MrSapo Search Console

[jucamiloso]

Hi folks! We've just launched a what we called "search console", which is a website that provides an alternative way to find all kinds of information and multimedia files on the internet, by querying different sources from one fixed screen panel.

I'd like to get some feedback :)

http://mrsapo.com

Thanks!

[ihelpyou]

Hi, No one seems to want to say anything, so I will.

I trust you got permission from all those search engines to scrape their search results and put them on your domain? Do you realize it's against most engines TOS's to auto query their databases? Ranks mean "very" little in the scheme of things. A rank report of any kind is not what is important.

[jucamiloso]

I know the practices of metasearching and auto-querying are forbidden by search engines, but I see you misunderstood how MrSapo actually works. It is NOT metasearching any source, nor is it automatically querying them: It's the users who manually query the sources, as done with hundreds of toolbars available. We provide a tool so people can conveniently search, but we are NOT quering nor suggesting predefined results. We are not tryingto abuse any copyright, and the original brands and layout of the pages are visible for the users. Is true that in the address bar the MrSapo domain is always visible, but it is because it's a frameset. There's a number of sites that provide the users with the ability to manually query search engines, to mention some:
http://www.googleguy.de/google-yahoo/
http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html

Anyways I want to thank you for coming up with this concern, since some other people may have it.

[ihelpyou]

Yes, Sorry, I mispoke about the auto querying. You are not doing that, but the rest of my post stands.

[orion]

For those interested in the legal aspects of framing the content of other sites (search results, in this case) please visit the ChillingEffects.org site and related links of this site.

Querying an input field and then passing name=value pairs to a search engine through links using a frame set environment has been described elsewhere. There are many javascripts sites that describe how to do this but using pull-down menus. One only need to replace the menu mechanism with links. Here is an example for Yahoo and MSN

<a href="#" onClick="parent.pio.location.href='http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&cop=mss&tab=&p='+q.value;">

<a href="#" onClick="parent.pio.location.href='http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q='+q.value;">

Upon clicking Yahoo or MSN this instructs the browser to display the search results page in a frame of the frameset. The q.value addresses the query value of the input field.

Back in 1998 Jeff Frentzen and Henry Sobotka published JavaScript Annotated Archives (with code and commentaries) in which they spent an entire chapter (Chapter 6) describing the how-to's and variations. Back then they discussed different methods including pull-down menus with and whithout frames. Their book includes all required scripts.

There is a better way to do this: with a database populated with link maps.

In 2000 I wrote an entire database that does just that for 400+ search engines and dedicated directories and using just links. This does not involve any new technology and anyone with a browser, the name=value pairs, and the javascripts should be able to do this.

Personally, I welcome this search tool into the scene and I like it. But honestly, what surprise me is that an unidentified staff writer of the WebProNews site is running this today as a recent news. (http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20041028MrSapocomReducesInternetSearchClutter.html ).


Orion