Quick Search Box for Android: Search your phone and the web
Friday, October 9, 2009 | 11:38 AM
I'm happy to announce Quick Search Box (QSB) for Android, a fast and versatile new system-wide search experience, available right from your phone's home screen. Since keystrokes are at a premium when you're typing on your phone, Quick Search Box provides suggestions as you type, making it easy to access whatever you're looking for by typing just a few characters.
Rather than giving you one search box for the web and another for your phone, QSB provides one single search box to let you search content on your phone, including apps, contacts, and browser history, as well as content from the web, like personalized search suggestions, local business listings, stock quotes, weather, and flight status, all without opening the browser. QSB even learns from your habits and provides faster access to the items you search for and use most often (by, for example, moving them higher on the suggestions list).
You can now also tap the microphone button next to the search box to search the web and call contacts by voice. The next time you want to search the web or call a friend, try speaking your query, like "pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset", or the name of a contact, like "Call Dave Burke, mobile phone", to save even more time. Note that voice search currently only works in English.
Finally, one of the coolest things about QSB is that it's not limited to searching what we think is useful - third party apps can also include suggestions in the list, making it faster to access the content you want from those apps, too. Look on Android Market for apps that support QSB, and enable their suggestions from the system search settings. (And if you're an app developer, check out our developer blog for more on how to leverage QSB for your app.)
We hope Quick Search Box will change the way you use your Android-powered phone by shortening the time and effort it takes to get the information you want while you're on the go. It's available in Android 1.6, so check it out and enjoy!
Labels: android, google search, Mobile Blog, quick search box
9 comments:
Arno den Hond said...
QSB enables a new generation of widgets!
http://www.cyrket.com/search?q=qsb
It can also be used to store new data without having to open any apps!
October 10, 2009 at 6:54 AM
Brian said...
I love this feature. But its terribly slow on my G1, even with 3g or wifi. Can't do a simple Google search without waiting forever. Is it just me? Anything I can do to speed qsb up?
October 10, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Anonymous said...
I've tried this out several times already and it is great. Much faster than going to contacts or web search.
There is just one other place I wish it would search. often i know I have an appointment but can't remember the date and have to go online since I can't search for it on G1
October 10, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Unknown said...
Quick Search doesn't seem to search the Android Calendar.
When will we get a Google Android calendar search?
October 10, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Kevin marks said...
It's a bit overeager - on my G1 it pops up when I'm typing in web forms way too often (it just did it when typing this comment).
Can you look at the timeout again?
October 10, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Unknown said...
I second that request for searching the calendar. That's how I used to use Palm's search before my Android days.
Any ETA on calendar searching? It's kind of a big hole for a "system-wide" search of "the content on your phone."
Thanks,
Steve
October 11, 2009 at 1:15 AM
Neil said...
It is cool.
But I'd like it to use google.co.uk instead of google.com :-)
October 13, 2009 at 3:56 AM
download said...
October 13, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Unknown said...
Not a fan as unable to use the built in htc hero word suggester and thus have to type each letter using abc mode.
Rather bring up google and type in search box as much faster.
October 20, 2009 at 5:55 AM
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