Friday, May 14, 2010

Searching Google Profiles

A handful of people have pointed out a glaring omission on the Google Profiles page. Here's what the homepage for Google Profiles looks like today:


That's right, it's missing one of these:


Doh!

I happened upon an extremely helpful post in Buzz today from Tom Sullivan. If you use Google Chrome, you can configure your own search engines triggered by keywords in the address bar. Click the wrench to the right of the address bar, then click "basics". Next to search engines, click "manage", and then "add". You should see this:


Next, you'll want to use the following entries:

Name: Google Profiles
Keyword: profile
URL: http://www.google.com/profiles?q=%s


Now when you type "profile Tom Sullivan" in the Chrome address bar, you'll immediately jump to the Profiles search results page for "Tom Sullivan":


(Yes, adding a search box to the Profiles page is going to happen Real Soon Now.)

PS: Can you find the other thing wrong with the Profiles homepage? Hint: It's the kind of thing that drives Brad Feld crazy.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Rick, I'm not sure why I didn't see this on Buzz but I am following you. I came here from another post on Buzz.

    I'd love to know when you think the search feature will be available on the profile screen. Will you be able to search by user name and profile URL too? Thanks for the work-around.

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  2. Impressive. I have been letting Google Chrome sitting quietly in my program except when checking page design layout; thanks to you, now I have an extra use for it. Good find!

    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker

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  3. I would have expected "real soon now" to be less than five months...

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