So a few people have made mention that the gadget isn’t opening up links in the default browser window.  So far, I’ve spent the entire morning tracking this problem down.  I found out a few interesting things:

1. Any gadget that says it “Opens in the default browser” is merely making regular HTML links.  In our gadget, any non-web search does that and should work as long as the default browser is set right.
2. There is no code that I know of or can find to specify whether to open links in one browser or another.  At least, not without making the user specify the exact file to execute and then attempting to merge that with a url string.  Odds are it’s probably not going to happen.
3. I’m not exactly sure why the command window.open decides to open the window in IE, it just does.  I’m going to chalk this one up to the design of the sidebar or that FireFox is still slowly being integrated into Vista like it was in XP.  This might be a bug that will be rectified over time with one or more patches.

So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the case that this little “Bug” is exactly that.  I wish I knew how to fix it, but so far as I can see, we’re all pretty much stuck with it until either Microsoft or Mozilla deign to fix it.  I will however keep an eye out for future fixes or perhaps codes and solutions that might help out in this area. 

P.S.:  We’re going to play with some ideas for the next update.  I’m not promising anything, but we’re going to give it a shot to see if we can get this fixed.

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.

The other day as I was looking around Digg, it occurred to me to check out the Live gallery to see if there were any Digg gadgets out yet.  What I found was rather disappointing.  Two (2!) gadgets found their way to my desktop and both were dispatched with just as fast.  These gadgets relied on the RSS feed to display the news, which ultimately isn’t too bad, except they just didn’t do a great job with it.

You’d think tech news on a gadget site would have more dedication to it.  I mean, even Apollo has a great Digg gadget for it already. 

So that’s why we’ve added Digg news to our upcoming Ultimate Search gadget and who knows, there may even be a standalone gadget in the works for it.

 All I know is I want my news, I want it the way I want it, and it better look pretty damn spiffy if I’m going to read it.