- Search plugin
A search plugin provides the ability to access a
search engine from aweb browser , without having to go to the engine'swebsite first.Technically, a search plugin is a small
text file that tells the browser what information to send to a search engine and how the results are to be retrieved. The ease with which search plugins can be created has led to archives where public contributions can be downloaded, and these can be important in softwarepersonalization .With the introduction of Firefox 2.0 in 2006, search plugins started to offer search suggestions, where terms would appear as the user typed. These are laid out in a menu, and are predicted based on the most likely ending to a word that was midway through being typed. This uses Ajax technology to query the remote website's database for most common search terms, and so differs from traditional browser
autofill , where the form would typically be completed based on information the user had entered previously.Formats
*
OpenSearch is supported by bothMozilla Firefox 2.0 and later, andInternet Explorer 7.
*Most Gecko based browsers support search plugins using aSGML based format.
*Opera supports search plugins using its custom search.ini format.ee also
*
Mycroft project External links
* [http://mycroft.mozdev.org/ Mycroft Search Plugins]
* [http://librarysearch.org/?r=wpspa Library Search plugins]
* [http://opera-info.xorg.pl/en/ Opera Search.ini Editor] —for creating search plugins for versions older than Opera 9.
* [http://nontroppo.org/wiki/SearchPlugins Opera Browser Plugin Manager]
* [http://www.searchplugins.net searchplugins.net] Find, create and manage search plugins for IE7 and Firefox2
* [http://www.quicksearchplugin.com QuickSearchPlugin.com] Create search plugins for Firefox, Flock, IE7 and IE8.
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