IE8, Google Calculator and Search Suggestions
Just found a funky little feature by accident.
The release candidate for IE8 is out, and I’ve got it installed here at work. It’s really nothing special (in fact, Craig Bailey pretty much nailed it in his rant about Microsoft and complexity over here), but it supports search suggestions as part of its support for OpenSearch providers. That means that if you’re searching Google in the search bar at the top right, you get suggestions as you type.
So anyway, I was going to use Google’s unit conversion feature today, and started to type my conversion (note, the picture below is not what I was searching for) into the search bar. Lo and behold, the search suggestion was the answer I wanted! I didn’t even have to hit enter on my keyboard!
Here’s a screenshot so you can see what I’m getting at:
It’s not a world-shattering feature, and I’m sure it’s not unique to Internet Explorer, but it’s kinda cool!
Comments
# tristan
30/01/2009 2:22 PM
Well, it was unique to Internet Explorer in that it was the only browser not to have it for quite a long time ;).
Heheh, I tease. 'Cause you love my FOSS fanboyism!
# mabster
30/01/2009 2:28 PM
I totally get that IE sucks, but I just can't bring myself to let it go. I keep trying FF and Chrome but something always pulls me back to good ol' clunky IE.
# tristan
2/02/2009 9:37 PM
Heh, naught wrong with that.
(Worth noting- the three Google Ads that appeared as I visited this page read, "Uninstall IE8", Uninstall Explorer 7", and "Fix Internet Explorer". Heh.)
# mabster
3/02/2009 8:25 AM
Frankly I'm amazed that there are suckers out there who would pay somebody money for tools to uninstall IE! Don't like it? Just don't use it! Sheesh!
# mabster
22/02/2009 6:57 PM
I've been using Chrome a little bit recently on my (Windows 7) laptop, and I've noticed that it *doesn't* do this. Very strange that Google's own browser wouldn't use their suggestion feature.