The Deskbar

If you think the Google Toolbar is useful, then have I got a new tool for you. HotBot this week launched the Quick-Search Deskbar, which enables you to not only search Google, but hundreds of other handy sites just as easily.

The free HotBot Quick-Search Deskbar sits at the bottom of your computer screen, enabling you to launch searches even without an open browser. The Deskbar — basically a small text-entry field — also gives you shortcuts to scores of computer functions, such as e-mail and instant messenger.


http://www.hotbot.com/tools/

The HotBot Quick-Search Deskbar is based on the open source “Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar,” designed by Dave Bau for “search hounds with weary mouse-fingers.” Like Dave’s Deskbar, Hotbot’s tool allows users to do searches while performing other desktop functions, like e-mail and word processing and more, without starting a Web browser.

The default search for the Deskbar is Hotbot.com, but you can easily reset that to Google.com if you prefer.

What makes the Deskbar so useful is that it also provides instant access to more than 200 other Web search sites, covering just about every topic imaginable.

You can launch any of those searches by typing in a short code before or after your search term. For example, just type in “ths word” in the search box and up pops Thesaurus.com, with scores of synonyms for “word.”

If the codes are too hard to remember (most aren’t), you can just click on the arrow at the right of the box and a menu of all the searches pops up. There’s also a pretty easy guide to all of the codes that you can call up by entering “?”

What else can you do from this search box? What can’t you do?

Other tools that you can use with just a simple command include:

• Dictionary


• Barlett’s Familiar Quotations


• Weather


• Maps


• Stock quote lookup


• A calculator (enter “4*(pi-3)” into field and results appear there)


• A currency converter


• Phone number lookup (just add # at the end of the name)


• E-mail address lookup (just add @ after the name)


• Reverse phone number lookup


• Language translation (add terms like en, fr, de, it, ja, es after phrase or Web URL)


• The Web: type in a URL and a browser window opens on that Web page


• An alarm that pops up on your screen 


• A calendar that pops up when you right click in the search box


• Driving directions


• An RGB to hex conversion utility


• A Roman numeral calculator


• Zip code and area code lookup


• A computing dictionary


• Encyclopedias


• Instant searches of eBay, amazon.com, Internet Movie Database, CDNow.com

If you’re feeling lucky, you can go directly to Google’s first hit using an exclamation point: “Harry Potter!”

In fact, you can instantly search many of the sites Sree and I have written about in this column over the past year, including: FindLaw.com, Xrefer Reference Search, RhymeZone, The Wayback Machine, HowStuffWorks, Google Groups, and the Snopes.com Urban Legends site.

And if a site you use regularly isn’t listed, you can just add it!

Thank you, Dave!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE DESKBAR? Try it out and send me your thoughts and I may publish them in a future column.

Coming Tuesday: Sree Sreenivasan
Coming next Friday: Jonathan Dube