Search tool – Dave’s Quick Search DeskBar

David Bau, a software engineer and former Microsoft employee from Pennsylvania USA is the author of one of my favourite pieces of free software.  If you use Windows and spend any amount of time looking for information on the internet, this may become one of your favourites too.  David is the creator of the aptly named, Dave’s Quick Search DeskBar.  Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see, this is a little box that sits beside your Start button on your Windows desktop.  When you’re not doing anything, it just shows the date and time.  But when you’re ready to search, you type in what you want to look for.  Then, you press Enter and your browser automatically searches Google for that search term.  Handy, but that is only the beginning.

There is a handy menu that can open up after you type in your term.  That menu allows you to search other things.

 Search with Yahoo!.  Check stock quotes.  Search news, weather reports, movie reviews, eBay, amazon, WalMart, encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical articles and comic strips.  Do currency conversions, find distances, read tips to tweak Windows….the list goes on and on.

One of the simplest things that I personally use is simply going to a web page.  Just type in the URL and press enter.  You can also type in a time and a message, and an alarm will sound at the appropriate time.

It’s impossible to list all the things this bar does.  On the right there you can see a search for recipes.  I forgot to mention that one, and a few gazillion others.  But essentially, it allows you a lightning quick way to find key information on the internet, whatever that information may be, without loading a bunch of pages in between that you don’t need.

You download Dave’s Quick Search DeskBar from this link.  Note that there is currently a minor glitch when you try to use this program in Windows XP.  Don’t panic – I use XP.  There is a work-around that you need to do once after installing, and this is clearly explained on the website.

For those adventurous types, there are some nice ad-ons at this website here.  Enjoy!