onThought

Archive for December, 2009

A List Apart 2009 Survey

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

I participated in “the survey for people who make websites.” Take it.

Vanity OpenID with Your Google Account

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

I recently wrote about using Google Apps for Your Domain to provide a vanity OpenID.¹ Now, you can use your website to delegate to your Google account as an OpenID Provider.² Here’s how:

1. Setup your Google Profile. Note your profile URL.
2. Add the two lines below the head of your website’s index. Change the second line to reference your Google Profile URL.

<link rel="openid2.provider" href="https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud?source=profiles">
<link rel="openid2.local_id" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your_google_profile_url_here">

1 How to Setup OpenID with Google Apps
2 TechCrunch: Google Profiles Turn Into OpenIDs

Changing Safari’s Search Engine

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Safari doesn’t allow you to change the search provider without resorting to hacks. If you’d like to use something other than Google or have additional search providers available in Safari, try my bookmarklet tip.

A bookmarklet is a special bookmark that uses JavaScript to add functionality. When you click on a bookmarklet from your Bookmarks Bar, a prompt will appear. Type your search, hit return, and the search results will be loaded in the browser window. If your Bookmarks Bar is not visible, go to View > Show Bookmarks Bar in Safari.

Other Useful Search Engines

I made some bookmarklets of popular searches. Simply drag the links below to your Bookmarks Bar to use.

• Bing
• Wikipedia
• eBay
• Amazon

  Note: the above bookmarklet includes my Amazon Associates referral code that gives me a small kickback if you use it and purchase something.

Quick Keyboard Access

Bookmarks in Safari’s Bookmarks Bar can be accessed through a keyboard shortcut. Press command (⌘) and 1 to load the first bookmark in the Bookmarks Bar. Press 2 for the second, 3 for the third and so on.

Create Your Own

Here’s the base JavaScript for the bookmarklet:

var q = prompt('Search for','');
if (q != null) {
	window.location = 'http://example.com/search?query=' + q;
}

When merged to a single line and URL escaped, it looks like:

javascript:var%20q=prompt('Search%20for','');if(q!=null){window.location='http://example.com/search?query='+q;}

To create your own, replace http://example.com/search?query= with the actual search provider’s query URI. Copy the URL escaped single line of JavaScript with the javascript: prefix. Open a blank Safari window and paste the line. Drag the site icon (the blue sphere in the Address Bar) to your Bookmarks Bar to save.

This is an easy and flexible way to have different and multiple search providers in Safari.