the lack of acceleration"

Actually, in Firefox, if you select some text in the browser and right-click, the context menu that appears includes a option to search for the selected text in the currently active search engine. So if the active search engine is the Puffbox Directgov plug-in, no copying/pasting is required.

Just a thought

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:01:05 +0000

Simon

Wonderful

Next we will be hearing from Microsoft press office about the fact that their competitors appear to be more agile, nimble and cheaper than them.

I think the Opera and other commentators could develop these tools in the same way that you do. Presumably it can be done ?

Would that Government cared about money and SME's ? Now that money is being printed to ease quantative issues, big business must be breathing a sigh of relief. For a moment, there looked like there might have to be cuts.

There is probably going to be a PhD thesis available in the 3-d correlation between Quantative Easing, Value of £ sterling, and HM Treasury spokesmen denying IMF bail-out.

Keep building the quality products, and we will come

Alex

By: paul canning

paul canning — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:23:52 +0000

Neato.

I am personally more interested in their widget development, which i understand will include distribution so people can access info from *other* websites. referral is still a huge proportion of traffic. they do seem to have nailed SEO from my recent keyword searches.

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:51:19 +0000

Love the satire. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW

For readers who use Firefox and IE8, I wanted your readers to be aware that Firefox has a version of Accelerators too, it is called “KALLOUT - Accelerators for Firefox” It’s available as a free add-on through Firefox. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW

I believe the DirectGov accelerator will actually work directly with KallOut-Accelerators for Firefox so users can stick with Firefox if they want and still get the benefits of the UK government-developed accelerator.

[Trimmed a bit: useful contribution, but a bit too much 'hard sell' - Simon]

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:46:48 +0000

Raw data available from StatCounter.com if you're interested.

By: Tony Molloy

Tony Molloy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:12:41 +0000

If you're using Opera, open the Directgov website in the browser, right click (Ctrl click for you Mac fans) in the Directgov Search box and select Create Search from the drop down. Enter a name and keyword (for example Directgov and dg) and save. You should then have Directgov as a search engine choice

By: Search Directgov via IE8 and actually IE7 and Firefox « Infoneed - Meeting users’ information needs

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:01:17 +0000

[...] Simon Dickson has thoughtfully added a search plugin for Directgov, which will allow you to search Directgov [...]