So far, the Ultimate Explorer gadget seems to be a hit. Over 1,000 downloads in less than 24 hours is always pretty cool. We did spend quite a bit of time on it, so I’m relieved that at least some people like it.

Though not everyone seems to be a fan, and to each their own opinion, if you have a legitimate problem with our gadget, I would love to hear it. Seriously, if we can improve what we do, we definitely try to do so. However, try to stay on topic:

piglet_ju Posted on 5/24/2007
Just what this site needs!
Another search gadget… 0.5 stars from me for originality!

Sometimes, it’s not that something has to be so wildly inventive that no one else has seen it before. There are plenty of gadgets on Live.com that can do that. What we wanted to do was address the lack of powerful search gadgets on the site. Sure there are powerful search gadgets for particular sites, but it just seemed that most of the multiple search gadgets acted only as a glorified bookmark for websites. Now granted, there is a bit of that with our gadget (though we included as many options as we could), but there is more here than in the regular search gadgets.

News, Videos, Web Searches, Product Searches, the interface alone should be considered original if you look at how it was constructed. Seriously, once you start playing around in this thing, I think the opinion that this isn’t original at all will wash away in the wake of what this thing can do.

Have You tried out the gadget yet?

Step right Ladies and Gentlemen, feast your eyes on the newest and most powerful search gadgets on the internet!  Why this thing can search 9 different websites, has a gaggle of search options and can still outperform many other dedicated search gadgets out there.

We have a few links if you’re interested:

Gadget Feature Page

Gadget User Manual

Download @ Live.com Gallery

Download From BuildAGadget.com

Enjoy!

In fact, it’s almost here.  We’re currently testing it out right now, and if all goes well, it will be available to the public in just a few days.

What makes a search gadget “Ultimate?”  Well, the search of course.  There are roughly nine different sites to search, most with multiple search options so you can take full advantage of the gadget.  The major idea behind this gadget was that while we could use web based search fo various things like Yahoo! or Google (opting to do so to avoid the nasty use of iFrames), we went out of our way to add in gadget based search in any place we could.  This includes Amazon, Drugstore, eBay, Digg, and YouTube.

 YouTube?!?

That’s right, with this gadget, you can get Play Videos On your Desktop.  With the world spinning so fast, we felt it was a good idea to start moving towards the Holy Grail of search gadgetry:  To bring the search closer to the user.  To be able to search what you need, when you need it, and display that information in an easy to use, easy to access, and easy to read or watch format.  Video and news are just the next logical step.  Web search may be next if we can find a better way than is currently available.

Stay tuned, it’s coming soon.

Search gadgets.  The gallery at Live.com is teeming with this particular style of gadget and well, it’s obvious why.  People need to search, there is some money in search compared to a few of the other gadgets, and well, searching and getting results on your desktop saves time, to mention that fact that unlike many gadgets with an uncommon use, a search gadget can be used all the time and it’s purpose remains pretty useful to the user.

So, looking through the gadgets on the Live.com gallery, we noticed that while there are a few gadgets advertising that they can search two or three sites with the same gadget, there wasn’t anyone doing anything new and exciting like trying to integrate more engines into a gadget, looking into the use of integrated video, or mapping technology (other than the MSN maps gadget).  It’s great that so many developer have gotten into the game, but when are we going to see a breakthrough with this search stuff.

Well, we suppose that if you can’t find it somewhere else, then sometimes you just have to build it.

And that’s exactly what we are doing.  An ultimate search gadget with multiple search engines and sites, an adaptive interface, advanced options, and anything else we find people want to use in there.  If they want a kitchen sink, then by God, we’ll give them a kitchen sink!  Since the gadget is still just being started, we’ll keep everyone posted on this blog as to how it’s coming along and maybe, if you’re good, we’ll post a few screen-shots.