[akatsuki]

Since Dave Watanabe has specifically said he will not port Inquisitor to OmniWeb, any chance of a similar feature being programmed into OmniWeb? Seems like a natural evolution of search...

[jphaag]

Ding to that.

This is a sort of killer feature for me (like the visual tabs of OW) that makes me want to switch browsers.

[Len Case]

We used to have a really great search feature in OmniWeb 3, but we found it hard to maintain in the face of changing websites.

I am not exactly sure how Inquisitor works--perhaps someone could describe it more fully.

[akatsuki]

Perhaps the easiest way is to just see it in action: it is a livesearch functionality that queries a search engine and then displays the results much like spotlight:

http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/

[Jon Hicks]

The key feature is instant search results, showing the top 3 or 5 results without even going to a interim search page.

But what I really love about Inquisitor is that it presents the list of possible search engines as soon as you start typing. Using the down key to select a different search engine to the default is so much quicker than having to click the magnifying glass icon and select one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hicksdesign/113682209/

It can also auto-complete your search query, which doesn't always work well:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hicksdesign/93703138/

That part is more like Safari's autocomplete than Omniwebs.

But yes, this feature, combined with Omniweb's own easy-add search engine functionality would be great!

[troyb]

I'm curious, do people really like the automatic search results popping up or just the easy access to the list of available search engines? ... or is it the combination of both.

[vamp07]

Originally Posted by akatsuki

Since Dave Watanabe has specifically said he will not port Inquisitor to OmniWeb, any chance of a similar feature being programmed into OmniWeb? Seems like a natural evolution of search...

Why won't he port it to OmniWeb? I just bout Inquisitor this week.

[Jon Hicks]

Originally Posted by vamp07

Why won't he port it to OmniWeb? I just bout Inquisitor this week.

He doesn't feel it's worth the work, with Omniweb's small user base. I know I talk up Omniweb quite a bit on my blog, but it barely ever shows up in site stats. Safari (28%), Camino (3%), and if Omniweb does ever show up, its in the less than 1% category. I guess the market for those of us that are prepared to pay for a browser is small.

From his own comments, its sounds as if David even regrets spending the time on getting it work in Camino. It is shame though. I assume that it wouldn't take much to port it, seeing as it is another Cocoa app. I've even offered money, but the answer was a definite no. :(

[akatsuki]

For the most part Omniweb to me has three features that make it interesting. Site prefs, tabs and the shortcut bookmarks. All are available through plugins for Safari (albeit the tabs are not as good.)

It is missing FAYT, external RSS reader subscribing, option-downloading, searching in a new tab, and some other features present or available in Safari.

Given the trade-off of features, it seems hard to justify paying for the browser necessarily. I have been using Omniweb during the beta phase to see whether it is really worth paying for, and I am still on the fence. So I suggested this feature as something that is out there, that people are willing to pay for, and that will not be made available to OmniWeb any other way...

[Jon Hicks]

Originally Posted by akatsuki

For the most part Omniweb to me has three features that make it interesting. Site prefs, tabs and the shortcut bookmarks. All are available through plugins for Safari (albeit the tabs are not as good.)

It is missing FAYT, external RSS reader subscribing, option-downloading, searching in a new tab, and some other features present or available in Safari.

Given the trade-off of features, it seems hard to justify paying for the browser necessarily. I have been using Omniweb during the beta phase to see whether it is really worth paying for, and I am still on the fence. So I suggested this feature as something that is out there, that people are willing to pay for, and that will not be made available to OmniWeb any other way...

I do know what you mean, it particularly irks me that Omniweb doesn't have FAYT (but I believe its coming). However it does have option downloading. I would say to make sure that you used Workspaces, the Zoomed text editor (click the + icon in textfields like the ones on the forum). These are great features that aren't implemented in other browsers, even in plugins like Saft.

Also, the focus on OW 5.5 has been to get the conversion from Web Core to WebKit completed, which was no trivial move, but will set OW up well for the future. While some new features have been implemented (such as custom CSS site preferences) I think OW 6 will focus more on new features and UI improvements.