Just wanted to note that the Celsius temperature setting should now work on the UE gadget. 

That Is All.
- BuildAGadget.com Staff

After a fairly long time (couple of months including the development for System Control), we are releasing a little update for the Ultimate Explorer.  Why the 2.0?  Cause this bad boy has been completely redesigned from the ground up.  I’ll get to the specifics in a moment, I just want to point out that this thing is a monster and in the right hands will be a nearly unstoppable information gobbler capable of fetching the Internet straight to you.  Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but this gadget can search up to 50 different websites.

That’s right.  50.  50 Different websites brought to you on your Desktop.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Features:

• Search 50 Different Websites
• In Gadget Results For:  Amazon, eBay, PriceRunner, Drugstore, YouTube, and Digg
• Web Searches For:  Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, And More
• Introducing The Home Engine:  Weather, Date & Time, and Shutdown, Fully Customizable
• 4 Sizes:  Mini, Small, Large, and Super
• 4 Themes:  Dark Vista (Default), Brushed, Crystal, and Teak (All Redesigned)
• Calendar & Events:  Event Reminders Plus Calendars!
• Web Search Groups:  Perform Searches In Flyout Or Browser
• New Pseudo-Web Browser Flyout:  It’s Sweet.
• Expanded Flyout Functionality:  And You Thought Amazon Looked Good Before…
• 16 Engines Overall
• Improved Snap Search:  Graphical, 8 Buttons Instead of 6
• In-Gadget Help Flyout If You Get Stuck
• Improved Persistent Settings
• Improved Update System
• Brand New Vista Oriented Style

Catch your eye yet or have your eyes just kind of glazed over?

Download:

Download @ Live Gallery

Download @ BuildAGadget.com

Download @ Widgipedia.com

Note: Super Size is fairly stable but can on occasion cause the gadget to crash.  We’re working on it, but if anything happens, just re-add the gadget to the sidebar and that should fix it.

P.S.:  This gadget is still very much a work in progress.  We do appreciate bug reports and suggestions.  In addition, we are going to make some engine upgrades as time goes on to help accommodate more international sites.  Thanks for your patience.

P.P.S:  We will update the manual soon, but it’s probably going to be completely re-written.

As promised, we’ve released a new update for the Ultimate Explorer gadget that includes the new WeatherBug engine.  Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new:

• WeatherBug engine added with date / time included.
• Amazon and Drugstore flyouts have been updated and overhauled.
• We added some DocTypes to the gadget for better roll-overs.
• Various minor bug fixes.

It’s a simple update, but we hope people will enjoy it.  We’re already starting to plan out 1.4, so expect some posting about that.  Oh, and if you want to check our our new promotional site for our gadgets…

SearchGadgets.net

Download The 1.3 Update:

Download @ Live.com Gallery

Download @ BuildAGadget.com

Download @ Widgipedia.com

With the 1.3 update for the Ultimate Explorer gadget, we will be adding in another engine on top of the regular updates:  WeatherBug.  That’s right, from the same people who brought you multiple searching from the same gadget have now added in something to occupy your time when you are all searched out.  It’ll be like watching the weather channel, only less active and with smaller text.  The weather option adds in a basic weather (for the moment) as well as the date and time in large mode.  The cool part about the weather is that our search can cover just about anywhere in the world, not just the USA (thanks to the use of an actual weather API versus just RSS feeds).

And man was it a headache to put it in.  Lol.  I should have a bruise on my forehead for all the times I banged my head against the desk trying to get the events to remain consistent in the gadget.  But with a stroke of luck, we managed to get past it and got everything working fairly stable yesterday.  So, plan on seeing this for the 1.3 update. 

At long last, the next update to the Ultimate Explorer gadget has been released! And it is a doozy, so here is a list of the things that got added and changed:

• PriceRunner Engine Added: That’s right, you too can compare prices with the best of them in the gadget now. The menu system is a little odd because of space, so when selecting categories, the category menu will change to allow you to pick sub categories. Other than that, we reccommend the “Search 20″ setting for the best results. Don’t worry, you can skip band and forth in the flyout for more details for individual products from the list.
• eBay Engine Overhauled: It looks better, works better, and now works for Canadians and Brits. We went to town with this engine and improved the speed, result sets, overall look and feel, and added more options. You can also specify more types of searches based on the time left on the auction. If you haven’t checked this engine out before, now is a perfect time to do so. (And I don’t want to hear anything about no RSS reading. You know who you are. :p )
• Search Button Changed: Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to do it, but in the end, there will be no mistaking the search button for anything else. Ever.
• Individual Engine Options: One of the more peculiar things people will probably notice with this update is the appearance of a strange little icon in the lower right hand corner of the gadget on certain engines. The curious people out there might even mouse over it and perhaps click this wonderful little button, thus opening up a custom options menu for the engine you are currently on! Oh, I hope there are lots of curious people out there because we now have a lot more room for added functionality because of that marvelous little button that looks like a hammer and spanner (Hint: It’s our logo).
• Settings Panel Re-Organized: Well, since we didn’t have to worry about specific stuff, we can now focus on adding more general options to the Settings Panel. If you open it up right now, it might a little emptier, but don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to fill it up over time. Oh, and if you’re looking for the Snap Search selection, it’s now under the Search tab.
• Snap Search Selections modified: Don’t worry about going over the snap search select limit anymore, we fixed it.
• YouTube Search Issue: Fixed an issue were you could scroll past the results of smaller searches.
• Toggle Links Are Not Links: Found out an interesting thing about IE7 and how it handles CSS, keep an eye out, because next update, we’ll be tweaking the gadget to get rid of those ugly looking link borders on most of the elements.
• Multiple Search Words: Fixed. You can now have 3 or more words in a web search and it will indeed, work.
• Groundwork: This update lays the foundations for future updates, so as we go along improving existing engines and adding new ones, we won’t have to do so much overhauling to get everything to work in really limited space anymore.

Still waiting for approval on our 1.2 update from Live.com Gallery, but we do host the gadget on a number of other places.

Download:

Gadget @ Live.com Gallery

Gadget @ Widgipedia.com

Gadget @ WinCustomize.com

Gadget @ BuildAGadget.com

P.S.: We’ll be re-writing the gadget manual sometime soon as much of the information has changed somewhat. Also be on the lookout for a gadget promotional site we’ll have in the works soon.