tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79676599640927519402024-03-08T13:04:58.813-03:00Simple=Select+SearchThis is the blog for my first public Google Chrome Extension. I'll be posting some ideas and updates here.
Have fun, feel free to comment and please, try the extension!!
Cheers!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-84465893750520485572015-05-20T23:46:00.001-03:002015-05-24T10:19:47.050-03:000.4 is here: groups finally!I published earlier today 0.4... I'm on a roll! :)<br />
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This version implements a major feature, which was asked by many users ever since I started: grouped links are now available. </div>
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Each link now can be part of a group or not, that's up to you. Once the group property of a link is updated, the link will show up in a submenu under the group's name.</div>
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The "Search everywhere!" feature is both available at a root or at a group level.</div>
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It feels simple to configure, hope you think the same. </div>
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I need to improve the group field, so it auto-completes values with existing groups names... Also, sorting groups might be necessary, though you can achieve that with sorting the links.</div>
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It's not quite finished, but it's getting there.</div>
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Change log:</div>
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- New groups feature</div>
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- Ability to turn "Search everywhere!" off </div>
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- New UI for featured search engines and credits page</div>
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- Having multiple search engines with same name is now possible again</div>
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- Localization updates</div>
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<br /></div>
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Still pending:</div>
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- respect incognito options in "Search everywhere!"</div>
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- hide "Search everywhere!" if group contains only one link</div>
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- improve group UI</div>
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- add filter option for featured search engines. Maybe group them (it's a lot of search engines)</div>
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I should post a few screenshots but am on my iPad :P... Maybe next time.</div>
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That's it, hope you like it!</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-69763464765791113522015-05-14T19:30:00.000-03:002015-05-14T19:30:01.374-03:000.3.4: minor changesNothing to see, unless you spent much time on the options page, which was slooow due to some AngularJS stuff (my lack of nowledge of it, really)<br />
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Changelog:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Minor bug fixes</li>
<li>Performance fixes in the options page</li>
<li>Confirm/Alert messages look nicer now</li>
<li>Updated a few localized new terms</li>
</ul>
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Cheers!</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-74950091132233815612015-05-12T21:30:00.000-03:002015-05-12T21:30:00.390-03:00I'm back :)Hey, long time.<br />
I won't make many excuses: I just been busy, and this is my hoby project.<br />
<br />
I missed it so much! I tried to get back to this many times, but I just couldn't make it.<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, I was taking a look at an <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/angular/" target="_blank">AngularJS</a> tutorial just out of curiosity and as soon as I started it I tried it with the extension's data model. It was so simple that I kept on going, hence 0.3.2 :D<br />
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This cleanup allows me to make more changes to the extension, hopefully making it better, but also keeping it as simple as possible.<br />
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Check my <a href="http://0.0.7.223/05/032-is-live.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> on more information about what changed in 0.3.2.<br />
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Also, here's a few links you might find interesting if you're interested in helping out:<br />
<span id="goog_1885454175"></span><span id="goog_1885454176"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/frenetix/SimpleSelectSearch" target="_blank">GitHub</a> project: If you're up for it, feel free to join and make it better :)</li>
<li><a href="https://crowdin.com/project/simpleselectsearch" target="_blank">Crowdin</a> project: Translate the extension to your own language :). There's a few translations (French, Polish, Spanish, Dutch) but there's a lot missing. We're 14% there :)</li>
<li>You'll find up to date information on what i'm working on in my <a href="https://trello.com/b/I1jBV5mD" target="_blank">Trello</a> board. </li>
</ul>
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Finally, and most importantly, I was checking out some figures:</div>
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<ol>
<li>Around 5.000 search queries (events) are run <b>every day</b> with the extension. </li>
<li>Last month, this meant 172,811 events!</li>
<li>It's 2,689,418 events since the launch of the extension in June 6, 2011</li>
<li>It seems that around 20.000 users have this extension installed</li>
<li>Top search engine is <a href="http://amashow.com/" target="_blank">Amashow</a>, which I don't know what it's all about, but registered over 630.000 events, 23% of the total events from all times. Can someone tell me what these guys do for a living? :D<a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></li>
<li>Second in ranking is "Confidential": About 7% of the clicks are not tracked -by users' choice-.</li>
<li>Close is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YoutuBe</a>, with 6.4% and then follow IMDB, Google, Amazon & Wikipedia (in that order).</li>
</ol>
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Besides the fun in numbers, I also realized there's a lot of users using this tool, which is cool, but also more responsibility.</div>
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As the extension grows in complexity, with more features, I realize it's super hard for me to test them all the time, and making sure all is well. </div>
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I'm thinking in asking for help in testing, having a small group of trusted beta-testers. If you're interested, please comment to this post and I'll add you to the group.</div>
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I'll probably start releasing new features to this closed group first, then to the open audience.</div>
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Finally, THANK YOU! You guys, are awesome, I 'm really happy you find this extension useful.</div>
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Cheers!!</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-33860341771113332112015-05-12T19:30:00.000-03:002015-05-12T19:30:00.518-03:000.3.2 is live!How long it's been! Sorry about that.<div>
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Last friday I published 0.3, during the weekend I was notified I broke the "Search everywhere!" option (sorry!) so I posted 0.3.1 with the fix, and then 0.3.2 rolling back some unwanted code that went out with 0.3.1. Messy. Rusty. </div>
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But who cares! </div>
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Here's the change log for all 3 together:</div>
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New on v 0.3.2</div>
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- fixed Search Everywhere (broeken in 0.3)</div>
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- new plus sign option</div>
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- new options interface</div>
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- major tech upgrade</div>
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- new "open in incognito" option</div>
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- bug fixes</div>
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- translations to several new language</div>
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- support for special characters in search query (including &)</div>
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So I won't go into much detail, but explain just a few:</div>
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Main "under the hood" change affected the Options page: you'll notice some minor design changes, but the main thing is that it's now based in <a href="https://angularjs.org/" target="_blank">AngularJS</a> & <a href="https://angularjs.org/" target="_blank">Bootstrap</a>. Result: I'm still a messy coder but code is way better than before.</div>
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As said, I'm still mess, there's lots to improve, but this is a huuuuge improvement to the previous code.</div>
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The code refactoring allowe me to make a couple of quick improvements: </div>
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<ul>
<li>you can now specify if you want a link to open in an Incognito Window. </li>
<li>Also, some search engines prefer to separating words with the "+" sign instead of spaces. You can now specify that per Search engine.</li>
</ul>
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I hope you like these changes. There's more coming!</div>
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Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-46950823047105574372014-02-08T00:04:00.001-02:002015-09-17T10:27:59.798-03:00now on GitHub!Michał, from Poland, sent me a mail yesterday -though my youtube account :P- suggesitng I posted my extension`s code to GitHub.<br />
There's a couple features he'd like to have and he suggested he'll do it himself.<br />
Cool!<br />
I've never thought about it, but it sounds like a really cool thing to do, so I just did! :D<br />
I'm still getting used to the idea that other people might see the code and freak out, heh, but well, I never said it was a fine piece of software, did I? :)<br />
<br />
So If you're readig this and interested, knock yourself out: <a href="https://github.com/frenetix/SimpleSelectSearch">https://github.com/frenetix/SimpleSelectSearch</a><br />
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Michał's 2 new suggestions where:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Option to remove the "search everywhere" link. Fair enough.</li>
<li>Have groups of links, so you might want to order your links in a specific way, with sub-folders and sub-sub-folders... Works if you have lots of links... i don't but am ok with it :D</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
He was also very polite as to offer himself to translate the extension into polish :D nice... remember you can translate it to you own language here: <a href="https://crowdin.net/project/simpleselectsearch/invite">https://crowdin.net/project/simpleselectsearch/invite</a><br />
<br />
Cheers!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-11846310957423610352014-02-06T23:19:00.002-02:002014-02-06T23:19:42.952-02:00New crowdin project for translation available here<a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/113496330141286213964" target="_blank">+knutars</a> suggested that i created a project in crowdin so the extension could be translated to other languages more easily... So I just did that!<br />
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<a href="https://crowdin.net/project/simpleselectsearch/invite" target="_blank">Check the translation project here</a><br />
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Thanks for helping out!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-22051009565814736162014-01-08T18:25:00.002-02:002014-01-08T18:28:06.218-02:001 year without activity :PYikes... 2013 was intense!... a single update to the extension!<br />
It's not like it's a finished product. It's just that I had no time at all :)<br />
It was a good year, though :D<br />
<br />
But there's a few new things I'd like to try this year, which will mean some major changes under the hood.<br />
So even it might take some time, I thought to share it with you anyways:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Configure links to replace spaces with %20 or '+' sign. </b>That's a per-link configuration, since some sites use + on their URLs instead of the standard %20 for spaces. This was requested a long time ago, but means I should change the configuration object... that's why I haven't implemented it yet. It will mean some backward compatibility code will need to be in place, plus, most of all, will mean to change the current links table to something better... I'll start looking into cool JavaScript tables to use. </li>
<li><b>Configure links to be opened on a new window and on a new incognito window</b>. Don't know if can be done... I'll have to check the Chrome API... It's something I came up with a long ago, but again, means all the changes mentioned above... so since I'm doing #1, makes sense to go for #2 too :)</li>
<li>Someone requested this new feature that I liked: <b>an option to display an icon on the omnibox and then a pop-up menu with the available links</b>.... It's against the "right-click-search" original objective, but couldn't hurt to try... and I guess makes sense on some scenarios, like when I'm browsing from my iPad using a remote desktop to my computer... yeah... i do that sometimes :/ ... I'm not sure it will work or be easy to implement so, again, I will have to check the Chrome API. But since I haven't been doing much coding lattely, I welcome the challenge :P </li>
</ol>
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I'll also try and include a couple new translations (thanks for the offerings!!!) and well, #1 & #2 above will probably mean some more major changes... I'll re-think using <a href="http://knockoutjs.com/" target="_blank">knockoutJS</a> to work with my configuration data... I'll have to ask someone that really knows if it's really worth it, though.<br />
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That's it so far, I hope to get back here soon with more news.<br />
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Cheers!</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-41507207897567955632013-01-25T20:30:00.000-02:002013-01-25T20:30:01.383-02:00Minor update: version 0.2.2 is liveVersion 0.2.2 went out last night, in silent mode: this means, if you had 0.2.1 you won't notice it updated... This is something suggested by my friend and coworker <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/111930957974111308326" target="_blank">+Alejandro Charbonnier</a> (Gracias Lalo! :D)<br />
<br />
On this release I did only 3 things, I've been busy and will be for a few weeks so I'm not expecting to include any major changes in the next trhee to four months.<br />
<br />
The new changes are:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Bug fix: Import/Export feature was not working, and for the looks of it... it hasn't been working for a long while!<br />First, thanks to <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/111727410437311013402" target="_blank">+Alvin Chong</a> for reporting this, and for being so kind and patience -it took me like a month to fix this-, and also to test the fix and send feedback. I really appreciate this! <br />Usually, when I'm "on the other side" I do this once in a while, only for a piece of software or service I really appreciate, but not often. So I value the support of users like Alvin who remind me I'm not the only one who likes my extension :D</li>
<li>Included 3 new search engines to the featured list... these I took from Alvin's list (again, thanks!). <br />As of the update of the manifest version, I no longer update this Database externally, but pack it within the extension. I might go back to the external web service, once I get the proper SSL certificate to do so -Chrome does not support external website call unless encrypted-. <br />I figured it's not worth it.</li>
<li>I now included the version number to the left column of the options page, so you know which version you're dealing with.</li>
</ol>
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That's it... thanks again for the continuous support.</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-25733806213341354132012-12-01T12:11:00.000-02:002012-12-01T12:11:01.864-02:00Quick update: version 0.2.1Hi there,<br />
<br />
Had to perform a quick, silent update last night. I found another weird thing when editing some config options... Now that seems to be working fine.<br />
<br />
Also, a user reported that the string to be searched (what you define as %s on the url) was not working properly if there were more than one %s on the same URL. I never really thought it might be necessary but he shoed me a site that required that. So, it now works with more than one %s on the URL.<br />
<br />
Cheers!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-33125249219113669572012-11-28T21:59:00.001-02:002012-11-28T21:59:46.723-02:00Ver 0.2 changelogSo, this is the complete list of stuff that was updated with this last review<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Manifest version 2 support</b>: Google had us developers update the manifest version of the extension, to ensure support on future Chrome versions. This update implied that I made a few architectural changes to the extension... forces code separation, and encrypted connection to external resources is now mandatory. I had to make quire a lot of changes to the code, which mean nothing to most users... code is cleaner now, though, so in the end it's for the best... won't complain :) If you want to know more about this, you can check it out <a href="http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/manifestVersion.html#manifest-v1-changes">here</a>.<br />For the time being, I removed the reference to the Featured Search Engines list which was on my site, because I don't have an SSL certificate there... the list is now local, so if I want o update it, I'll have to upload a new version... it sucks, but I'm not updating that list so often, so I'm not sure it's worth it... I'll also change that list component soon, so I'll review this when that comes.</li>
<li><b>Bug fixes</b></li>
<ol>
<li><b>weird search link behaibour</b>: on a <a href="http://simpleselectsearch.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-version-02.html">past post</a> I explained this... not much else to say but sorry, I don't really know what happened.</li>
<li><b>default focus not working</b>: also explained on a past post... I messed that feature last time I updated the extension and took me a while to realize. Sorry!!! ó.o</li>
</ol>
<li><b>Cleanup migration code</b>: again, something users won't notice... there was some code to support updating from really old versions... not really needed now -I hope!-</li>
<li><b>Localization Support</b>: it took me a while to implement, and as of this version, only English and Spanish are supported, but from now on, I can add support for other languages... Translators are welcome! if you want the extension on your language, drop me a comment and I'll send you a file to complete it... I haven't figured out a better way to do this... If I do find a better way to do this, I'll post something here.<br />Chrome support for localization is great, in general, but it lacks some basic stuff... of I'm way off the mark... the Options page HTML code took me a while to set-up for translations... I had to use some tricky jQuery replacements of text/code for it to work, and am not convinced that's the best way to go... I'll have to read some more.</li>
</ol>
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That's it! seems sooo much little but it was sooo much work :(</div>
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The ToDo list is huge, though... so I hope I'll get a new version up soon.</div>
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Cheers,</div>
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<br /></div>
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Diego</div>
Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-3791225517518575802012-11-28T21:37:00.002-02:002012-11-28T21:37:29.848-02:00New version: 0.2Hi there!<br />
<br />
This must have been the longest time without uploading a new version... shame on me... a buggy version, last one.<br />
There was this one defect, which I'm not really sure why was caused, which had your link order all wrong after having the extension running for a while... Editing any configuration option solved the issue but was a pain... I still don't know why this started happening... the only conclusion I could get to, is that the indexes for the contextual menus were altered after a while, by something else than my extension... so when you clicked on a search link, its index corresponded to an above link, or something like that... messy...<br />
I removed the use of chrome indexes, and now I use an index of my own, saved on the config... I hope I didn't break anything with this.<br />
Another bug was with the default focus option... I broke it on the last version and took me a while to realize... and did never get the message of a bug report, posted on 8/1/2012... apologies to that user.<br />
<br />
I've had little time to work on this, I apologize for the delay on my response... I'd love to say it won't take that long next time, but can't promise anything! :D<br />
<br />
I'll post a complete list of the changelog on another post... lots of stuf... the worst thing is that the ToDo list is still huge! :P<br />
<br />
Thanks again for all the positive feedback, and apologies for the inconveniences.<br />
<br />
Cheers,Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-51344131618093591702012-11-27T00:18:00.002-02:002012-11-27T00:24:18.118-02:00Help me translate!Hi there!<br />
As of version 0.2, I'm supporting internationalization on my extension.<br />
This means the extension's interface can be displayed on the same language your browser is set as default.<br />
<br />
To do so, I need help with the translations!<br />
<br />
I've already translated it to Spanish, but if you want it translated to your own language, please post a comment and we'll get in touch.<br />
<br />
Thanks/Gracias/Arigato/Grazzie/etc... <a href="http://www.freelang.net/expressions/thankyou.php">you know</a>Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-39186804905876082372012-06-06T00:45:00.002-03:002012-06-06T00:46:29.114-03:00Happy B-day S=S+S ^.^One year since I published the first public version! :D<br />
Time flies!<br />
I just managed to publish 01.7.5 which has very little over last version -which was 3 days ago-.<br />
I improved usability -and code- on the main Search Engines list, on the Option's page. Toy with it and you'll notice.<br />
<br />
I'm just taking a look at the stats, and they are really cool, the way the extension is being used... I'm really glad it is useful to other people. A really nice feelling.<br />
<br />
We'll I'm too tired, way past my bed time. I'll post some 1 year stats soon.<br />
<br />
Again, thanks for using it!<br />
<br />
Cheers :)Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-90374646352206980722012-06-03T17:23:00.002-03:002012-06-03T17:28:11.903-03:00Version 0.1.7.4: options page revampedLast months have been crazy. Not much time to dedicate to this, but the Options Page has been calling to my inner designer instincts.<br/><br/>
So here it is, as from today, your Options page should look a lot different.... A lot alike Chrome's own tools page... A complete rip off, I should say. <br/><br/>
I've come so far as to copy a few stylesheets and an image from its code! Let's call it "repurpose" or "reuse" (don't really know if the word applies to what I want to say). <br/>
I've would have linked to them directly, but extensions are not allowed to access those Chome resources, it seems.<br/><br/>
I specially recommend widgets.css. It's simple, elegant, and gives your basic html form controls a great cool look. Don't know how compatible this is to other browsers, nor care for the purposes of this extension, but I recommend it.<br/><br/>
Besides the look&feel of the Options page, haven't done much. A few minor code improvements.<br/><br/>
I have a few requests from users, which I'll post latter. Most of them require that I inject some code to all the pages you visit. I'm trying to decide if is it worth it or not. Probably not worth it.<br/><br/>
So, that's it for today.... Thanks again to the users who are buying on amazon using my extension.... I've been getting a few bucks which I'll soon use to get some cool stuff :)<br/>
I should also share some with <a href="http://germanrivas.com/">German</a>, who keeps suplying cool icons... Yes, not all of them are "borrowed" from Chrome.<br/>
<br/>
Cheers!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0Montevideo, Uruguay-34.8836111 -56.1819444-35.0920221 -56.4978014 -34.675200100000005 -55.8660874tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-58039279186403385822012-04-22T15:45:00.000-03:002012-04-24T16:11:56.707-03:00Other reviews on content farmsSo, these guys from <a href="http://www.softango.com/147405-simpleselectsearch-0-1-6.html">Softango</a> have this review of my extension, an old version, but I'm grateful.<br />
They rank ok on google, so better for me. I don't really mind it's an old version they are promoting, since the options page will redirect users with older versions to the official Google web-store to get the latest one.<br />
<br />
What I don't get is how they say it's been downloaded +14k times... It's not. I'm sure about it. I would know!<br />
<br />
Why would they be wrong about it?
I know they are in only for the traffic...<br />
Their review is not that good, they even copied some text from my description and forgot to edit it. Even that, I don't really mind...<br />
But lying like that on the downloads.... Does not feel right...<br />
<br />
In comparison with the guys from <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Chrome-Extensions/Simple-Select-Search.shtml">Softpedia</a>, who had the decency to email me letting me know that they where promoting my extension, and that if did I want to make any comments or text edits I was welcome to... these guys from Softango need to learn how to deal with the software developers.<br />
Of course we'll (at least me) be more than willing to cooperate with them, it's in our best interest!
And we'll try and be the best content providers we can...<br />
<br />
For any content farm, what else could they ask for?Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-39969609664155657822012-04-19T09:43:00.000-03:002012-04-19T09:43:31.204-03:00Domo ^.^Ok, so I sometimes check URL referrals to my site and <a href="http://www.gigafree.net/internet/googlechrome/simpleselectsearch.html" target="_blank">this one</a> caught my eye... it seems to be a description, help and detailed information on my extension... written on Japanese! :D nice!<br />
They even took the time to post some URLs to use on Japanese sites (I'll add them to my links list)...<br />
The screenshot, with Japanese links on my extension, also surprised me since it's got a gazillion links!... i wonder how many links does everyone use? y only use 4 or 5 links... I might run a poll about it, maybe there's something I'm not considering when someone uses many links?<br />
<br />
I cannot tell who posted this, so I don't have anyone in particular to say thanks... so at least, thank you <a href="http://www.gigafree.net/internet/googlechrome/simpleselectsearch.html" target="_blank">GigaFree.net</a>!<br />
<br />
There's a few other places where the extension is mentioned... but this of course, is the coolest... cuz it's in Japanese, obviously.Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0Montevideo, Uruguay-34.8836111 -56.1819444-35.0920221 -56.4978014 -34.675200100000005 -55.8660874tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-24757726552569857102012-04-17T17:36:00.000-03:002012-04-17T17:47:36.600-03:00TY Amazon! :D<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yay! I'm getting richer by the hour! Last week I got my first 0.73 USD from Amazon! </span><br />
To the one extension user that bought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965608654" target="_blank">Been There, Should've Done That: 995 Tips for Making the Most of College</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1435459687" target="_blank">How to Study</a>, I don't have a way to know who you are, but thank you! Feel free to comment on this post so I get to know your name, and by the way, tell us about those books... and for the looks of it, good luck studying!<br />
Don't pay attention to my amigo Guillermo, who says (I'll roughly translate this) "Formal education will destroy your brain"... he's only partially right :D<br />
No, seriously, thank you!! ! :D<br />
<br />
In case you're wondering, this is related to this <a href="http://simpleselectsearch.blogspot.com/2012/04/support-this-humble-extension-developer.html">post</a>.Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-81798258675688692092012-04-08T13:13:00.000-03:002012-04-08T13:13:25.330-03:00Support this humble extension developerOf course, this extension is for free -I built it for me, actually-... but if you really enjoy using it, and you'd like to show your appreciation, here's a list of things that might make me happy :)<br />
<ul><li><b>Show me the money:</b> Hit the <b>donate</b> button at the top right of this page... and send me a few bucks!</li>
<li><b>Make Amazon pay me:</b> Use any of the Amazon links featured on the options page, search stuff using my extension and buy it! If I had the links set up properly and my affiliate account is working -haven't tested it yet-, I might get a few bucks from Amazon... and it costs you zero! (Thanks to <a href="http://www.danielcostas.com/">Daniel Costas</a> for the idea :D).</li>
<li><b>Guerrilla advertising:</b> <a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=OMG! I'm using Simple=Select+Search extension on Chrome and it rocks! http://bit.ly/HzSP8p @frenetix_" title="Click to send this page to Twitter!" target="_blank">Share on Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FHzSP8p" target="_blank">post on Facebook</a>, G+ or wherever you feel this extension might be well received.</li>
<li><b>More Guerrilla advertising:</b> Now that you're reading my blog, follow it -I don't write that much- post a comment and link to any of these posts. G+ the posts you like.</li>
<li><b>Boost my self esteem:</b> Rate the extension on Google's webstore, say how much you love it!</li>
</ul><br />
Thanks again for followingDiegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0Montevideo, Uruguay-34.8836111 -56.18194440000002-35.0013596 -56.384691400000023 -34.765862600000006 -55.979197400000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-50079969288998177432012-04-08T12:45:00.001-03:002012-04-08T13:10:32.723-03:000.1.7.3 is outHey there, a few days ago I published 0.1.7.3, which has a few code fixes and one new feature called "Search on all!" which will basically search your selection on all your configured search engines at the same time, opening a tab for each result... <br />
I'm not sure how useful this is... is it? <br />
I had plans to do this for a while, and a comment from Jon to my last post (thanks again!) made me remember it.<br />
As per Jon's request, to enable some kind of "bulk search" if you select multiple lines, I'm working on it... I'll have to change the way the selection is analyzed, so far I was working with some default context menu option (selectionText), which will always return a string of text, with no break lines, so there's no way to tell if there's multiple lines on the selection.<br />
The trick is to parse the selection as HTML (using x.Selector.getSelected()), decide which HTML tags I'll parse as line breakers, and try and iterate through the line breaks, strip the text of other HTML tags, and perform search queries per each line...<br />
I still have a few things to figure out before I do this, such as how will all this work from an UX perspective... but it's a nice challenge.<br />
<br />
I hope next version will include this feature...<br />
<br />
As for this one, the only other change was on the options page. I removed the "ToDo list" since there was little there remaining... and I will be posting it here... <br />
<br />
In its place, I included a few "suggestions" on how you could support this extension's developer (aka me), which I'll also be posting here.<br />
<br />
Ps: if you're interested on x.Selector.getSelected(), here's <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9996540/recognize-multple-lines-on-info-selectiontext-from-context-menu">my question at stack overflow</a> and its answer (Thank you Richard)Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0Montevideo, Uruguay-34.8836111 -56.18194440000002-35.0013596 -56.384691400000023 -34.765862600000006 -55.979197400000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-11569222658626700512012-02-09T14:21:00.000-02:002012-04-17T17:47:36.598-03:00OMG I got my first donation! :DIn this humble post, I wanted to officially thank Winston K. for his generosity in helping me get cool stuff by donating (see the big donate button at the right of this post...).<br />
<br />
Thank you Winston, I really hope other fellow users share your enthusiasm! :D <br />
<br />
I'm really happy for the feedback I've been getting... As I said, this I did this extension for myself, mostly, so this is a big bonus.<br />
<br />
Thanks again!Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-16291159904310900062012-02-08T13:21:00.006-02:002012-02-08T13:21:00.288-02:00Oops :PBeen breaking stuff lately.<br />
<br />
First I tried to use "Open Sans" with my Blogger Template, and broke it... it stills look a bit funky... it seems that if you choose that font on the Advanced Options, it doesn't really work and all you see is an ugly serif font... well... found a way to fix it -need to add the CSS code by hand-, so I'll be doing it soon.<br />
<br />
The most important broken stuff is that by trying to fix the <b>%s</b> & <b>%S</b> issue on version 0.1.7 I took the fast track, and "lowercased" the hole search string... which is bad, you know :)<br />
<br />
Thanks to Keith for letting me know that I was forcing the whole search string to lower case... now I've fixed it and quick published a fix on version 0.1.7.1<br />
<br />
Sorry about that :)Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-71979158776118670222012-02-06T13:40:00.015-02:002012-02-06T13:40:00.383-02:00What's new on v 0.1.7Long time, no update...<br />
<br />
I'm glad I got a few requests... it feels nice to know people use what I did.<br />
I have 3 special thanks for this publication: Ahmed, Damien and Theodor. All three of them are using the extension and contributed to part of what I've updated.<br />
<br />
Damien requested a cool thing, that unfortunately for now, I haven't been able to figure out completely:<br />
Have you noticed how the "Search on Google" menu link works?... <br />
I'll try and describe: It has a pretty weird way of opening your search result on a new tab (right next to the original tab), gives it default focus, you close it and then get back to the original page... so it goes back one tab... which is not a standard behavior for tab closing (when you close a tab, you get to the next one).<br />
If instead of closing the new tab, you then move to another tab, and then back to the new one, then the closing behavior applies: the next tab will show up when you close the "new" one... <br />
(mmmh I don't know if you get my meaning, please, try it and you'll get it...)<br />
<br />
Well, I tried to imitate the Search on Google's way, but couldn't so far. :(<br />
<br />
Opening the results on the next tab is not a big deal. What's complicated is having Chrome remember how to get back to the previous tab... <br />
What I've done so far, is to allow the user to decide where to open the new tab (First, Last, Next Previous)... and if they don't mind a weird config, they can select "Previous" as an option, their new tab will get focus, before the "old" tab... they can read whatever they want, and then close it and get the "next" tab, which is the "old" one :P ugly... but does the trick... hope Damien likes it...<br />
<br />
Other stuff I've done on this publication: you'll now get a notice whenever a new update is loaded (the options page will pop-up and the new version id should appear). <br />
Also loved the "Open sans" font on some of the new options pages for Chomre (on Dev version, at least), so I decided to update the font type on the options page... I like it much more now.<br />
<br />
Fixed a few typos and minor bugs and finally, I added a "donate" button :) <br />
I don't make a living of this, and as I said before, I built this extension for me, mostly, so I don't expect to earn money out of it... but if you're on a generous mood, and feel like showing your appreciation, now you can do so :) heh...<br />
<br />
Well, that's it... here's the full change log, have fun.<br />
<br />
New on v 0.1.7<br />
<br />
- Added "New tab position" parameter: You can now select where you want your new tabs to open (Thanks Damien, I know this doesn't work exactly as you wanted, but it's something).<br />
- Fixed little bug on "Featured Search Engines" list, where some search engines wouldn't work.<br />
- %s on search URL now supports %S (Thanks Ahmed!)<br />
- Fixed typo on Help (thanks Theodor!)<br />
- Using "Open sans" as a default font for options -nicer, right?-.<br />
- Added Update notification<br />
- New Donate button... I hope you like it :)Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-60586813807321529432011-12-14T02:01:00.000-02:002012-04-17T17:47:22.443-03:00Stats 6/6 to 12/12Long time, no see.<br />
Been busy! Now I'm tired, but just wanted to post this update.<br />
I'm amazed on how the extension grew on usage since october, really don't know why... The date its usage spiked is suspiciously close to the Google Web Store revamp launch, so maybe that has something to do with it.<br />
<br />
I'm grateful for the comments, and the requests... I apologize for not making any updates for so long, I'll eventually get back to this, I promise!<br />
<br />
Ok, here's the stats, to the guy that requested "confidentiality", seems you weren't the only one... Thanks for requesting that :)<br />
<br />
And I'll have to get into jigsaw... what the heck is that Search Engine for?<br />
<br />
Cheers!<br />
<br />
<table><tbody>
<tr><td><b>URLs</b></td><td><b>Clicks</b></td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://jigsaw.com/" target="_blank">jigsaw.com</a></td><td>11193</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://confidential/" target="_blank">Confidential</a></td><td>10782</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://google.com/" target="_blank">google.com</a></td><td>7865</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://youtube.com/" target="_blank">youtube.com</a></td><td>7009</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://imdb.com/" target="_blank">imdb.com</a></td><td>4589</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://thepiratebay.org/" target="_blank">thepiratebay.org</a></td><td>3514</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">en.wikipedia.org</a></td><td>3278</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://dict.youdao.com/" target="_blank">dict.youdao.com</a></td><td>2800</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://translate.google.com/" target="_blank">translate.google.com</a></td><td>2689</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://btjunkie.org/" target="_blank">btjunkie.org</a></td><td>2511</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://amazon.com/" target="_blank">amazon.com</a></td><td>2212</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://iciba.com/" target="_blank">iciba.com</a></td><td>1995</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://torrentz.eu/" target="_blank">torrentz.eu</a></td><td>1615</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://vkontakte.ru/" target="_blank">vkontakte.ru</a></td><td>997</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://baidu.com/" target="_blank">baidu.com</a></td><td>875</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://eksisozluk.com/" target="_blank">eksisozluk.com</a></td><td>870</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://filestube.com/" target="_blank">filestube.com</a></td><td>796</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://isohunt.com/" target="_blank">isohunt.com</a></td><td>728</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://wordreference.com/" target="_blank">wordreference.com</a></td><td>616</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://goodreads.com/" target="_blank">goodreads.com</a></td><td>605</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://thefreedictionary.com/" target="_blank">thefreedictionary.com</a></td><td>501</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://avaxsearch.com/" target="_blank">avaxsearch.com</a></td><td>465</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://search.aol.com/" target="_blank">search.aol.com</a></td><td>388</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://urbandictionary.com/" target="_blank">urbandictionary.com</a></td><td>379</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://rottentomatoes.com/" target="_blank">rottentomatoes.com</a></td><td>335</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://10.159.236.79/" target="_blank">10.159.236.79</a></td><td>328</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://kinopoisk.ru/" target="_blank">kinopoisk.ru</a></td><td>327</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://google/" target="_blank">Google</a></td><td>319</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://encrypted.google.com/" target="_blank">encrypted.google.com</a></td><td>304</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://subscene.com/" target="_blank">subscene.com</a></td><td>292</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://kat.ph/" target="_blank">kat.ph</a></td><td>250</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://demonoid.me/" target="_blank">demonoid.me</a></td><td>246</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://rutracker.org/" target="_blank">rutracker.org</a></td><td>244</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">maps.google.com</a></td><td>237</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://grooveshark.com/" target="_blank">grooveshark.com</a></td><td>225</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://discogs.com/" target="_blank">discogs.com</a></td><td>220</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/" target="_blank">rateyourmusic.com</a></td><td>209</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://facebook.com/" target="_blank">facebook.com</a></td><td>205</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://amazon/" target="_blank">Amazon</a></td><td>196</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-57369013651884881322011-08-06T20:07:00.002-03:002011-08-07T22:50:02.880-03:00Version 0.1.6 now availableIt took me a while but it's finally on-line... I really hope this all goes well... you won't find much new stuff to do with this version, but a lot changed on it's code...<br />
<br />
I already <a href="http://simpleselectsearch.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-post.html">said this on my previous post</a>: as I work more with JSON I find it harder to understand how I did it before. Code got so much more cleaner!<br />
<br />
I tested and tested the extension for a while... I tried to test different "update scenarios" and so far, all the times I got it right... there are a couple of backward compatibility functions within the code so you won't loose your previous configuration... I even left a few extra measures, like not really removing your old config, just in case... but I really hope it all goes well... and I can clean all those functions a couple of builds ahead.<br />
<br />
If it doesn't please do tell.<br />
<br />
What else? yes, now you can export your config, and take it to other installs... not as functional as cloud sync but it's a start, right?<br />
<br />
And for the "paranoid" ones, you can now stop the search engines tracking which is enabled by default.<br />
<br />
Hope you like it, and that all works ok... please, let me know.<br />
<br />
I don't really need to say this, right? but if you're still not using it, go get it clicking on the big blue <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aagminaekdpcfimcbhknlgjmpnnnmooo">download</a> button on the right of this post :PDiegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7967659964092751940.post-78632780149675709702011-07-30T00:41:00.003-03:002011-07-30T01:04:52.311-03:00What's next and why is it taking so damn long?Well, I'm currently testing version 1.6.<br />
<br />
The reason it's taking so damn long is because I refactored all the config storage to a single JSON object... I don't understand how I didn't do this since the beginning, the code is way much cleaner than before... but with this changes, I had to include some backward compatibility functions, so when you first upgrade your extension, all your previously stored config data won't be lost... that way you won't hate me that much :D... <br />
<br />
It's been kind of painful, I had to modify most of the code, and it's really hard to think of all possibilities and to test them... I believe I'm almost done... I'll try and finish by this weekend.<br />
<br />
I also added a few new features. Here's what I can remember at this hour of the night:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Import/Export config: you can now copy your configuration to a text file and take it to any other install... it's still not Cloud Sync but it's a start, right?</li>
<li>Turn off the "call home" feature: there was a comment from a user (thanks for commenting, btw) on my last post about stats, asking if was it possible to turn off the Search Engines tracking feature. I can understand you guys being paranoid regarding what app devs are monitoring from your usage of their apps... in this case -in my case-, tracking is purely being done to satisfy my curiosity, to find new ways to improve my extension, and to share with you where other people is looking for the stuff they are interested in.<br />
I don't really care what you are looking for, nor who is looking for what... really... and no information that can lead me to that is being tracked. But it's Ok, as a friend of mine says: "being paranoid is not a flaw, but a virtue", or something like that :P<br />
To sum up, if you turn that off, I'll still be counting the clicks you make when you're using my extension, but no Search Engine names nor URLs are stored (it just says "confidential" on both fields) on Google Analytics.<br />
I hope this satisfies your needs... if not, let's discuss why not, convince me, and I'll remove all kinds of tracking for those who desire it... I'm still not that much convinced.</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Well then, I'll make a post when the new version is published.<br />
<br />
CheersDiegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00943655726906840352noreply@blogger.com0