Windows 7 enables searching for content on remote locations right from the Explorer itself. Integrating federated search into Windows gives users the benefits of
A handful of search connectors are already available for Windows 7 beta. I have compiled a list of all the popular search connectors available:
The credit for Flickr search connector goes to Long Zheng, for Twiiter Search to Chakkaradeep and for YouTube, Google News, Google Blogs, Yahoo and MSN Search goes to dmex.
I have also come up with my own search providers for Windows 7 Search Federation:
If the search provider supports OpenSearch standards then you can use the following code snippet to built your search connector for that provider:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/">
<ShortName>Name of the Provider</ShortName>
<Description>Description of the provider</Description>
<Url type="application/rss+xml" template="Valid RSS link to search results”/>
<Url type="text/html" template="Valid RSS link to search results"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>
You can also make your own search provider for any website even if it doesn’t support OpenSearch standards by using Live Search. Here is the piece of code which i used to make a Wikipedia search connector for Federated Search in Windows 7.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/"> <ShortName>Wikipedia</ShortName>
<Description>OpenSearch for Wikipedia via Windows 7 Search Federation.</Description>
<Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3Awikipedia.org&count=50&format=rss"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>
Simply copy/paste the above code in a notepad file and replace the text in Bold(Red) and save it as .osdx file extension so that Windows 7 can recognize it as a valid Federated Search Connector file.
Download Search Connectors Pack for Federated Search in Windows 7