HN Explorer

Ask HN: Rate my start-up. (Multiple Instant Search)

4 points by photon_off ↗ HN
I'm not sure what to write here. I busted my ass for almost 3 weeks to get this out. I'd really appreciate any feedback you can offer. Even if it's "this is stupid" or "cool". Anything at all helps me rationalize the fact that I did essentially nothing except work on this for a substantial amount of time.

Lay it on me, HN.

8 comments

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chrisclark1729
I like it. Any way to show multiple searches at one time?
photon_off
Not as of yet. I cannot think of a sensible way to show many different sets of results at the same time. Unless you have a huge monitor, it would likely be too cluttered.

You can search multiple sites easily by typing in your search, then clicking on whatever providers (or typing into "filter"), and it will update the results. Or, you can hit [up] and [down] keys to toggle between search providers.

chrisclark1729
Yeah, I think the functionality of toggling between search providers is really well done. It just came to mind.

You know what be pretty amazing, IMO, is listing top 10 or so URL's of Bing, Yahoo, Google right next to each other for comparison sake (removing the display window).

photon_off
You could enter your search, the middle click on the "Go" links for Bing, Yahoo, Google, and whatever else. This will open new tabs in your browser, containing the results for those search engines.

I really can't say I see much value in comparing 3 different search engine results at the same time. I'd rather just look at Google, then Bing, then Yahoo.

andrewtbham
i think it's pretty cool... how did you do the auto suggest? is it through an api? i don't really like the results in the section (frame? div?) where you might have to scroll. seem like layout could be more integrated.
photon_off
Auto suggest is via a Google API, and a bit of JS hacking to make a reduced number of calls and to make the menu "feel" nearly browser native.

You can disable the results in the iframe by unchecking "Live Preview"

ScottWhigham
Very cool. My first thought upon just looking at the site was, "I don't know why I would use it rather than the search engine bar in Firefox." I then did a search and I found that I enjoyed how it retained/ran the search against the various engines/sites.