WSG Newsletter: Search with Internet Explorer

Issue: September 30, 2002

The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser is by far the most popular and most used browser on the Internet. Figures from usage in June 2002 show that all versions of IE command 95.3% of the market. That being the case, it behooves us to learn more about its search features. For years we've been able to search from the address bar but how many use search assistant or know about the added function provided by web accessories?

Address Bar

Many people like to run a search on MSN directly by using the ?. No fuss, no bother. Just enter ? followed by the query. For example, ? IE search features or go IE search features. Either ? or the word "go" will trigger a search on MSN.

Interestingly, this search returns a Microsoft page that describes five ways to change the default search features in Internet Explorer. For example, one can modify the "go" key for searching in the Address bar, to one that stipulates what search engine to use. All of the five ways require changes to the Windows Registry.

Search Assistant

IE has had the Search Assistant since version 5.0. Clicking the Search icon in the toolbar, will open a fairly full-featured Search Assistant in a pane on the left.

The Search Assistant offers searching for a Web page, an address, a business, a map, a dictionary. The default search engine for the Web search is MSN. This can be changed by using Customize. Here are listed 6 search engines. Customize also provides options to select resources to use for the dictionary, thesaurus, maps, images, etc. Unfortunately, other tools can't be added. It is especially annoying that Google and AlltheWeb cannot be added to the search engine list.

The same window has a button for Customize Autosearch where one can set the parameters for searching from the Address bar. Here you can change the default from MSN to another search engine such as Google or Altavista. Only a few are listed.

You can also control how the results are displayed. The choices are:

• Do not search from the address bar - not recommended - why disable a good thing?
• Just display results in the main window - will be the same as if you had run the search at a search engine. Search Assistant stays open in the left pane.
• Just go to the most likely site - don't list the results, just show the page for the most highly ranked result.
• Display results and go to the most likely site - display the results (titles only) in the Search pane and the first hit in the right pane.

Windows users who opt for the fourth choice will now see "search preview" screenshots of the first six results. These are thumbnail images accompanied with short descriptions. Seeing the image can have more information value than words alone. Regrettably, only six are shown. Nonetheless, it is a good reason to use the address bar to search MSN.

Note: IE6 users with Windows XP might have Search Companion activated. This can be changed to the Classic Internet Search of IE 5.0. Click on the Search button and Change Preferences. See this article from Microsoft support http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q303210

Web Accessories

Web Accessories is a kit of browser add-ons available for download from Microsoft as one package. They have been around since IE 5.0 and still work with IE 6.0. Once installed the package adds function to the Links bar and the right-click mouse menu. (The Links bar is the bar usually seen below the address bar where one can store frequently visited sites. It's much handier than the Favorites list. ) The most useful of these is Quick Search for expanded use of searching from the address bar. Other add-ons can help one explore links from a page, zoom in on images, run a search on a selected word or sentence, and generally browse better.

Quick Search makes it possible to run searches against several different search engines from the address bar. This is done by using a shortcut code followed by the query. Altavista is av, Yahoo is y. . Enter y "search toolbars" to get Yahoo's list of these utilities. Quick Search comes with a set of shortcuts which can be viewed by clicking on Quick Search.exe on the Links bar. Google is not on the list but can be added.

PC World provided this tip. (Get, Set IE's Quick Search)

1. Open QuickSearch
2. Click on New
3. Enter a shortcut - goo will do
4. Select Custom URL
5. Enter the search url -- http://www.google.com/search?q=%s
6. Save

The URL depends on the engine. For example, at GigaBlast.com a search for toolbars generates the URL http://www.gigablast.com/cgi/0.cgi?q='toolbars'. Replace'toolbars' with '%s' and paste the new url into the QuickSearch box.

Henry Norr, a reporter at San Francisco Chronicle, has found many uses for this - AlltheWeb news search, Yahoo finance, and even Amazon. (Readers turn tables on Google)

The other utilities enhance browsing by making it easier to deal frames, images, and links. These may be activated from the page, directly from an image or word, or from the links bar.

Page Based: Right click anywhere on a page and select from the popup menu:

• Open a frame in a new window to get the full view and to print it more easily.
• Get a Links List, ie a list of all the links on a page. Use this as the base for exploring other pages while also keeping your starting page. It might provide a handier format when working with a page of search results.
• Get an Images List, ie a list of all the images on page along with size

Images:

• Zoom In / Zoom Out on an image. Right click on it and select Zoom In to enlarge it.
• Turn images downloads off. Click on toggle_images.exe on the Links Bar to turn off images. See how much more quickly yahoo.com comes in. Click on toggle_images.exe again to load images for the next page.

Words on Page:

• Highlight. Swipe a word or phrase with the mouse and right click on it - then select highlight. The words receive yellow highliner until you move to another page. On long pages this might help one keep track of important points.
• Web Search: Select a word or string of them with the mouse and right click to run a Web Search. IE will send the search to the default search engine (seems to be Yahoo) and show results in a new window.

Web Accessories - Download from Microsoft

Conclusion

We don't need to use all of these. Searching in the Address Bar has always been handy. Quick Search makes it more so and is a timesaver. It is worth having even if we do use other toolbars. With it we can create a list of search engines we use most often and include specialized searches at favourite sites. Also, the thumbnails that come up when searching MSN from the address bar or search assistant are appealing. It just takes a little practice.

Newsletter by Gwen Harris who converted to IE over a year ago.