Ajax Wikipedia Search

October 22, 2008 7:21 AM

Ajax Wikipedia Search
This is a small app with a specific goal - provide a better way to search through Wikipedia. I often go to Google to find Wikipedia pages on a specific topic. Having multiple search results in a sidebar makes it easy to skim through a variety of Wiki pages easily.

It's best when you are learning more about a topic without knowing exactly what you're looking for. The autocomplete/suggest type search results help narrow down and refine your keywords in real time. This app uses the Google AJAX Search API and runs directly off the Goolge servers so no search query information is sent to my server.

Also, you can directly type chir.ag/wiki/something in your browser's address bar or use chir.ag/wiki/%s to setup custom search in your browser's search addon.

You're welcome to give it a whirl for a few minutes and post any comments, feedback, and suggestions you have.

posted by chime (6 comments total)

This is a triumph. Preview and spell check for wikipedia are my new favorite things.

For noobs like me on Firefox:
1. Visit this plug-in generator
2. Use "http://chir.ag/wiki/TEST" for the search URL
3. Use "http://en.wikipedia.org/favicon.ico" for a manual favicon
4. Add title, submit, and click the install link it gives you.
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:01 AM on October 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Brilliant! I think I've used it 50 times already. Minor quibble: it doesn't handle UTF-8 in the URL (i.e. this works, this doesn't yet).
posted by you at 7:20 PM on October 25, 2008

Good one.
posted by thejeshgn at 1:17 AM on October 26, 2008

Also, is it possible to add a 'show only this frame' option? Maybe as a standard [X] to the top right of the pane.

You made Lifehacker, too. :D
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:12 AM on October 27, 2008

Corny, but I think you should name it.
posted by cashman at 11:39 AM on October 28, 2008

what an amazing site !!
posted by adamficekblog at 5:54 AM on November 12, 2008