May 20, 2005
OU Firefox Search Plugins
Some people, it seems, just don't get Firefox... Presumably they didn't get the idea of Mosaic when it came out either, and steadfastly refused to use any search client other than Veronica. I can just imagine them arguing instead that gopher would never be replaced by fly-by-night protocols such as http, for example...
Anyway...one of the reasons I like Firefox is that it allows me to muck around with the browser, as well as the web pages. As soon as I get my head round writing XUL plugins, I'll have a go at an OU Firefox toolbar... But that'll take a bit of learning time, I think, so here's something simple to start with - a couple of plugins to the Firefox search tool.
The Firefox search tool provides a text box that allows you to fire off a query to your search engine of choice. The default is probably Google:
You'll also notice that you can add alternative search engines as the focus of your search. The Mycroft project has dozens of examples (though not the OU - yet ;-)
The Mycroft site also provides a wealth of information about getting started with writing Firefox search tool extensions, so I thought I'd knock a couple up that link into the OU search engine andf the OU LIbrary catalogue. And here they are:
- Open University Search Engine
- Open University Library Catalogue
If you follow either of the above links in Firefox, you should be offered the chance to add the corresponding search engine to the list... However, the plugin may not appear until you shut Firefox dwon and then restart it...
Next stop - an OU toolbar (or should that be tOUlbar?! ;-)
Update 20/5/05
Another search plugin - Open University Knowledge Network (Public Site)