Author Topic: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine? (Read 16735 times)

daddydave · « **on:** August 06, 2010, 05:29 AM »

I'm trying to find a Firefox addon to do multiple searches in a single search engine (I have Chrome installed too, so that would probably be fine). I'm not sure what the UI would be but one way to do it would be to offer a text area to paste a list of your things you want to do a search on, hit submit and you see several tabs open up, each representing search results for a line item.

So for example, you paste in or type in a list of actors, and you get an IMDB search for each actor.

barney · « **Reply #1 on:** August 06, 2010, 11:10 AM »

Google will block me if I perform several searches in rapid succession, e.g., spelling variants, modifiers, and the like. It claims that I appear be using an automated search system and then it will block any searches from my IP address for 30-60 minutes. Seems I've run into similar blockages at other search engines in the past, as well.

That does not bode well for your search

.

daddydave · « **Reply #2 on:** August 06, 2010, 02:53 PM »

Google will block me if I perform several searches in rapid succession, e.g., spelling variants, modifiers, and the like. It claims that I appear be using an automated search system and then it will block any searches from my IP address for 30-60 minutes. Seems I've run into similar blockages at other search engines in the past, as well.

That does not bode well for your search .
-barney (August 06, 2010, 11:10 AM)

Excellent point. Maybe I could work around it by spacing the searches out time-wise.

JavaJones · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2010, 04:53 PM »

You must be working really fast! I use Google pretty much constantly on some days, with several searches a minute for sustained periods (as many as 15 in a minute, or one every 4 seconds, in some cases). Not that I doubt it's happened to you, I'm just surprised.

- Oshyan

app103 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2010, 05:02 PM »

Google will block me if I perform several searches in rapid succession, e.g., spelling variants, modifiers, and the like. It claims that I appear be using an automated search system and then it will block any searches from my IP address for 30-60 minutes. Seems I've run into similar blockages at other search engines in the past, as well.

That does not bode well for your search .
-barney (August 06, 2010, 11:10 AM)

You must be working really fast! I use Google pretty much constantly on some days, with several searches a minute for sustained periods (as many as 15 in a minute, or one every 4 seconds, in some cases). Not that I doubt it's happened to you, I'm just surprised.

- Oshyan
-JavaJones (August 07, 2010, 04:53 PM)

I have run into this problem with Google, too, and it's very frustrating when it happens.

barney · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2010, 05:06 PM »

Call it a freak talent - although I'm not so certain talent is the appropriate phrase.

I've been clocked by the IT folk because I complained their system was slow. They said I was typing over 250 wpm

. However, that was 10-20 character bursts, then hit tab or enter, so it's not near so fast as it seems

.

barney · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2010, 05:09 PM »

I have run into this problem with Google, too, and it's very frustrating when it happens.

Yeah! Might as well go bake a loaf of bread, you're not gonna do much else for a while

.

app103 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2010, 05:12 PM »

Yeah! Might as well go bake a loaf of bread, you're not gonna do much else for a while .
-barney (August 07, 2010, 05:09 PM)

Actually, that's when I switch to using AOL search. It's pretty much nothing but Google with a different URL & logo.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2010, 07:56 PM »

Has anyone tried AltaVista search afa this issue? I'm just curious if AltaVista does things differently or follows the pack.

barney · « **Reply #9 on:** August 07, 2010, 08:20 PM »

Don't personally use Alta Vista much, but have a few acquaintances who swear by it. And they've encountered similar problems in the past when trying to use some sort of search automation [duh].

I suspect that the search engines' abhorrence of automated methods is pretty much universal

.

Actually, why do they dislike automated methods? Afraid someone will steal their results? That kinda, sorta sounds reasonable, I guess. Or would it be because of excessive traffic? Is a puzzlement

.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2010, 08:33 PM »

Actually, why do they dislike automated methods? Afraid someone will steal their results? That kinda, sorta sounds reasonable, I guess. Or would it be because of excessive traffic? Is a puzzlement .

-barney (August 07, 2010, 08:20 PM)

I think it's a combination of both. Otherwise it would be too easy to sell the unsuspecting public a service that just front ended some other search engine. Very low overhead. Just some scripts to funnel the search off to somebody else, get back the results, and pretty 'em up as if you did it. In fact the search results seem so similar among these search engines I sometimes wonder if there's like one "real" search engine that scours the web and just licenses others to be a front end for it. Either that or some graduate student wrote the program a long time ago and they all ripped off, er, emulated the same algorithm.

barney · « **Reply #11 on:** August 07, 2010, 09:18 PM »

I think it's a combination of both.

I suspect we all do

sell the unsuspecting public a service that just front ended some other

Oh, my! on the Internet?!?

or some graduate student wrote the program a long time ago

Let's see ... Google was founded by a couple of grads ... Yahoo! was founded by one or more grads, and if memory serves, took over the then Alta Vista (so, what is Alta Vista now?) ... really curious as to that original - contributor? - grad

.

Edit: As I reread this, I can see that it could be taken offensively - that was not my intent - just, sometimes, my attempts at humour can get pretty heavy-handed.

app103 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 07, 2010, 09:22 PM »

I'll tell you what....give me some time and I'll come up with something really nice for you that will do what you want (sort of...semi-automated), and maybe a bit more.

It won't be a firefox extension, though. It will be a stand-alone app that's browser agnostic (use default browser).

And when I say give me time, I really mean that. Might release it as my NANY 2011 project. I plan on making it worth the wait, though. I am going to combine a few of my other project ideas together with the basic concept behind my "stupid URL thing" that I made for my own use.

Very, very early teaser screenshots (consider it just a concept mock-up):

Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

daddydave · « **Reply #13 on:** August 07, 2010, 10:11 PM »

I think I probably have a workaround for what I want to do specifically...but that would be a great NANY project and could probably think of other uses for it.

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** August 07, 2010, 10:59 PM »

clever idea for a coding snack utility actually; and also a very nice idea for a browser plugin.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #15 on:** August 08, 2010, 12:03 AM »

Edit: As I reread this, I can see that it could be taken offensively - that was not my intent
-barney (August 07, 2010, 09:18 PM)

So you manage it without trying. Must be a talent. No offense.

barney · « **Reply #16 on:** August 08, 2010, 12:16 AM »

So you manage it without trying. Must be a talent. No offense.

Believe me, that is not the least of my auto-offensive talents - although probably the most common

.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #17 on:** August 08, 2010, 12:18 AM »

So you manage it without trying. Must be a talent. No offense.

Believe me, that is not the least of my auto-offensive talents - although probably the most common .
-barney (August 08, 2010, 12:16 AM)

Common I would have to agree with to be honest.

barney · « **Reply #18 on:** August 08, 2010, 12:57 AM »

Common I would have to agree with to be honest.

OK. I've stopped.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #19 on:** August 08, 2010, 11:43 AM »

Common I would have to agree with to be honest.
OK. I've stopped.
-barney (August 08, 2010, 12:57 AM)

I should clarify.. common refers to the tactic of finding the out of context snippet most amenable to a rejoinder and using that. That's all.

What do I know? I lost an insult contest in the past to an A.I. algorithm(although I still think the human operator intervened when the program started to lose.)

To paraphrase LBJ.. these arguments are like pissing down your leg. Feels hot to you, but not to anyone else.

housetier · « **Reply #20 on:** August 14, 2010, 04:10 PM »

When I want to do multipe searches at once I use a neat gem from firefox bookmark feature: keywords.

I assigned "g" to google's bookmark, so when I type "g whatever" in the address bar, firefox will open the google search results for whatever.

Then I have vimperator installed which lets me open several urls/addresses at once, by seperating them with comma followed by a slash (may the normal address bar from firefox lets you do that too).

So now I can do "g whatever, g some more, g and this too" and it would open three tabs with different search results. Taking this even further and assuming google was my default search engin (it is actually duckduckgo) entering "whatever, some more, and this too" would have the same effect.

If the normal address bar can do that, it might be worth a try. vimperator make some changes to the user interface that aren't appreciated by everyone but loved by others.

So far I have come very far with the basic bookmarking feature of firefox