Searchify: new free app that adds lots of features to the quick search box

[olilan]

Hi everyone.

Just wanted to let you all know about my new app. It's called Searchify, it's free, and it hooks in to the Quick Search Box (on Android 1.6 or higher) to let you do all sorts of things.

Searchify lets you perform translations, calculations, unit conversions, wikipedia searches, calendar entry and more just by typing in searches.

Some of the things you can do with it:

Unit convertor: type a quantity (e.g. “10 pints” or “5 oz&#8221 into the search box to see a list of conversions.

Calendar entry: Type an event in text (e.g. “tue 3pm meeting” or "tomorrow 3pm - thursday 5am event @ John's") to add it to your calendar.

Translator: Type “translate” then a word or phrase in any language to see translations into languages of your choice.

Wikipedia: Type anything to bring back search results from Wikipedia that will link you direct to the Wikipedia page.

Calculator: Just type a sum right into the search box.

Keyword search: like in Firefox, type e.g. “twt android” to search twitter, or “dict something” to search a dictionary.

Like any app that works with the Quick Search Box, at first the search results appear under "More results...", but once you've used it a few times they'll appear in the main bit of search results.

For more details, see the Searchify website: http://olilan.co.uk/searchify

I hope you find the app useful!

Oli.

 

[iPhone2Droid]

Nice! Does it also search additional fields in the contacts database?

 

[olilan]

No, it doesn't search contacts at the moment. I can look in to adding that though if it'd be useful. What kinds of things would you search for?

 

[olilan]

Also, if anyone has any ideas for other features they'd like to see in the app (i.e. things you'd like to be able to do from the quick search box), let me know and I'll see what I can do.

 

[(G)]

I'd love to see a search of everything on the phone, especially "Note Everything" data, calendar appointments, and all fields in contacts.

 

[olilan]

I think Note Everything provides its own search function - go to the main phone settings -> Search -> Searchable Items to activate it.

Calendar search I can look in to. Would it be to search event descriptions/locations for certain words, or would you be after some kind of date search?

Contacts - are there fields you're especially interested in? Email addresses? Company names?

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[(G)]

I think Note Everything provides its own search function - go to the main phone settings -> Search -> Searchable Items to activate it.

Calendar search I can look in to. Would it be to search event descriptions/locations for certain words, or would you be after some kind of date search?

Contacts - are there fields you're especially interested in? Email addresses? Company names?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks for thinking about adding this stuff!

Note Everything does indeed have its own search function, but there are times when I'm not certain where on the PDA I have something stashed -- for example, sometimes I'll add a phone number to a Note Everything note simply because it'll be a one-time phone call and I don't want/need it in "Contacts." Sometimes I even put that phone number in a calendar entry at the time I'm supposed to make that call.

Calendar search would, for me at least, just be event names.

But here's an example: Let's say I sprained my knee. I search for the physical therapist's name on the Droid. I see the calendar entry for when my last appointment was, see that there's a Note Everything note that I wrote to myself to tell me what exercises I needed to be working on since the last appointment, and see the PT's entry in "Contacts" so I can call him to schedule another appointment.

In other words, the whole Droid/PDA is working as one, integrated unit, and all information is inter-linked via SEARCH.

Thanks again for considering this sort of stuff!

 

[olilan]

Actually Note Everything has a search that integrates into the quick search box, so you wouldn't need Searchify for that. In any case I don't think I could hook into that app's data.

Also, the built in search should work for contact names, so that bit would also work.

Calendar event name search is the missing bit. To be honest it should really be part of the built-in Android search, but it isn't so I'll see if maybe Searchify can do it instead.

 

[iPhone2Droid]

Contacts: company, notes, address. Ditto Cal search for where/location, what/description. Yeah, I can be a greedy little cuss, but in my own defense, my wallet awaits you, my dear dev!! :-D

 

[olilan]

Yeah, I can be a greedy little cuss, but in my own defense, my wallet awaits you, my dear dev!! :-D

Heh, that's nice to know, but you do realise my app is free?

 

[olilan]

OK, I've had a look in to those other suggestions, and actually contact search is kind of there already in the built-in search - or at least it is in Android 2.1. You can type in company names or bits of email addresses. Not sure if it supports addresses or notes.

 

[olilan]

I've just created a website/blog for Searchify, so to get more details - instructions, support advice, FAQ etc., take a look: apps by olilan Searchify

 

[MinConst]

Ive come to like speech searching. Can you app be made to work with speech?

 

[olilan]

Well, the built-in voice search only searches Google, so unfortunately that won't work with Searchify.

On Android 2.1 there's voice-to-text input so that'd let you speak into the Quick Search Box. Still, I guess if you want to say "sat 7pm-11pm dinner @ restaurant" that might be tricky...

 

[olilan]

OK, as requested, Searchify now includes calendar search to let you search event titles and locations direct from the quick search box.

See the searchify website for details.