On my personal blog, I’ve noted how A9 screwed its users by switching from Google to Windows Live, without any notice, while providing no alternative way of getting to Google content, after having made so much noise about A9’s ability to integrate any kind of search engine as a new column.
So screw em. The only really cool thing about A9 is that you can search multiple sites simultaneously, or open a new search site as an extra column with a single click.
But you could clearly do all this with Firefox and tabs. You can open groups of Firefox tabs simultaneously, and close them this way and that. And you can add just about every search engine on Earth to good old Firefox.
So, all that’s needed is an extension, such that you can type in a search term, and automatically get tabs opened in parallel, with the results of different search engines in each tab. Then if you had a check box interface (possibly in a sidebar) to select and unselect engines (thus opening or closing the associated tabs) you’ve got everything A9 offers, in your own custom configuration.
Contributed by Rob Smith
Track with co.mments
