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Katapulco Searches the Web with Keyboard Shortcuts
Posted by Gina Trapani at 6:20 AM on May 23, 2008
Web search engine interface Katapulco is a one-stop search box to dozens of engines, from Google to Wikipedia to IMDB—and you choose which engine to search by entering a keyboard shortcut. For example, to Google Lifehacker from Katapulco, enter "Lifehacker" then "g" into the shortcut field. While Katapulco's premise—that keyboard shortcuts are faster—is spot-on, you can achieve this same result using the search box in Firefox (Ctrl+K to put your cursor there, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down to switch engines) or my personal favourite, Firefox keyword bookmarks. If you're serious about searching with your keyboard, be sure to check out Google's experimental keyboard shortcut search results as well. While it's not something I'll use instead of those methods, Katapulco still has the right idea.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
nobeastsofierce
Posted 10:17 PM 23/5/08
If its something I search on a regular basis, i use a keyword in FF, google=websearch,maps=googlemaps(to somewhere from my default home location), etc. I find any third party solutions to be less intuitive
nobeastsofierce
jfty.009260
Posted 3:33 PM 23/5/08
The Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down to switch engines shortcuts were new for me. Thanks LH.
jfty.009260
dkong1026
Posted 2:04 PM 23/5/08
I have keyword shortcuts set up for the basics: google, youtube, google images, etc.
Then I have yubnub for everyhting else.
dkong1026
maidamar
Posted 10:59 AM 23/5/08
In Firefox, Ctrl+T (new tab) then my own Firefox keyword bookmarks, saves me from the extra Ctrl+Up/Down in the search box while choosing an appropriate search engine. Works nice for me, at least.
maidamar
bicccio
Posted 7:34 AM 23/5/08
i would like to show you [www.sbrows.com.] What about sbrows???
bicccio
JiveMasterT
Posted 3:59 AM 23/5/08
@Mersine: Yeah I have found myself using it more and more too.
JiveMasterT
tommertron
Posted 3:13 AM 23/5/08
I loves me some yubnub. While it's true that I can just add multiple search engines to Firefox, yubnub is great because they're already added to yubnub. So I just add the yubnub search to firefox, and then the shortcut for whatver I want to search for. And all the shortcuts are very intuitive.
So say I want to do a quick google maps search: gm
. If I wasn't using yubnub, I'd have to either go to google maps directly or remember to add the google maps search engine, then do the search.tommertron
Scabrous Vermicelli
Posted 2:41 AM 23/5/08
They might try searching for "kerning" for starters. That logo is atrocious!
Scabrous Vermicelli
Mersine
Posted 1:21 AM 23/5/08
I use launchy's weby plugin
Mersine
rsmoker
Posted 1:09 AM 23/5/08
I think [yubnub.org] offers a lot of the same functionality if you know the appropriate commands.
rsmoker
taodude
Posted 1:09 AM 23/5/08
Whoops, I forgot LH doesn't like angle-irons. I meant to use "g (subject)" and "y (subject)" as examples.
taodude
taodude
Posted 1:05 AM 23/5/08
Opera users can do that using the Address bar; "g " to Google, "y " for Yahoo. Fully configurable, if you don't like the default setup.
taodude