Search in Beta 1
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—IEBlog Editor, 21 August 2012
Hi, I’m Aaron Sauve, Program Manager focused on features relating to the Internet Explorer user interface. One of these features is web search. Now that Beta 1 is out in the wild I would like to say a few quick words about what we have included and give some insight into where we are going in Beta 2.
Beta 1 includes a few simple enhancements to web search. Search is a critical aspect of web browsing, so we promoted web search to the top level IE frame and have included the ability to easily switch between search providers. If you are checking out the Beta 1 builds you will also see that we have included some of the top web search providers in the search box dropdown (keyboard users can use Alt+Down when focus is in the box to show this list). You can change the default search provider for IE in our new Search Settings dialog; this also changes your address bar search provider.
You may have noticed that we do not have a way to add any new providers to this list through the user interface. This is planned for Beta 2, but for Beta 1 there is a work around if you want to add your favorite search provider to the list.
Warning: This requires editing the registry, so please proceed with caution. In order to keep your current default set of search providers, before editing the registry go into Search Settings and click the ‘OK’ button. This will copy your machine settings to your user account. This step is required due to a known bug in Beta 1. If you lose your defaults you should be able to get them back by using ‘Restore Defaults’ in the Search Settings dialog.
Here is an example of the registry entry that would add an MSDN Library search to the search box:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopesMSDN]
“DisplayName”=”MSDN Library”
“URL”=”https://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?qu=%s&View=msdn”
In the above, the key name “MSDN” can be any unique value, “DisplayName” is the text you will see in the search box and “URL” is simply the search provider’s query string. Note that the %s is where your search term will be injected into the query string.
One way to figure out how to build the search string is to type in a search term in your favorite search provider’s search box. After navigating to the results go to the address bar and see where your term is injected into the address. You can copy that entire URL into the “URL” parameter and replace the text of your query with %s as in the example above.
You may also want to read Sean Alexander’s blog post on this subject – he has created a downloadable file that allows you to quickly add 32 search providers to IE7.
When Beta 2 comes out we will have a much more intuitive way to add providers from the user interface - until then keep sending your Beta 1 feedback and have fun!
- Aaron
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
All right, I have some feedback/question about Beta 1. I must say I like the "new tab" button very much. Is there a way get a new tab to navigate to the homepage instead of just a blank page?
Also, is there a way to get the new tab to not "auto select"? What I mean is create a new tab and have it wait for the user to click? This would prevent creating a new tab, but being pushed away from the current webpage while the new tab takes a few seconds to come up. Another thing that can happen is you can create a new tab and paste a URL into the address bar and have a mix of which tab "gets it" first depending on where the new tab is in it's creation. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Where do I send feedback/bug reports? Can you get an entry in the product feedback centre? I've found a few bugs and I'd like to make reports, but no one can tell me where to go! - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
I find myself hitting the '/' key to start a search. This works in Firefox, vim, and Konqueror - could you add that for IE? It would be great if this could also handle regexps, but that may be stretching the userfriendliness a bit far... - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
oh - while I'm at it with requests - how about a feature similar to Google's autocomplete? http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en for reference. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
it'd be great if there was an inline/page search feature... like BB said, not a "rip" of Firefox, but the same idea with a Microsoft stamp on it (nice UI, friendly/familiar icons)... also be nice if when searching a page for something, you could check an option to search-by-source (HTML), with highlighted text -- would be a great feature for coders and developers that are in the browser 8-9 hours everyday ;)
just a thought to throw out into the mix. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
As one of the above posted said where do we submit feedback? I heard we could use the Microsoft Beta Client tool but it looks like it's meant more for Vista than IE7, even though it runs on XP. There's nothing in the Product Feedback Center for IE7. The Send Feedback link in the Help menu does not work either. So where do we do it? - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
Few things that should be changed (in my opinion) in IE7:
1. I do not like the new tab window button. Why is it there? Have Ctrl+N to open a new tab window.
2. Let users be able to adjust the bars so that I can have the Standard Buttons and Address bar show up on top instead of in the middle.
3. I have a few folders in the Links bar and the folder icon is far too large then what it should be.
I like the phishing menu very much. Haven't used it much but so far so good. Microsoft is on the right path but has to let users have more control of the interface. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Cool name, Mr. Suave - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Question about another subject..
Why do you don't use Gecko?
It's cool and free.. No? - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Ctrl+T opens a new tab. Ctrl+N has been new window for years. Not everyone uses the keyboard so thats why the button is there. You can also double click in the blue area for a new tab. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
"Why do you don't use Gecko?"
If IE used Gecko, I wouldn't be using IE. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
oh, by the way, the IE7 search managing app can be found here:
http://www.aeroxp.net/board//index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=299 - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
I don't like the fact that whenever i hit enter in the search bar it gives me a "donk" sound usually reserved for error messages. I've sent feedback, but it went to someone in India and I'm doubtful if it will ever filter down to the IE team.
Also, the GO button does not show up when you paste a link into the address bar (RIGHT CLICK -> PASTE), only when you are typing... or using Ctrl+v... and when you're typing you can always hit the enter key... making the go button on IE7 completely useless. Please fix these two issues. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
@Jim H:
I don't think there's an official Microsoft supported way to run IE versions side-by-side, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.
At http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/standalone you can find standalone versions of most versions of IE, including 6. I find this to be an invaluable tool in checking site compatibility when developing. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
<<oh - while I'm at it with requests - how about a feature similar to Google's autocomplete? http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en for reference>>
I think a lot of customers would be concerned about leaking every search query you typed out to the Internet. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
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January 01, 2003
Mr. Suave,
I use Maxthon, which uses parts of IE. What Maxthon does, is add several very intuitive features that make my browsing experience much easier. Of course it does tabbed browsing, but one of the things I can do is drag any link, and it will be opened in a new tab.
This makes it so easy for me when I am looking at the front page on CNN, for example, to drag each link that I am interested in, and they load in the background.
Another great feature (which ties directly into this search topic) is that I can select any text, including text in links, and then drag the selection, which will then perform a search in a new tab using the selected text and using a search engine that I have configured. This is nice for avoiding click-throughs or other info capturing links.
The Maxthon interface also has what they call mouse gestures, which are dragged right button movements, that make it even easier for me to manage my browsing tasks. Some of the gestures are; drag right for forward, drag left for back, drag up or down for page up or down. Pretty much all of this is configurable.
Whoever is doing this work has gone a long way toward making things intuitive, configurable and easy to use, and they and Maxthon are the sole reason I have not gone to one of the more standards based (community standards, not just MS standards, I also create web applications) browsers for anything more than testing.
A lot of the tabbed browsers require more than dragging a link to open it in a new tab, and even if it is just a double click, or a key/click combination, it is more than I have to do now, so I guess I've been spoiled.
You know what? I like being spoiled. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
"way I can let users download a file to add "Search Our Intranet" to their browers"
Or you could of course just group policy. If it wasn't intranet based (i.e. you'r a search engine who wants to make your search available in IE), you could create an installer that simply creates the registry setting.
Problem solved. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Another thing about IE7 is the fact that when you click the new tab it doesn't default to that tab, but just opens it in the background -> not cool!! - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Frank : If you want new tabs to open to the foreground,
Select Tools|Internet Options...
Select the ADVANCED tab
Scroll down to the Tabbed Browsing section
Check "Always switch to new tabs when they are created"
Then click OK.
Now when you open links in new tabs, they will grab control and jump to the front.
Personally, I prefer it the way it is by default. As I read, I like to open links of interest to read later. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
It’s our goal to make it easy for IE7 users to personalize their list of search providers.&nbsp; The... - Anonymous
February 07, 2006
In a previous post, I introduced our Beta 1 search functionality and mentioned we would soon ensure you... - Anonymous
May 29, 2009
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