That Is All.
- BuildAGadget.com Staff

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.

• 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

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. 

• 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.

Thanks Everyone. 

P.S.:  If you turn the script debugger on in Internet Explorer and view the current gadget and start to see errors, let us know and we’ll look into them.  We’ve received a couple of vague responses about errors, but can’t reproduce them as of yet.  Thanks.

First off, there have been a couple of suggestions for a smaller search button.  This is definitely doable as it is a little big and with certain changes in the next update I might well be making the regular search button a bit smaller to accommodate the possible addition of an options band at the bottom of the gadget for certain engines.  Yes, that’s right folks, we’ve kind of been running out of room on this things and well, it seemed obvious to use the flyouts as individual options for particular engines.  It works better and makes more sense, plus there’s more room.

I have had one request for the word search instead of a “silly icon.”  The problem with this is that I cannot change the shape of the search button unless it’s going from circle to square.  I wish I had the space for something oval in shape to accommodate, but with various configurations, the space beside the search button can be used, so I’m afraid it’s stuck at a circle.  Why not just replace the icon with text in the circle you ask?  Because that text is going to be wicked tiny.  I’d rather have a big icon that 90% of the people using will be able to understand (and the other 10% of the users can either guess or frantically click to find out that there is a search button after all).  Beyond the obvious use as an icon, it also balances out the design a bit more than regular text.  The exception to the rule is the Digg button, but that is also shorter text, so it can be bigger. 

I would like to announce that we will be adding more engines to the gadget, so this next update will be “laying the groundwork” so to speak for future updates to come.  The general idea is to add in as much usefulness as possible, so don’t be surprised if this thing has around 20 engines before we’re done.

In terms of upcoming engines, I will say that we are planning to add something to cover the weather, date, and time.  I know, not a search engine, but still useful within the context of the gadget, especially since it can then be used in place of two or three other gadgets in a pinch.  The other engine I’ll announce later on as we get closer to the update.

There will be the usual smaller bug fixes and tweaks, but expect big changes in the settings panel, flyouts, new engines, and smaller interface tweaks as we get closer to the next update in a couple weeks (at least, that’s what we’re projecting).

1. Default Browser:  Fixed.  Regular links still work as they did, but any web searches will now work in whatever default browser you have.
2. Update Notifier:  We added an update notifier feature that checks our server once a day to see if there is a new update to the gadget.  If there is, it will display a green button in the lower left hand corner of the gadget.  If you click the button, it will display a flyout with relevant information and links.  This can be disabled in the Settings->Advanced->Updates tab.  Regular update notification in the same tab still works.
3. Drop Down Awkwardness:  Fixed, it’s all pretty now!
4. The Reset Button:  Has been renamed to “Restore Default Settings.”
5. The Search Engine Menu: Can now be closed by clicking anywhere in the gadget.
6. The Current Search Term:  Can be erased with a double-click.  Single click will still allow editing.
7. Default Skin: Will now display the right way in the settings panel.

Download @ Live.com Gallery

Download From BuildAGadget.com

1. Possible Fix For Default Browser.  the current bug is actually a bug with the sidebar, so we’re going to attempt to hack around this.
2. Auto-Update Feature.  Cause we need it, though we’re still working out the details, this should be fairly simple and non-intrusive, but still visible.
3. Interface Tweaks For Awkward Drop-Downs.  Going to play around a little with this to see what we can do.
4. Reset Settings -> Restore Default Settings.  Just to make it clearer.
5. Search Engine Toggle Flyout Closable On Gadget Click.  It’s a small tweak, but should help out if you change your mind about switching the current engine.
6. Double-Click Search Term Erase.  This is so we can make it easier for people to add in a different term.  Single click will still allow a user to edit the current term.

So there you have it, a rough overview of what we have planned for the next major update.  We’re not setting a release date just yet, but we’ll post it up here when we do.