5 ms·

Show HN: SimpleSearch – Just a list of search bars

31 points by wwickey 2y ago

I made this site for myself, SimpleSearch.info, as new default browser page. I’m not sure if it actually _saves_ time or clicks (though, for me, it saves at least one click per search), but I find the search experience more pleasant. On desktop, it’s nice to just have these search bars as the first thing that pops up in a new window or tab vs clicking bookmarks in the toolbar or elsewhere then searching. Similarly, on mobile, I like just clicking on one icon for all my searches. The vast majority of my web browsing begins with a search or LLM query. I’m curious if this is helpful to anyone else and if there are any additional features I might add to make it more useful. Thanks!

andrewfromx 2y ago
Nice add https://chat.deepseek.com https://chat.deepseek.com and move https://claude.ai https://claude.ai to main list
- lnoir 2y ago
  Came to say the same.
Brysonbw 2y ago
I like this - simple, good, and practical # Feedback - Maybe add a way for a user to modify/adjust layout of search bars. For example view them in a row or grid versus single column - Delete a search bar from the list versus replacing it with another search bar. For example, I may just want to see github and google only. But can always add more from the 'more' dropdown menu. Basically adding an 'X' to the left of the search bar Once again, smooth app
- wwickey 2y ago
  Thanks! I'm going to incorporate this and some of the other feedback in the comments. Very helpful. Appreciate the suggestions, all.
yawnxyz 2y ago
how come I'm only seeing a Godaddy default page?
- areyourllySorry 2y ago
  [dead]
- hodanli 2y ago
  same here
  - wwickey 2y ago
    Ty for the heads up. I think I identified the issue (not, sure why it was affecting some users and not others). Updated! Might take a little time to propagate.
mg 2y ago
I had a similar idea a while back and built Gnod Search around it: https://www.gnod.com/search https://www.gnod.com/search You can enter a search term and then click on the button of a search engine. Or you can just press the first char in the name of the engine. So you can search Google for "hello world" by typing "hello world<enter>g". And then go back and just hit "c" to send the same query to ChatGPT.
- wwickey 2y ago
  Ah, cool, yes, same idea! I like it. Any of the expanded search options get much action?
  - mg 2y ago
    Not sure. I have not much insight into how people use it. Just like you, I mostly have built it (and keep building it) for myself. And yes, I also think it saves time.
    - wwickey 2y ago
      Cool, thanks. Some of the options, for example, ReelGood, I personally use all the time, but I’m not sure how common that is for others. I’m sure there are searches (maybe things like arxiv, Google Translate, Google Scholar, Spotify, etc.) that other people use more often. I initially opted to keep things tidy (and "'simple'") vs comprehensive, but I will add those and others if anyone wants them!
- ganessh 2y ago
  How do I select duckduckgo after pressing enter, because DeepL appears before DuckDuckGo?
  - mg 2y ago
    Have you seen that you can customize the list of engines when you click "more engines"? For now, if you have two engines in your list that start with the same letter and want to use the second one, you have to click on it. I was thinking about changing it so that when you press the letter, then both engines lit up so you know you have to press another letter to select which one you want. So DeepL would be "de" and DuckDuckGo would become "du". Not sure if it is a feature in high demand. If I get feedback from a user that they want it, I would implement it.
das_keyboard 2y ago
I don't really see the point of this - but here is some feedback from trying it out: * Whatsapp search is broken. Goes to "https://web.whatsapp.comSEARCHPHRASE/ https://web.whatsapp.comSEARCHPHRASE/" * Most of these only work when logged in via cookie to the service * Amazon search inserts your affiliate tag - you might want to make this clear somewhere.
- wwickey 2y ago
  Yes! Thanks. Will update. Yeah, for me, it's just a _little_ bit better of a search experience. Would not expect that the be the case for everyone. Was wondering if that would actually be the case for _most_ people. Glad to see some folks some see value in it.
fogleman 2y ago
IMO: get rid of the animations
- blue_coder 2y ago
  Agreed, was going to mention the same thing.
jccalhoun 2y ago
I'm not sure what multisearch option does? I would think that it would do the same search on all the places checked but it doesn't seem to do that?
- wwickey 2y ago
  Yes, the multisearch option should open all of the checked options in new tabs. Some browsers or incognito modes will block this by default, so a user may have to enable on their end if that's functionality they care about. Firefox, for example, should notify you that it blocked popups and ask you if you want it to keep doing that same thing moving forward. This feature is also not as relevant on mobile. I can troubleshoot further if that's not working as intended. I considered just removing multisearch, but I do personally use it when I want to check regular search and an LLM in one go, which is actually pretty often. (Plus I achieve tab overflow at least 3x faster! xD)
submeta 2y ago
I did this in Emacs, created a function that will search a keyword on various sites. :) M-x omnisearch keyword<RET> And it logs all of my searches in an org file. Pretty useful logfile after a while. So yes, I can see the value of such a tool :)
thmsp 2y ago
Interesting ! Would you mind sharing the sources ?
ss64 2y ago
It needs to have a dark mode in the CSS.
- wwickey 2y ago
  There's a dark mode toggle persistent in the upper right. :-)
frizlab 2y ago
I use bangs in Kagi (duck duck go had the same feature; I think they were actually the first to do it)
Leftium 2y ago
- I made something similar: https://multi-launch.leftium.com/ https://multi-launch.leftium.com/ - After realizing I made the "button version" of search bangs I started: https://zz.leftium.com/ https://zz.leftium.com/ The UX for composing multiline queries is nicer in my apps (especially with AI Chat like CoPilot): - ENTER is newline by default (SHIFT+ENTER to submit. Or double ENTER; careful not to add newlines too quickly; I have to tune the double keypress UX) - Auto-expands to multiple lines - Fullscreen edit mode
- wwickey 2y ago
  Nice. Thanks for showing. The different flavors of simultaneous invention shared in the thread makes me think there's some kind of underlying shared need/value in this sort of thing!
adrianwaj 2y ago
I wonder if it'd be better to allow a local copy of the page to be saved and used without error - would also lower your bandwith usage.
- adrianwaj 2y ago
  - top text entry field could also be selected by default upon load: ready for typing entry

31 points by wwickey 2y ago

andrewfromx 2y ago

Nice add https://chat.deepseek.com https://chat.deepseek.com and move https://claude.ai https://claude.ai to main list

lnoir 2y ago
Came to say the same.

Brysonbw 2y ago

I like this - simple, good, and practical # Feedback - Maybe add a way for a user to modify/adjust layout of search bars. For example view them in a row or grid versus single column - Delete a search bar from the list versus replacing it with another search bar. For example, I may just want to see github and google only. But can always add more from the 'more' dropdown menu. Basically adding an 'X' to the left of the search bar Once again, smooth app

wwickey 2y ago
Thanks! I'm going to incorporate this and some of the other feedback in the comments. Very helpful. Appreciate the suggestions, all.

yawnxyz 2y ago

how come I'm only seeing a Godaddy default page?

areyourllySorry 2y ago
[dead]
hodanli 2y ago
same here
- wwickey 2y ago
  Ty for the heads up. I think I identified the issue (not, sure why it was affecting some users and not others). Updated! Might take a little time to propagate.

mg 2y ago

I had a similar idea a while back and built Gnod Search around it: https://www.gnod.com/search https://www.gnod.com/search You can enter a search term and then click on the button of a search engine. Or you can just press the first char in the name of the engine. So you can search Google for "hello world" by typing "hello world<enter>g". And then go back and just hit "c" to send the same query to ChatGPT.

wwickey 2y ago
Ah, cool, yes, same idea! I like it. Any of the expanded search options get much action?
- mg 2y ago
  Not sure. I have not much insight into how people use it. Just like you, I mostly have built it (and keep building it) for myself. And yes, I also think it saves time.
  - wwickey 2y ago
    Cool, thanks. Some of the options, for example, ReelGood, I personally use all the time, but I’m not sure how common that is for others. I’m sure there are searches (maybe things like arxiv, Google Translate, Google Scholar, Spotify, etc.) that other people use more often. I initially opted to keep things tidy (and "'simple'") vs comprehensive, but I will add those and others if anyone wants them!
ganessh 2y ago
How do I select duckduckgo after pressing enter, because DeepL appears before DuckDuckGo?
- mg 2y ago
  Have you seen that you can customize the list of engines when you click "more engines"? For now, if you have two engines in your list that start with the same letter and want to use the second one, you have to click on it. I was thinking about changing it so that when you press the letter, then both engines lit up so you know you have to press another letter to select which one you want. So DeepL would be "de" and DuckDuckGo would become "du". Not sure if it is a feature in high demand. If I get feedback from a user that they want it, I would implement it.

das_keyboard 2y ago

I don't really see the point of this - but here is some feedback from trying it out: * Whatsapp search is broken. Goes to "https://web.whatsapp.comSEARCHPHRASE/ https://web.whatsapp.comSEARCHPHRASE/" * Most of these only work when logged in via cookie to the service * Amazon search inserts your affiliate tag - you might want to make this clear somewhere.

wwickey 2y ago
Yes! Thanks. Will update. Yeah, for me, it's just a _little_ bit better of a search experience. Would not expect that the be the case for everyone. Was wondering if that would actually be the case for _most_ people. Glad to see some folks some see value in it.

fogleman 2y ago

IMO: get rid of the animations

blue_coder 2y ago
Agreed, was going to mention the same thing.

jccalhoun 2y ago

I'm not sure what multisearch option does? I would think that it would do the same search on all the places checked but it doesn't seem to do that?

wwickey 2y ago
Yes, the multisearch option should open all of the checked options in new tabs. Some browsers or incognito modes will block this by default, so a user may have to enable on their end if that's functionality they care about. Firefox, for example, should notify you that it blocked popups and ask you if you want it to keep doing that same thing moving forward. This feature is also not as relevant on mobile. I can troubleshoot further if that's not working as intended. I considered just removing multisearch, but I do personally use it when I want to check regular search and an LLM in one go, which is actually pretty often. (Plus I achieve tab overflow at least 3x faster! xD)

submeta 2y ago

I did this in Emacs, created a function that will search a keyword on various sites. :) M-x omnisearch keyword<RET> And it logs all of my searches in an org file. Pretty useful logfile after a while. So yes, I can see the value of such a tool :)

thmsp 2y ago

Interesting ! Would you mind sharing the sources ?

ss64 2y ago

It needs to have a dark mode in the CSS.

wwickey 2y ago
There's a dark mode toggle persistent in the upper right. :-)

frizlab 2y ago

I use bangs in Kagi (duck duck go had the same feature; I think they were actually the first to do it)

Leftium 2y ago

- I made something similar: https://multi-launch.leftium.com/ https://multi-launch.leftium.com/ - After realizing I made the "button version" of search bangs I started: https://zz.leftium.com/ https://zz.leftium.com/ The UX for composing multiline queries is nicer in my apps (especially with AI Chat like CoPilot): - ENTER is newline by default (SHIFT+ENTER to submit. Or double ENTER; careful not to add newlines too quickly; I have to tune the double keypress UX) - Auto-expands to multiple lines - Fullscreen edit mode

wwickey 2y ago
Nice. Thanks for showing. The different flavors of simultaneous invention shared in the thread makes me think there's some kind of underlying shared need/value in this sort of thing!

adrianwaj 2y ago

I wonder if it'd be better to allow a local copy of the page to be saved and used without error - would also lower your bandwith usage.

adrianwaj 2y ago
- top text entry field could also be selected by default upon load: ready for typing entry