How do I install PeteSearch?

You need to be running a version of Firefox 1.5 or later. To install:

1. Click on the 'INSTALL' link

 


2. Firefox will show a bar at the top of the screen, with an 'edit options' button. You'll need to click on this button before you can install the plugin.

 


3. This will bring up a window, with a list of sites already allowed to install plugins, and petesearch.com in a box at the top. If you click 'allow', you'll allow this site to install the plugin. Once you've done that, you can close the window.

 


4. Now, click on the install link again, and you should see a window with an 'Install now' button. Clicking that, and restarting, will install the plugin.

How do I use PeteSearch?

PeteSearch automatically recognises when a site it knows about is loaded into Firefox, so go ahead and search as you normally would using the toolbar, or going directly to a search page.

When a page of search results is loaded, PeteSearch will find the links that point to external pages that the engine has found. The plugin will first check to make sure the pages still exist, and then look at the contents of each page to make sure they contain the words you looked for.

It will put the status of each page below the link, telling you if the page was missing, or any of your terms weren't found.

Once a page has been checked, you also get a couple of options to work out if it's worth visiting.

The magnifier icon on the left brings the page up in a split-screen view.

The text page icon brings up a summary showing where the search terms are used on the page.

What are the key commands?

You can also quickly move through the search results using hot-key commands:

• CTRL+/ - Pressing control and the slash key will turn the extension on and off.
• CTRL+Left/Right - Holding control and pressing the left and right arrows on the keyboard moves you to the next and previous results that the search engine found. When you reach the end of the results on a page, pressing right will take you to the next page of results.
• SHIFT+Left/Right - Shift and the left and right arrows will also move through the results, but display them in split-screen view.
• CTRL+Down - Control and the down arrow will move you to the next page of results for that search.
• CTRL+Up - Control and the up arrow will move you back to the last page of search results you were looking at.
• CTRL+Number - Holding down control and pressing a number key takes you to that result, so Control+1 takes you to the first result, Control+5 takes you to the fifth, etc.
• CTRL+Equals - Holding down control and pressing the equals key will open all ten results in separate tabs. You can then use the standard Firefox keys, like control+tab, to cycle through the tabs.

How does it work?

PeteSearch has a list of search engines it knows about, and information like where the next button is on for each so the plugin can recognize when a page of search results is loaded, and find out which external websites are mentioned as results. If you're technically minded, you can look at the source code, available through the GPL license at Sourceforge.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?

Email me at searchbrowser@gmail.com, I'd be happy to hear your ideas on improving PeteSearch!