3 Ways to Search Without SERPs

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Ann Smarty

09/14/09

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There are two main reasons searching without having to load search results page may be useful: (1) save time: no need to open a new tab; (2) search without getting distracted from your working process (writing, brainstorming, etc).

1. Search Results in Your IM

Supported IMs (add the following accounts to your buddy list; search bots by techbangalore.com and the100rabh):

• Google Talk – sbot@bot.im
• Yahoo Messenger – searchbot@ymail.com
• Windows Live Messenger – searchbot@live.com

Supported search engines:

Now, send a message to the bot following this format [identifier search term], example:

[t seo]

The tool will list top (most recent) Twitter search results for "SEO" (I was using GTalk):

[g SEO]

Note 1: only first 4 results will be displayed for Google (because of the API limitations)

Note 2: shortcuts (Google calculator, define: search, currency converter) won’t work

(hat tip to MUO)

2. Search Results in the Preview Pop-up 

Ubiquity is an awesome addon that allows to speed up plenty of various tasks (which deserve a separate review post, I guess) including search.

Supported search engines: almost any (you can teach the tool new commands in case it doesn’t know the search engine you are using)

To search Google for example, you will need to do the following:

1. Install the extension and restart the browser;

2. Use CTRL+space (Windows) / option+space (Mac) / alt+space (Linux) to see a command input box in the upper-left of your browser.

3. Type G and the tool will "guess" you want to search Google, so you can click "Enter" to open Google in a new tab OR you can keep typing and the search results preview will be displayed in the preview window:

You can go to any result in the preview by pressing CTRL+ALT+Result#

3. Search Results in the Preview Drop-down 

With the FireFox addon called Peers (reviewed by me previously) you can see first search results while you are typing. The tool is installed like a regular search plugin and works rather fast.

(Supported search engines: Yahoo, Google, eBay, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc)