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Windows 7 Search Connectors, What are they and are they useful?

By Mike Halsey MVP on September 20, 2009 in Windows 7 User Guide | Comments { 8 }

Search has changed considerably in Windows 7 and not, in my opinion, for the better. There are some features that you might find useful though. One feature that many people are saying is in this category is search connectors, though I have to say I’m not so sure.

A search connector is, essentially, an XML file (with an .OSDX extension) that allows you to browse the web directly from Windows Explorer. The people who like connectors say this is quite possibly the best thing since sliced bread.

Let’s look at the pro’s and cons…

Pros

You can create a search connector for any website you want and use it to search that website without having to fire up a browser
Not having to fire up a browser and navigate to the website makes searching the internet much faster
Windows Explorer can provide you a live preview of search results, again without having to start your browser
The live preview feature means there’s no clicking back to get to your search results again

Cons

Any link you click on in will still have to open in a web browser. Thus the whole experience will shave literally milliseconds off the whole search experience
The search connectors clutter your favourite links pane

Okay, so it looks at this point as if the pros outweigh the cons.

There are plenty of search connectors available, a quick search in Bing or [shudder] Google will bring up loads including instructions on how to write your own.

Most of the big websites, Bing, Flickr etc will already have search connectors available. Bing’s for instance can found at Bing Search Connector for Windows 7.

Adding a connector will bring up a dialogue asking if this is what you really want to do. Afterwards though you will see the search connector in your favourite links pane. Clicking on it will enable you to use the Windows Explorer search box to search that website.