6 ms·

FrogFind: Search Engine for Vintage Computers

EricE 5y ago
This is cool! It’s amazing how heavy most web pages are - all while producing very little additional value to the web site visitor for that added complexity.
jstanley 5y ago
It's cool that it loads every page through a proxy that strips out most of the extraneous nonsense. I was expecting the search results page to be "vintage" appropriate, but then every subsequent page to just be normal. That said, I don't know that I'd call any computer running a web browser "vintage".
- reaperducer 5y ago
  TRS-80 Model 100 → Telnet to a MacBook → Lynx to the web. Surfing the web at 600 baud. That's how we roll all up in here.
  - retrocryptid 5y ago
    lol. i was doing the same thing except it was a linux middlebox. and if you've found any pages that render decently in lynx, you can add them to bobcat: https://ohmeadhbh.github.io/bobcat/ https://ohmeadhbh.github.io/bobcat/
  - drewzero1 5y ago
    I tried to do the same with my TRS-80 CoCo, but couldn't log in because the CoCo can't do lowercase letters. One of these days I should make an all-caps user with a couple of command aliases and try again. The same setup works well with my WYSE dumb terminal and Macintosh Classic, though the Classic should be able to handle some graphical browsing as well.
- NegativeLatency 5y ago
  Contiki on an Apple II is not vintage for you?
- dusted 5y ago
  I'm able to browse many traditionl http sites with my 8088 with 640k RAM
rzzzt 5y ago
The companion site is http://68k.news/ http://68k.news/ which renders news articles using a similar pipeline.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Any idea how to contact Action Retro, the developer? EDIT: I found it in the FAQ.
mmphosis 5y ago
How do I easily add this to the list of search engines in Firefox? I seem trip over this issue every time I see one of these new search engines, and I definitely want to add it to the list of search engines. Maybe my distro broke this, again.
- 6510 5y ago
  right click in a search box then Add a keyword for this search. Press tab 3 times and type "frog" or "f" or whatever you like. Use the address bar to FrogFind things by typing "frog hacker news"
  - mmphosis 5y ago
    It doesn't work. ugh, I think my distro tore that feature out of Firefox with the latest update. I may only search eBay, Bing, Amazon, and other search engines that my distro deems worthy.
    - mmphosis 5y ago
      That was painful. https://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=frogfind.com https://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=frogfind... Hi, my understanding is that with very few exceptions, if a search engine is included in Firefox it is because Mozilla and the search engine have a contract and Mozilla makes some money from the arrangement. It's hard for outsiders to know what will be added or removed in the future. https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/bring-back-recently-eliminated-default-search-engines/m-p/4601/highlight/true#M2058 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/bring-back-recent...
      - 6510 5y ago
        https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category/search-tools/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category... is what firefox points me to if I click on find more search engines from the settings
drewzero1 5y ago
I was just namedropping this project in another thread today. Cool to see it on the front page too!
LeoPanthera 5y ago
If you set your HTTP proxy to theoldnet.com (and add an exception for web.archive.org), and then set the port number to a year (try 1997, for example), you will get web pages served from the Wayback Machine, from that year. It's like sending your entire browser back in time.
- hardwaresofton 5y ago
  This is an amazing user interface/concept. What a unique way to use the combination of tools we have. I only wish it was a bit more accessible for the layman -- maybe some sort of client side tiny application that set your http_proxy? or actually maybe a browser addon would work.
  - LeoPanthera 5y ago
    "The layman" can simply visit http://theoldnet.com http://theoldnet.com and do it in the browser. It's not quite as slick but it's functional.
the_only_law 5y ago
Sadly searching HP stuff still returns whatever modern tech they’ve reused old product names on.
causality0 5y ago
I'm gonna be completely honest with you; it wasn't until after I punched "ibm 5100" into the box and hit search that I realized this isn't a marketplace for finding classic computing devices.
- autoexec 5y ago
  I want someone to make that search engine!
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Don't feel bad, I did the same.
Quindecillion 5y ago
I was disappointed to discover this isn't a search engine to FIND vintage computers.

This is cool! It’s amazing how heavy most web pages are - all while producing very little additional value to the web site visitor for that added complexity.

jstanley 5y ago

It's cool that it loads every page through a proxy that strips out most of the extraneous nonsense. I was expecting the search results page to be "vintage" appropriate, but then every subsequent page to just be normal. That said, I don't know that I'd call any computer running a web browser "vintage".

reaperducer 5y ago
TRS-80 Model 100 → Telnet to a MacBook → Lynx to the web. Surfing the web at 600 baud. That's how we roll all up in here.
- retrocryptid 5y ago
  lol. i was doing the same thing except it was a linux middlebox. and if you've found any pages that render decently in lynx, you can add them to bobcat: https://ohmeadhbh.github.io/bobcat/ https://ohmeadhbh.github.io/bobcat/
- drewzero1 5y ago
  I tried to do the same with my TRS-80 CoCo, but couldn't log in because the CoCo can't do lowercase letters. One of these days I should make an all-caps user with a couple of command aliases and try again. The same setup works well with my WYSE dumb terminal and Macintosh Classic, though the Classic should be able to handle some graphical browsing as well.
NegativeLatency 5y ago
Contiki on an Apple II is not vintage for you?
dusted 5y ago
I'm able to browse many traditionl http sites with my 8088 with 640k RAM

rzzzt 5y ago

The companion site is http://68k.news/ http://68k.news/ which renders news articles using a similar pipeline.

wolverine876 5y ago
Any idea how to contact Action Retro, the developer? EDIT: I found it in the FAQ.

mmphosis 5y ago

How do I easily add this to the list of search engines in Firefox? I seem trip over this issue every time I see one of these new search engines, and I definitely want to add it to the list of search engines. Maybe my distro broke this, again.

6510 5y ago
right click in a search box then Add a keyword for this search. Press tab 3 times and type "frog" or "f" or whatever you like. Use the address bar to FrogFind things by typing "frog hacker news"
- mmphosis 5y ago
  It doesn't work. ugh, I think my distro tore that feature out of Firefox with the latest update. I may only search eBay, Bing, Amazon, and other search engines that my distro deems worthy.
  - mmphosis 5y ago
    That was painful. https://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=frogfind.com https://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html?name=frogfind... Hi, my understanding is that with very few exceptions, if a search engine is included in Firefox it is because Mozilla and the search engine have a contract and Mozilla makes some money from the arrangement. It's hard for outsiders to know what will be added or removed in the future. https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/bring-back-recently-eliminated-default-search-engines/m-p/4601/highlight/true#M2058 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/bring-back-recent...
    - 6510 5y ago
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category/search-tools/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/category... is what firefox points me to if I click on find more search engines from the settings

drewzero1 5y ago

I was just namedropping this project in another thread today. Cool to see it on the front page too!

LeoPanthera 5y ago

If you set your HTTP proxy to theoldnet.com (and add an exception for web.archive.org), and then set the port number to a year (try 1997, for example), you will get web pages served from the Wayback Machine, from that year. It's like sending your entire browser back in time.

hardwaresofton 5y ago
This is an amazing user interface/concept. What a unique way to use the combination of tools we have. I only wish it was a bit more accessible for the layman -- maybe some sort of client side tiny application that set your http_proxy? or actually maybe a browser addon would work.
- LeoPanthera 5y ago
  "The layman" can simply visit http://theoldnet.com http://theoldnet.com and do it in the browser. It's not quite as slick but it's functional.

the_only_law 5y ago

Sadly searching HP stuff still returns whatever modern tech they’ve reused old product names on.

causality0 5y ago

I'm gonna be completely honest with you; it wasn't until after I punched "ibm 5100" into the box and hit search that I realized this isn't a marketplace for finding classic computing devices.

autoexec 5y ago
I want someone to make that search engine!
kingcharles 5y ago
Don't feel bad, I did the same.

Quindecillion 5y ago

I was disappointed to discover this isn't a search engine to FIND vintage computers.