Google Quick Search Box
When I purchased my Mac last year, I spent a lot of time looking around for "killer apps" that people used. One that seriously caught my attention was Quicksilver. For those of you who have never used it, Quicksilver is a keyboard based launcher application -- very similar to Spotlight. Actually, calling them similar is kind of stretching it, because Quicksilver does some pretty awesome things that Spotlight can't touch. Don't get me wrong, I still don't use the full benefits of Quicksilver, but I still find it much better than Spotlight based purely on speed. Many of my friends and co-workers don't even understand why I use a launcher. The answer is that I use it as a very fast way to start applications, open folders and to search for files. I find it much easier to press a simple keystroke (Cmd + Space) and my search string than to use my mouse and click through a bunch of folders.
Quicksilver Search Dialog of "Face"
While looking around tonight, I stumbled across a more recent offering of the same type called Google Quick Search Box. As it turns out, one of the original developers of Quicksilver is involved with the development of Quick Search Box. After installing and launching the application, I immediately felt quite comfortable with it. Configuring it was very simple, and it found the things I wanted right away. I am sure many will argue that Quicksilver is more advanced - and I certainly agree. However, when used as a launcher and very light search application, it really rocks.
Google Quick Search Box for "Face"
Some of the neat things that I found was that it allows you to send Tweets, and it allows you to search not only your desktop, but other services including Google, Gmail, Google Image Search, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Docs, and Google Finance. I should note that the Gmail functionality still needs some work at this point, and it cannot yet entirely scour your inbox for messages. I personally found Google Search Box much more intuitive to use for things like playing music, looking for contacts, and searching the web.
After installing and playing with this application for the majority of the evening, I have to say that I am pretty impressed with it so far. While you can tell that the application is still in it's infancy, it is extremely fast, and again, extremely intuitive to use. If you are looking for a change from Quicksilver, or if you have never used anything but Spotlight, I strongly suggest installing Google Quick Search Box.
Google Quick Search Box using Gmail
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1. James Rockwell said:
Thanks for posting this. I have been using QS for a long time and I am now giving this app a try.
Posted on: 10/08/2009
