Google Data » Mark Lucovsky, Software Engineer https://googledata.org Everything Google: News, Products, Services, Content, Culture Wed, 18 Mar 2015 21:09:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5 How’d they do that? https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/howd-they-do-that/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=howd-they-do-that https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/howd-they-do-that/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:22:00 +0000 2008 U.S. Election site I am getting lots of questions about that nifty little "page element" sitting in the center of the page. Everyone wants to know, "how did you guys do that? how did you pack so much valuable and tightly scoped information in such a small amount of space?" Take a look at the page element below, play around with it a little bit and when you are ready, continue reading.



If you know how to use Firebug, then you can see that behind each tab (Election News, YouTube, etc.), there is a simple AJAX APIs JSON-P request. For some tabs the base operation is a Google Web Search or Custom Search, for others a Google News Search, and for others, a simple YouTube Search. The AJAX APIs work really well in this mode where the page author determines both the query and search options, as well controlling the end-to-end UI and resulting user experience.

But back to the tabs, and to answer the questions, "How'd they do that?", I will walk through each tab and show you the AJAX API requests that are used to generate the results for this page element:

First, the Election News tab. For this tab, we simply target News Search with the name of the candidate and a query addition of unitedstates_uselections. Something like this:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/news?v=1.0&q=Barack%20Obama%20unitedstates_uselections

Next, the YouTube tab. For this tab, we use the Video Search system to directly target each candidate's YouTube Channel (e.g., ytchannel:barackobamadotcom), render the results with a simple fade in effect, and then bind each result click to a dynamically created player. Very simple stuff. Check out the url we use to grab the results:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/video?v=1.0&q=ytchannel:barackobamadotcom

Next, the Blog Posts tab. For this tab, we built a little Custom Search Engine, populating it with several of the top political blogs. The search then becomes the name of the candidate plus a &cx= argument to indicate the Custom Search Engine to use for the search:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&q=Barack%20Obama&cx=010222979794876194725:pqldevwuapa

See what I mean? Take the queries above, slap on a little UI, and any application can take Google News, Custom Search, Web Search, YouTube, etc. and create a very tight little customized search experience...

The Quotes tab is very cool. Instead of just searching for News articles, this tab searches for news articles that contain quotes spoken by one of the candidates. Again, a simple News search with a &qsid= argument to scope to quotes for a particular candidate and we have what we need:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/news?v=1.0&qsid=tPjE5CDNzMicmMa

Finally, the News by State tab. This one has two things going on. First there is the state selector control. We use the just launched google.loader.ClientLocation property to determine the user's current location. Then, we simply use this location to form a geo scoped query for the candidate's name in the politics category, scoped with a geo restrict using &geo=. Something like this:

http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/news?v=1.0&q=Barack%20Obama%20any_politics&geo=CA,US

So there you have it. Take the above collection of page author defined queries, mix in a few hours of coding, throw in some product managers, a handful of lawyers, a few PR folks, and you have a clever little page element that delivers tons of very focused information.

To learn more about the APIs used in this page element, visit the AJAX Search API and AJAX Feed API documentation. To learn more about Custom Search Engines, check out the recently updated developer guide. To discuss the APIs with us and the community, visit us on our developer forum.

p.s. - If you really like that page element and have to have it on your site, you can iframe it in, or just include our JavaScript directly:


<iframe 
  title="In the News" 
  style="border: 0px none ; margin-left: 1em; width: 540px; height: 530px;" 
  src="http://www.google.com/uds/gadgets/inthenews/iframe.html" 
  frameborder="0">
</iframe>


Or if you prefer including the raw JavaScript controls where you can make mild UI modifications with simple CSS rules, try this approach:


<style>
  @import url("http://www.google.com/uds/gadgets/inthenews/inthenews.css");
  body {
    font-family: "arial", sans-serif;
    font-size: 11px;
  }
</style>

<script src="http://www.google.com/uds/gadgets/inthenews/inthenews.js"></script>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi/" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!--[if IE]>
  <script type="text/javascript" 
    src="http://www.google.com/uds/gadgets/inthenews/excanvas.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

<script type="text/javascript">
  google.load("search", "1");
  google.setOnLoadCallback(initialize, true);

  function initialize() {
    var options = {
      format : "513x500",
      useNav : true
    };
    new InTheNews("itnId-513x500", options);
  }
</script>
</head>

<body>
  <div id="itnId-513x500"></div>
</body>
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/howd-they-do-that/feed/ 0 Where is my current user? https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/where-is-my-current-user/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-is-my-current-user https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/where-is-my-current-user/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:13:00 +0000
Take a look at our new "API". Actually, it's not really an API, more like a simple object property called google.loader.ClientLocation.

After loading any one of our AJAX APIs, the system will attempt to geo-locate the client based on the client's IP address. If we have a valid mapping for the IP address, the google.loader.ClientLocation property is populated with coarse grained coordinates, the user's country, region, and city. The mapping isn't perfect, but it's pretty good, and is definitely usable as a way of setting smart defaults or adding a small amount of location awareness to your app.

Here is a little code sample that demonstrates the use of google.loader.ClientLocation:


/**
 * Set the currentState_ and currentCountry_ properties based on the client's
 * current location (when available and in the US), or to the defaults.
 */
InTheNews.prototype.setDefaultLocation_ = function() {
  this.currentState_ = this.options_.startingState;
  if (google.loader.ClientLocation &&
      google.loader.ClientLocation.address.country_code == "US" &&
      google.loader.ClientLocation.address.region) {

    // geo locate was successful and user is in the states. range check
    // the region so that we can safely use it when selecting a state
    // level polygon overlay
    var state = google.loader.ClientLocation.address.region.toUpperCase();
    if (InTheNews.stateNames[[]state]) {
      this.currentState_ = state;
    }
  }
  this.currentCountry_ = "US";
}


To witness this code in action, check out our 2008 U.S. Election page. If you click on the "News by State" tab, you will either see political news, for the current candidate, scoped to your state, OR if we don't have a mapping for your IP address, you will see the same thing only scoped to the state of California.

Now for the good stuff... If you like this simple IP to location mechanism, wait until you see what the Gears Team announced. They have a killer version of this functionality that is able to pinpoint a user's location using IP, cell-ID, GPS, and coming soon, WiFi. This is definitely a step up in terms of both functionality and accuracy.

As always, feel free to leave us feedback, ask questions, or vote for some new features by visiting our developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/where-is-my-current-user/feed/ 0 Flash and Server Side Access https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/flash-and-server-side-access/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=flash-and-server-side-access https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/flash-and-server-side-access/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:17:00 +0000
Check out the relevant documentation for:
Using the APIs from your Flash or Server Side framework couldn't be simpler. If you know how to make an http request, and how to process a JSON response, you are in business.


The NewsBar is one of the AJAX Search API's most popular JavaScript based controls. Over the weekend, we threw together a Flash based version of the control and have embedded it below:



Please let us know your thoughts on this interface on our developer forum.

update: Learn more about this aspect of the AJAX APIs, and meet the team at Google I/O

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/flash-and-server-side-access/feed/ 0 The PartnerBar – Contextual Cross Linking https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/the-partnerbar-contextual-cross-linking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-partnerbar-contextual-cross-linking https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/the-partnerbar-contextual-cross-linking/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:26:00 +0000 EW.com, the online extension of Entertainment Weekly Magazine. She asked if our Feed API could be used to build a module that they could configure to promote and link to their partner's sites. The result of that phone call is our brand new PartnerBar control.

Working closely with the Executive Producer and production staff, we developed the control to meet the demanding needs of EW.com's site while ensuring that the same code and model could support the rest of the Time Inc. network, as well as the network of sites you are likely to care about. The result is a professional level component that gives the design team complete control over all aspects of styling and site integration and delivers a widely used control at a very low integration cost.

Looking around the web, we see many sites using a wide variety of technologies to provide functionality that is similar to our AJAX based PartnerBar. Depending on a site's architecture and infrastructure, these modules can be somewhat expensive to build, test, maintain, and extend. Sometimes there are cron jobs that have to be run to pull and process partner feeds, sometimes there are back end code and templates that need heavy changes, etc. The PartnerBar that we built is coded as an AJAX control and as a result, it's typically very easy to integrate onto your site, requiring the resources of your HTML team and designers, but not your back end team. At this level of the stack, integrations are typically very efficient in terms of both time and impact on related infrastructure. They are able to take a control like our PartnerBar and go from idea to live in a matter of hours. Our team's design standard: "If you can tweak your HTML template, you can have the PartnerBar (or VideoBar, NewsBar, SlideShow, etc.) up in minutes."

We have embedded a demonstration PartnerBar beneath this paragraph. A live version of our PartnerBar is also visible on EW.com (look in the footer for a section titled "From our Partners").



We can't wait to see how you choose to integrate the PartnerBar on your site as well as to hear your feedback and ideas.

And finally, take a look at our latest gadget designed to showcase People.com Videos. The gadget is based on our Slide Show control and makes use of just a few of it's more advanced callback features.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/the-partnerbar-contextual-cross-linking/feed/ 0 Search Result Limit Increase https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/search-result-limit-increase/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=search-result-limit-increase https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/search-result-limit-increase/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:18:00 +0000 AJAX Search API now supports up to 32 search results as well as pagination through result sets. I understand that this might not match everything that you have been asking for, but at this point in time, delivering a 4x increase in the number of available search results is all that we are able to support.

You can see the new code in action in all of our samples that are based on the default search control:
The pagination logic is built into the default search control. If you like to code your own search control, we have updated the Raw Searcher sample with a few lines of code that implements result pagination.

For a number of complex reasons, this feature is not implemented in Blog Search or in Local Search.

Thanks for all your continued support and feedback.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/search-result-limit-increase/feed/ 0 Direct Access to YouTube Channels https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/direct-access-to-youtube-channels/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=direct-access-to-youtube-channels https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/direct-access-to-youtube-channels/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:39:00 +0000 AJAX Search API that provides you with direct access to YouTube Channels, Most Viewed Videos, Top Rated Videos, and Recently Featured Videos.

As millions of you have already discovered, our insanely popular Video Bar Control is a great way to showcase your favorite videos on your site. Using this new feature, you will be able to "subscribe" a Video Bar to the lonelygirl15 channel, the Most Viewed YouTube Videos Channel, or any combination of channels and search expressions.

As part of this update, the Video Bar Wizard has been modified to make it very easy for you to configure a Video Bar with a mix of channels and search expressions. In addition, the control has been updated to include a new player style and location. This lets you continue to have multiple Video Bars all over your pages while ensuring that the player is always positioned very close to the Video Bar.

If you have an existing Video Bar on your site and just want to modify it in place to take advantage of the new features, take a look at the updated reference guide. What you will find in the reference guide is pretty straight forward:
  • A query expression of ytchannel:fordmodels will access the fordmodels channel
  • A query expression of ytfeed:most_viewed will access the Most Viewed YouTube Videos
  • A query expression of ytfeed:top_rated will access the Top Rated YouTube Videos
  • A query expression of ytfeed:recently_featured will access Recently Featured YouTube Videos
  • All of the ytfeed: based expressions also accept time modifiers of .today, .this_week, .this_month, or .all_time. For example, the search expression ytfeed:most_viewed.this_month provides access to the Most Viewed YouTube Videos this month.
We, along with the YouTube team are excited to be able to deliver these features to you and hope that they meet your needs. Make sure to let us know what you think by posting a message or two in our developer forum.

While I have your attention, and while we are discussing Video, I'd like to also show you some clever things that you can do with video that is not hosted on YouTube. One of our good customers, The Real News Network, in addition to their YouTube Channel, has a large collection of high quality video that is exposed via an RSS Feed. Using the AJAX Feed API in conjunction with the Slide Show Control, multimedia developer Allen Booth has built a very compelling Gadget. Try out the gadget on your Google Personalized Home Page. Note how it uses the Slide Show control to show off the high quality video thumbnails present in the feed, and that when you click on a thumbnail, the associated video will play in place using a custom and highly optimized video player. In future posts, we will take a deeper look at this approach.

Update: Something important that I forgot to mention in this post... The new functionality we are delivering today is based in part on the YouTube Data API, part of the large and growing family of GData APIs.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/direct-access-to-youtube-channels/feed/ 0 Expanded Local Search Result Coverage https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/expanded-local-search-result-coverage/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=expanded-local-search-result-coverage https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/expanded-local-search-result-coverage/#comments Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:30:00 +0000 Maps API Blog, the AJAX Search API now supports Australia in GlocalSearch. Make sure you read Pamela's post and check out her inline sample. If you have a map on your site and want to add search, the Local Search Control, might be the perfect solution. Make sure to check it out.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/expanded-local-search-result-coverage/feed/ 0 Google AJAX Search on the iPhone https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/google-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-ajax-search-on-the-iphone https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/google-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/#comments Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:24:00 +0000 Post by Mark Lucovsky, Software Engineer

Yesterday was an exciting day for us over here on the Google AJAX Search API team. At 6:00 a.m. I flipped a bit on our servers, opening up Image Search as the newest addition to this very powerful, and increasingly popular API.

We built several samples that highlight this new capability, including a sample designed specifically for the iPhone.

The blogsphere is definitely buzzing about this sample so I think it's appropriate that I contribute as well. A few key points follow:
  • URL: http://www.google.com/uds/samples/iphone/isearch.html
  • The iPhone sample is code that any developer can view in source form, copy, clone, modify, etc. Any developer can apply techniques taught in the sample to their own web sites and applications
  • The iPhone sample is optimized for the iPhone in a number of very subtle ways:
  • We used the Raw Searcher Layer which is fully documented and is the base layer used in all of our advanced search controls
  • We followed the iPhone web-development guidelines published by Apple
  • We designed the sample to be readable on the 320x480 device without the need for excessive zooming
  • We positioned the various controls to account for the size and accuracy of the human finger
  • We took advantage of the fact that the iPhone keyboard will adapt itself to the "type" of input control (note the search button in the bottom right of the keyboard)
  • We used an appropriate link target to ensure that links open on a new page leaving the search page intact and ready for another search
Why do we write samples like this?

The AJAX Search API is designed for developers. When your applications can take advantage of search, we provide you with everything you need in order to seamlessly integrate that search experience onto your site. You can control size, position, color scheme, searcher mix, result fidelity, etc.

The iPhone is a very popular device and it's getting a lot of developer attention at the moment. We built this sample to educate our developers and demonstrate our commitment to supporting the AJAX Search API on the popular platforms they're currently targeting.

Many people are now using this sample as a primary search page on the iPhone. I think that's a great use of the sample, that's exactly how I use it, and that's why at 1:30 a.m. this morning I made a minor update to the sample to include Blog Search results in addition to Web, News, and Image search results...

The thing to keep in mind though, is that this is not the primary goal of the sample. The real goal is to educate the iPhone developer community so that they see how easy it is to incorporate Google AJAX Search into their iPhone-based web applications. The AJAX Search API offers a large number of features, including full support for Custom Search Engines, various forms of site-restricted search, a variety of advanced UI controls, etc. All of this functionality is available on the iPhone as well as the other popular browser and OS combinations that all of you are currently targeting.

The iPhone search sample is designed to show you what's possible. It was built in a matter of hours and is less that 175 lines of code. We'd love nothing more than to see pieces of this code appearing, well-integrated, into your applications.

If you don't have an iPhone, but want to know what this is all about, the iPhone sample is running below:


]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/google-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/feed/ 0 Picture this: Image Search for the AJAX Search API https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/picture-this-image-search-for-the-ajax-search-api/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=picture-this-image-search-for-the-ajax-search-api https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/picture-this-image-search-for-the-ajax-search-api/#comments Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:22:00 +0000 Post by Mark Lucovsky, Software Engineer

Since its release last year, the Google AJAX Search API has given developers a simple way to add Google Web, Local, Video, Blog, and News search to their websites and web applications. In February 2007, we extended the system to include Book Search.

After a few months of focusing on the AJAX Feed API, as well as enhancing our suite of very powerful and popular controls (Video Bar; News Bar; Slide Show; Local Search Control for Google Maps; Search Box box page element for Blogger, which includes support for Linked Custom Search Engines; AJAX Search on the iPhone), it's back to basics for us.

This morning, we are announcing Image Search in the API. Image Search is just as easy to use as all of our other searchers. For those of you using our basic search control, it's as simple as this:

var searchControl = new GSearchControl();
searchControl.addSearcher(new GimageSearch());

Image Search provides you with everything you have grown to expect from our APIs, including:

  • High-performance access to image search results
  • Easy integration with our base search control
  • Ability to use raw search results in your mashups
  • Full suite of raw, JavaScript-accessible properties (URL, size, thumbnail URL, snippets, original-context URL, etc.)
  • Pre-Constructed HTML node in case you want us to do the heavy lifting
  • Full customization of our result HTML via CSS


The sample below is just a few lines of code. Play around with it a little and then think about where something like this might fit into your site. If you are an iPhone user, you can see Image Search in action in our recently updated iPhone sample.





For more information on Image Search, refer to the documentation. As always, let us know what you think in the developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/picture-this-image-search-for-the-ajax-search-api/feed/ 0 Feed Discovery API and AJAX Search on the iPhone https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/feed-discovery-api-and-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed-discovery-api-and-ajax-search-on-the-iphone https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/feed-discovery-api-and-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:15:00 +0000 AJAX Feed API makes it easy to display RSS and Atom feeds on any web page. Unfortunately, its not always quite as easy to find the feed URL of the feed that you wanted. To help with discovering and finding feeds, today we launched two additional methods. The new findFeeds() method searches for feeds based on a simple query. The new lookupFeed() method accepts a url and then returns to you the primary feed associated with that URL. We have put together some nice samples (findFeeds sample, lookupFeed sample) to get you started.



Speaking of samples... My son got an iPhone last week, and yesterday he let me play with it long enough to put together a sample that demonstrates the AJAX Search API running on the phone.




As always, let us know what you think in the developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/feed-discovery-api-and-ajax-search-on-the-iphone/feed/ 0 Local Search Control for Maps API https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/local-search-control-for-maps-api/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=local-search-control-for-maps-api https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/local-search-control-for-maps-api/#comments Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:12:00 +0000 This afternoon we released a Local Search Control for the Google Maps API. If you already have a Google Maps application, extending it to support local search doesn't get any easier:


  • Include a reference to the AJAX Search API

  • Include a reference to the Local Search Control

  • Call map.addControl(new google.maps.LocalSearch());

Take a look at the sample below. It's the canonical "hello world" of Google Maps with the addition of the Local Search Control in the lower left corner. Try searching for Starbucks, or Pizza, etc.




As always, let us know what you think in the Google AJAX API developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/local-search-control-for-maps-api/feed/ 0 AJAX Feed API Slide Show Enhancements https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-enhancements/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ajax-feed-api-slide-show-enhancements https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-enhancements/#comments Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:16:00 +0000 blogger, Robert Scoble, VP Media Development at PodTech. Robert and I were discussing how the AJAX Feed API could be used to engage customers more deeply. During this conversation, we discussed the characteristics of the feeds produced by PodTech. It turns out that each entry contains a photo associated with the article, an audio or video stream, as well as text based content and related meta data.




I told Robert that I would crank out some minor changes to our Slide Show Control over the weekend and then build out a little sample and gadget that would allow PodTech to tell their story on any web site.




A few minutes ago, we upgraded the Slide Show Control with a few callbacks that let you hook slide transitions, clicks, etc. This lets you wrap the control with code of your own like we have done in the sample that follows. This sample lets you in effect "watch" a PodTech feed, see the hyperlinked title of the story, the author, the published date, and, without leaving the page you can click on the image and play the associated audio or video stream. See below:





Those of you telling a story through your feeds might want to consider a model similar to the PodTech approach where every entry in every feed has a primary image reference, a primary media reference, as well as text based meta data and primary content. If you are a developer, you can read more about the Slide Show Control here. Or you can go right to the source of the sample...




As always, let us know what you think in the Google AJAX API developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-enhancements/feed/ 0 AJAX Feed API Slide Show Control https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-control/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ajax-feed-api-slide-show-control https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-control/#comments Tue, 15 May 2007 16:28:00 +0000 This afternoon we extended the AJAX Feed API with a new Slide Show Control. This control allows you to easily embed a slide show of images from PhotoBucket, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, or any feed that uses the Media RSS extensions.


With just a few lines of code:


   new GFslideShow("http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/slideshow/sample.rss",
                document.getElementById("slideshow"));

You can insert a slide show like this on your site or blog:



As always, let us know what you think in the Google AJAX API developer forum.


Update: The AJAX Slide Show Control works for any public image feed, making it possible to display photos hosted on third-party sites. And for those of you that use Picasa Web Albums, we also have Flash-based slideshows as well.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-feed-api-slide-show-control/feed/ 0 Introducing the AJAX Feed API FeedControl https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/introducing-the-ajax-feed-api-feedcontrol/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=introducing-the-ajax-feed-api-feedcontrol https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/introducing-the-ajax-feed-api-feedcontrol/#comments Tue, 08 May 2007 20:46:00 +0000 Google AJAX Feed API designed to allow you to more easily add a collection of feeds to your pages. The FeedControl is pretty simple:

var feedControl = new google.feeds.FeedControl();
feedControl.addFeed("http://www.digg.com/rss/index.xml", "Digg");
feedControl.addFeed("http://feeds.feedburner.com/Techcrunch", "TechCrunch");
feedControl.draw(document.getElementById("feedControl"));

In addition to the formal documentation, we have put together a few samples to help you quickly come up to speed.

As always, let us know what you think in the Google AJAX Api developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/introducing-the-ajax-feed-api-feedcontrol/feed/ 0 Announcing the Google AJAX Feed API https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/announcing-the-google-ajax-feed-api/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=announcing-the-google-ajax-feed-api https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/announcing-the-google-ajax-feed-api/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2007 06:38:00 +0000 Google AJAX Feed API, an API that takes the pain out of developing mashups in JavaScript. Now you can mash up feeds using only a few lines of JavaScript rather than dealing with complex server-side proxies.



The sample below uses the AJAX Feed API to display a rotating collection of iTunes RSS Feeds.





Feel free to try this on one of your own pages or on your blog.



On an administrative note, we have decided to expand the scope of this blog and of our developer forum to cover the growing collection of Google's AJAX APIs. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest news, tips, and tutorials on using the Google AJAX APIs to enhance your website.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/announcing-the-google-ajax-feed-api/feed/ 0 Blog Bar Update https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/blog-bar-update/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=blog-bar-update https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/blog-bar-update/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:05:00 +0000
On March 15th, we announced the Blog Bar. Like the News Bar, and Video Bar, the Blog Bar has seen phenomenal adoption.



In the announcement message we asked for your feedback and ideas for improvement. Based on your feedback, we have updated the Blog Bar to include site restricted search. This means that you can now create a Blog Bar and program it to only search over a selected blog.



As always, let us know what you think in the AJAX Search API developer forum.



In other AJAX Search API related news, we are currently experimenting with making the Google Logo click-able. This has been enabled in the Blog Bar and the Video Search Control. Our plan is to enable this in the Video Bar, the Map Search Control, the Book Bar, and the GSearchControl.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/blog-bar-update/feed/ 0 Add a Blog Bar to your site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-blog-bar-to-your-site/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=add-a-blog-bar-to-your-site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-blog-bar-to-your-site/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:46:00 +0000 announced the availability of the Google News Bar. This cut-and-paste search control is simple to use and has seen phenomenal adoption.


Anytime we launch a new AJAX Search API feature, we ask you to share your thoughts with us in the AJAX Search API developer forum. Late Sunday evening, "CyberCoder" (a.k.a., inventor of the Google Video Bar) asked us to produce a modified News Bar that worked over Blog Search instead of News Search.


The Blog Bar below is the result. (Click here to see the original post if the Blog Bar does not display in your blog reader.)




The Blog Bar is a search control for the AJAX Search API that allows you to embed a thin horizontal strip, or a tall vertical strip of blog search results in your site.


As always, let us know what you think in the AJAX Search API developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-blog-bar-to-your-site/feed/ 0 YouTube Search Result Integration https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/youtube-search-result-integration/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=youtube-search-result-integration https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/youtube-search-result-integration/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:02:00 +0000 announced the inclusion of YouTube Video results in the Google Video search index. Early this evening, we updated the Google AJAX Search API to include YouTube Video results via the GvideoSearch object.



For those of you using our advanced video search controls, you now have search and playback access to Google Videos as well as YouTube Videos. The VideoBar control, as well as the personalized home page gadget now searches over and plays a mix of Google Video content and YouTube content, as does the Video Search control (and gadget).



The easiest way to add these to your pages is to use our VideoBar Wizard or our Video Search Wizard. With these, all you have to do is answer a question or two and then we will write the code for you and then you just cut and paste onto your pages.



As always, let us know what you thing in the AJAX Search API developer forum.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/youtube-search-result-integration/feed/ 0 Applying Styles to Search Results https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/applying-styles-to-search-results/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=applying-styles-to-search-results https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/applying-styles-to-search-results/#comments Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:23:00 +0000 search result contains a number of properties (like title, visible url, snippet, etc.), as well as a standard .html property. Note: while it's ok to re-style a search result, it is not ok to change the search result values (e.g., its not ok to replace a Google delivered url of http://www.vw.com/gti/ with http://please-click-on-this-virus-url.com).



One way to get the look and feel that you need is to build your own representation of a search result using the result's core properties. This is the technique that we use in the News Bar, the Video Bar, the Map Search Control, etc.



Another very powerful approach is to use the .html property either standalone, or in conjunction with the core Search Control, and then use customized CSS rules to re-style the .html node. Using this approach you can select fonts, colors, spacing, visibility, borders, etc. We stil advocate using Firefox's DOM Inspector or the Firebug Extension to get a feel for the DOM structure of a result. In addition, this morning, we published the skeleton format of each search result type. This should help those of you that are not fluent in DOM Inspector or Firebug.



As always, let us know what you think in the AJAX Search API developer forum. If this documentation style is a helpful way for you to learn about the DOM structure of a search result, we will use the same approach to document the DOM structure of the various search controls.



And finally, I know many of you are working hard to extend the Map Search Control. In an effort to make your attempts at this more robust and reliable, this morning, we published a formal mechanism (and sample) that you can use to gain access to the GMap2 objects that are at the heart of this control.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/applying-styles-to-search-results/feed/ 0 More localized search controls https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/more-localized-search-controls/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=more-localized-search-controls https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/more-localized-search-controls/#comments Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:23:00 +0000 These controls have seen strong world wide adoption. This afternoon, we upgraded all of these controls so that the user-interface they present is also localized and tracks the user-interface language of the underlying AJAX Search API.


The AJAX Search API auto-detects the user-interface language of your visitors and adjusts the UI accordingly. If you want to, you can hard code the user-interface language by using the &hl argument in your AJAX Search API script load tag. For example, to hard code your user-interface language to french, change your load tag to include: <script src="...api?file=uds.js&hl=fr...">


As always, please let us know what you think in the AJAX Search API developer forum.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/more-localized-search-controls/feed/ 0 Custom Search Engine Refinements https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-refinements/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=custom-search-engine-refinements https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-refinements/#comments Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:06:00 +0000 Custom Search Engines. We asked you for your input and many of you suggested that we add support for Custom Search Engine Refinements. This evening we launched support for Custom Search Engine Refinements in a way that complements what many of you are trying to build. We extended .setSiteRestriction() so that in addition to passing the Custom Search Engine Id, you can also pass a Custom Search Engine Refinement label. See the code snippet below:

var cseId = "017576662512468239146:omuauf_lfve";
searcher = new GwebSearch();
searcher.setSiteRestriction(cseId, "Lectures");
To demonstrate this new capability, we have produce a new sample. The AJAX Search API based Curriculum Search Sample performs parallel searches over a Curriculum Search Engine as well as the engine with a "Lectures", "Assignments", and "Reference" refinements. This sample is based on the full blown Curriculum Search Engine hosted on code.google.com/edu.

As always, please continue to provide feedback.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-refinements/feed/ 0 Custom Search Engine Support https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-support/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=custom-search-engine-support https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-support/#comments Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:03:00 +0000 Google Custom Search Engine. (You can read more on the Google Blog.) We added support for this to the AJAX Search API so you get results from your Custom Search Engine through GwebSearch().



Your Custom Search Engine is identified by its ID, which shows up as a "cx" value in the search box code (e.g., "000455696194071821846:reviews"). In order to restrict a web search to only search results from your Custom Search Engine just call .setSiteRestriction() and pass it its unique ID. You can read more about this in our online documentation.



It's not our style to leave you hanging with just words, so we put together a sample application that uses Custom Search Engines with the AJAX Search API. The sample application uses four Custom Search Engines: one that's all about product reviews, one for price comparisons, one for forums and message boards, and one for shopping. In addition, we threw in a tab for Blog Search, one for unrestricted Web Search, and one for News. For a little color, there's a Video Bar across the bottom as well. In addition to demonstrating Custom Search Engines, the sample also shows some advanced CSS styling and coordination of multiple search controls from a single search form. We hope you find this useful, and we'll look for your comments in the developer forum.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/custom-search-engine-support/feed/ 0 Video Bar – New Features https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/video-bar-new-features/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=video-bar-new-features https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/video-bar-new-features/#comments Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:25:00 +0000 Video Bar has become a popular solution, and we really appreciate the great feedback and feature requests. We just implemented two of the most common feature requests:

  • Option for smaller thumbnails

  • Control over the size of the video player


For more information, take a look at the Video Bar instructions that highlights both of these new features. Requesting small thumbnails is done with an option, while controlling the video player size is done using CSS. (We've also updated the Video Search solution to support CSS based control over the player size.)



Based on your feedback, we also updated the Map Search solution with new features:

  • Application control over the icons for the center point, the selected search result, and the unselected search results

  • Control over the zoom level for the idle and active map

  • Ability to request a GMapTypeControl for your maps


You're welcome to use our solutions as-is in your applications. We will maintain them, host them, and continue to improve them based on your feedback. Alternatively, you can always download our solutions and modify them to meet your needs, borrow ideas from them freely, or do whatever makes sense for your applications. Keep the feedback coming!
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/video-bar-new-features/feed/ 0 Add a "Video Bar" to your blog https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-video-bar-to-your-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=add-a-video-bar-to-your-blog https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-video-bar-to-your-blog/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:40:00 +0000 CyberCoder" had a cool idea... He envisioned a "Video Bar" that could sit in a narrow side bar vertically, or across the top or bottom of a page horizontally.



Last night we launched a Video Bar solution. This makes a great addition to your blogs and pages and composes nicely with an existing Video Search solution. To show you an example, we added the video bar to our AJAX Search API Playground blog.



Check out more of our solutions and samples:
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-a-video-bar-to-your-blog/feed/ 0 AJAX Search in TypePad and Blogger https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-search-in-typepad-and-blogger/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ajax-search-in-typepad-and-blogger https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-search-in-typepad-and-blogger/#comments Fri, 22 Sep 2006 21:05:00 +0000 TypePad and on Blogger. I went a little overboard, but I did this to demonstrate a few ideas that you might want to clone into your own blogs.



Take a look at both our TypePad based sample and our Blogger based sample.



Both samples offer the following features:

  • Google Search Form in the sidebar with tabbed search results displayed in the center column. A mix of web search, blog search, and site restricted search happens in parallel. Clicking the clear button next to the search form removes the search results.

  • Video Search Solution hosted in the sidebar. You can search for new videos, or playback collections of videos coded into the template. Using this solution its trivial to expose your users to 100+ videos.

  • Map Search Control Solution hosted in the sidebar. Your template controls the center point of the map. Its very easy to augment the map with a collection of hotspots or favorite places. In addition to these pre-defined searches, the solution contains a regular search bar. Each search result offers a direct link to a details page as well as driving directions.

  • Source code to blog templates used to build the blogs.


All of this is great stuff, but with all of this power sitting there on standby in the sidebar, I added a little bit more... By using javascript: url's, I demonstrate the ability to create hyperlinks in your blog posts that can drive any of the sidebar search based solutions. This means for instance that you can write something like:
Last night a few of us celebrated Bob's promotion by taking him to his favorite restaurant, Sakana, we all had a great time. If you have never been, you have to give this place a try. Definitely order the T&T!

When your users click on "Sakana", instead of the harsh transition to Google Maps, the sidebar map control simply pans to the right location and opens an info window with the address, phone number, and driving directions.



Hope you enjoy these blog based solutions.



Update: looks like our TypePad hacking even made it's way to the Everything TypePad blog!
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/ajax-search-in-typepad-and-blogger/feed/ 0 New Search Form, Updated Documentation https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-search-form-updated-documentation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-search-form-updated-documentation https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-search-form-updated-documentation/#comments Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:48:00 +0000 developer forum, we recently rolled out a new user interface for the search form that's an integral part of the basic search control. Part of this change is better support for decoupling the search form from the result set and building custom search forms when you are coding to the raw GSearch() layer. The system now supports two new modes of operation which are covered in our online documentation:

  1. Using the GdrawOptions() object, you can now set the location of your search form in a way that decouples it from the rest of the search results. This is useful, for example, when you want a search form in the sidebar of a page, with results stacked in the center. A new sample, searchformroot.html demonstrates this.
     

  2. For those of you not using the search control, and instead coding to the raw GSearch layer, a new GSearchForm() object has been created. This object is designed to build a search form for you that is identical to the one used in the search control, but in this object, you control the various submit and click events, and you have direct access to the input element. Several of our sample applets and solutions have been converted to use this new object including places.html, the video search solution, and the map search solution.


When you have a chance, please take a look at these new features, and if applicable, please migrate your applications to this new model.



On a separate topic, we've also added some documentation for the Map Search solution. It now includes step-by-step instructions for how to add it to your page and configure it. This has become a popular solution and we wanted to ensure that more people could easily take advantage of it.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-search-form-updated-documentation/feed/ 0 Add video search, playback, and tagging to your site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-video-search-playback-and-tagging-to-your-site/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=add-video-search-playback-and-tagging-to-your-site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-video-search-playback-and-tagging-to-your-site/#comments Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:45:00 +0000


The result of this effort is a Video Search solution. Like the Mapsearch solution, this is something you can use as-is or copy and enhance to suit your needs.



We tried to make this easy to use on any web page or blog. If you are already using the Google AJAX Search API, you have an API key and know how to include the code. Once you have done that:

  1. Include the gsvideosearch.js and gsvideosearch.css solution files

  2. Create and style a div element

  3. Create a list of tagged searches you want your readers to see by default

  4. Add a call to GSvideoSearchControl and point it at the div created in step 2


You can see a live version of this solution on the Google Video Blog (under "Fun Videos").



Take a look at the Video Search solution and let us know what you think, especially if you have any plans to include this on your site.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-video-search-playback-and-tagging-to-your-site/feed/ 0 A couple UI changes https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-couple-ui-changes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-couple-ui-changes https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-couple-ui-changes/#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2006 02:41:00 +0000


We're still a v0.1 API and very much a work in progress. So these buttons may change again -- let us know what you think.



Another change you may have noticed is the little "x" next to the default search button that gives users a way to quickly clear results. Hopefully this will make things easier for those who have been writing custom UIs for clearing results.



Like most pieces of the API, you can use CSS if you'd prefer that these buttons not appear in your search control:

    /* turn off the new results selector buttons */
    #mySearchControl .gsc-results-selector { display : none; }


    /* turn off the new clear results button */
    #mySearchControl .gsc-clear-button { display : none; }

On a related note, I'd strongly recommend learning how to develop on Firefox and make use of DOM Inspector. With it you can "inspect" any page, and then "inspect" a node (like a button or piece of text). DOM Inspector will allow you to see where the element sits in the page's DOM Tree, what CSS rules apply to the element, the computed style for the element, etc.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-couple-ui-changes/feed/ 0 Add Map Search to your site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-map-search-to-your-site/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=add-map-search-to-your-site https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-map-search-to-your-site/#comments Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:37:00 +0000 Search Engine Strategies Conference. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to reading the Hotel and Venue page, I discovered that all the recommended hotels are sold out.



When I look at that page, all I see is text (and of course a sidebar of logos for the sponsors). Where is the map? Why can't I just just search for a nearby hotel directly from this page, or search for nearby restaurants? This happens to me every time I go to a conference, like a few weeks ago when I ended up on the other side of the river from OSCON's conference center.



I called my friends over at O'Reilly and asked them if they would mind if I worked on their OSCON site a little. In the process of tinkering with it, I created a re-usable component, something that could be applied to other conference sites just as easily. The result is a Mapsearch Solution that uses the Google AJAX Search API and Google Maps API. I'm calling it a "solution" because it's a piece of code that you can use as-is, or copy and enhance to suit your needs. Take a look at the mapsearch sample to see how easy it is to add something like this to your site.

If you are already using these APIs, you already have a key and know how to include the code. Once you've done that:

  1. Include the new gsmapsearch.js and gsmapsearch.css solution files

  2. Create and style a div element, one for each control

  3. Add a call to GSmapSearchControl(element, address, options?), one for each control. Something like:

      var container = document.getElementById("mapSearchDiv");
      new GSmapSearchControl(container, "1236 Lisa Lane, Los Altos CA");



If you are running a conference web site, or a hotel web site, or any sort of travel or community web site, this could be a great feature to add without much effort. And it's something your visitors will appreciate.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/add-map-search-to-your-site/feed/ 0 New Features, New Sample https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-features-new-sample/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-features-new-sample https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-features-new-sample/#comments Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:48:00 +0000


Previously, GlocalSearch commingled address resolution results with local search results, providing things like "New York, NY 10038" alongside "New York Pretzel" and "New York Cafe." There's now a method for indicating whether you want those address resolution results included. You can set this yourself or expose it to users with the local search configuration UI.

    .setAddressLookupMode(GlocalSearch.ADDRESS_LOOKUP_DISABLED) - disables commingled results



    .setAddressLookupMode(GlocalSearch.ADDRESS_LOOKUP_ENABLED) - enables commingled results, the default


We also adjusted the search behavior when an address clause is present in the query string. For example, a search for "starbucks" will produce search results near the center point associated with the searcher, while a search for "starbucks 93108" or "starbucks in cary, nc" will now produce results near the location in the query string.



There's a new Local Search sample to demonstrate some new concepts and techniques and serve as a simple starting point for location centric apps. If you're running a conference, hotel, community site, etc., this might make a nice little addition to your page.



As suggested in the discussion group, we implemented the ability to sort GblogSearch results by date. This is available for programmatic access as well as through the UI.

    .setResultOrder(GSearch.ORDER_BY_RELEVANCE) - This is the default and indicates that results should be returned in order of their relevance.



    .setResultOrder(GSearch.ORDER_BY_DATE) - This value indicates that results should be returned should be returned in publication date order.


Let us know if you experience any problems as a result of these recent changes, and keep the suggestions coming.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-features-new-sample/feed/ 0 Fix for Key Validation Issue https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/fix-for-key-validation-issue/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fix-for-key-validation-issue https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/fix-for-key-validation-issue/#comments Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:53:00 +0000 message board, here's an update on some of the key validation problems that affected people earlier in the week. There were two distinct, but somewhat related issues at hand, both of which have been resolved.




First, people received errors because "GSearchControl" was undefined. This was due to a number of things, such as invalid API keys, API key sharing across different URLs, and typos in the script tag that loaded the API. Previously, these errors would fail silently, but we made a change to respond with a 200 instead of a 400 and also deliver an alert() call with a string indicating that either your key was invalid, that the version you specified was invalid, that the resource (file=uds.js) was invalid, etc.




Second, we made a mistake with the key validator and didn't allow for reasonable alternatives of the hostname (e.g., http://www.example.com vs. http://example.com). We've since fixed this issue.




Our mistake was in taking a silent error and turning it into a noisy one, and I apologize for the painful process that many of you experienced. Your ability to react in real time to the changes helped us monitor and fix this in real-time, so we appreciate all the helpful feedback.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/fix-for-key-validation-issue/feed/ 0 New Feature: .setLinkTarget() https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-setlinktarget/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-feature-setlinktarget https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-setlinktarget/#comments Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:06:00 +0000 Google AJAX Search API as a Version 0.1 so that we could take a little bit of time to gather feedback from developers. We've been reading the developer forum and taking note of your feedback on the current API, as well as suggestions that would make integrating it into your applications easier and more seamless.



One feature that several people have requested is the ability to control link targets in the search results, since links were being uniformly created with target="_blank". We just updated our servers to support new functions that control the value of the target attribute in generated links.

The search control object now supports a .setLinkTarget method which accepts
  • GSearch.LINK_TARGET_BLANK - open links in a new window

  • GSearch.LINK_TARGET_SELF - open links in the current frame

  • GSearch.LINK_TARGET_TOP - open links in the top most frame

  • GSearch.LINK_TARGET_PARENT - open links in the parent or top most frame

  • frame-name - open links in the specified frame

To create a search control and program it to open links in the current frame, use the following code sequence:

    var sc = new GSearchControl();
    sc.setLinkTarget(GSearch.LINK_TARGET_SELF);

For those of you using raw searcher objects, independent of the search control, the .setLinkTarget() method is available on searchers as well:

    var searcher = new GwebSearch();
    searcher.setLinkTarget(GSearch.LINK_TARGET_BLANK);

The default value for link targets is GSearch.LINK_TARGET_BLANK that will cause links to open in a new window.

Thank you for your feedback, suggestions, and ideas. Please keep them coming.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-setlinktarget/feed/ 0 A New Gadget https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-new-gadget/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-gadget https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-new-gadget/#comments Thu, 08 Jun 2006 23:17:00 +0000 new gadget for the Google Personalized Homepage that is based on the Google AJAX Search API. Why embed a search gadget on a search homepage, you may ask? Well, it can actually be pretty useful. I have mine configured for just GlocalSearch() scoped to my home town. I use it as a very fast, in-page phone book. (You can add the new gadget directly to your Google homepage.)



In other news, you all asked for a way to clear search results and there are a few samples out there that work hard to do this. We tried to make it a bit easier with a new .clearAllResults() method. Just call this method on your search control whenever you need to clear out old results. We didn't want to clutter the UI with a new button that does this, but if a user clears out the input element and then hits return or clicks the search button, we call this method internally.



And finally, the guys that produced the assorted blue artwork gave me a matching set in green, dark grey, pink, and orange. If you want your search control to use pink artwork, just include gsearch_pink.css, right after you include gsearch.css. The point of this wasn't to promote alternate colors. It was more about demonstrating how to style the search control to fit better in your application. Take a look at Sitesearch.html for an example of the gsearch_green.css. You can also try gsearch_pink.css, gsearch_orange.css, or gsearch_darkgrey.css.
]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/a-new-gadget/feed/ 0 New Feature: Site Restricted Search https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-site-restricted-search/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-feature-site-restricted-search https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-site-restricted-search/#comments Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:49:00 +0000 We launched the Google AJAX Search API as a Version 0.1 API so that we could take a little bit of time to gather feedback from you. We welcome feedback on the current API as well as suggest features that we could add that would make your lives easier.

One suggestion that we have heard from many of you concerns site restricted searching. You wanted to be able to implement a "Search my site", "Search the web" quickly, easily, and with professional results and styling.

This afternoon, we updated the service to include a handful of new methods, documentation, and samples that should get you pointed in the right direction.

For all searchers, you now have the ability to set a user defined label for a specific searcher. This lets you replace the current system defined label of "Web", "Blog", etc., with a label of your choice e.g., "My Site", "Amazon.com", etc. Since you might want to provide unique styling for this searcher, we also added a new method that allows you to specify a user defined class suffix to wrap the results for any searcher. This is a pretty advanced feature, but for those of you that have a knack for CSS, you will appreciate the cool new things this allows you to do. And yes, our new sample application uses this...

Finally, for site restrictions, the GwebSearch and GblogSearch classes now support a .setSiteRestriction() method that forces search results to be scoped based on the programmed restriction. Our sample application demonstrates the use of this by configuring a web searcher to only return results from Amazon, and by configuring a blog searcher to only return posts from the Live Journal Nintendo DS blog. Check out a sample.

]]> https://googledata.org/google-ajax-api/new-feature-site-restricted-search/feed/ 0