Rick’s Rants and Raves

Are you using Firefox yet? If not, you should give it a try just for the ability to search pretty much any search engine you want, without having to leave the page you are on. For example, I can select one of (in my case about 10) my favorite websites from a quick drop down list, type the search term and press Enter. I’ve got results faster than you can say “I’ll Google that…”

Here’s the other cool thing about the search engine plugin–people can write plugins on their own. For example, I wrote one to search my company’s employee directory by last name. The search engine is on the corporate intranet, so I’ve only given the plugin to other employees–no one else would care. However, I have also written four plugins for the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library. I have submitted these plugins twice to the Mycroft Plugin repository, but I don’t know if they’ll add them. So, in the mean time, I’m posting them here in case anyone wants them. Click the link to install them if you have Firefox.

• Columbus Library Author Search
• Columbus Library Title Search
• Columbus Library Subject Search
• Columbus Library Keyword Search

Enjoy!