Chanpory Rith
Apr 19, 2007
What do you get when you marry Quicksilver’s powerful WebSearch plug-in with YubNub’s equally potent command-line web service?
A super duper web search tool that lets you:
Search 10,500+ sites and tools including Google, Wikipedia, IMDB, eBay, and Craigslist through one common interface
Instantly call up this interface from anywhere in the system with a single keyboard shortcut—without even being in a browser.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
What the hell is YubNub?
Like Quicksilver, YubNub is hard to explain. I’ll try anyway.
Yubnub lets you use shortcuts to access thousands of websites and web-based tools. You can use the 10,500+ existing shortcuts, or create your own.
Some examples will make this more clear. Here are some YubNub commands and a description of what each does:
imdb The Godfather
Find movies on IMDB titled “The Godfather”g How to start a blog
Search Google for “How to Start a Blog”wp Life hack
Go to the “Life hack” page on Wikipediad typography
Get the definition of “typography” on dictionary.comdeli productivity
Find bookmarks tagged “productivity” on del.icio.us
The beauty of YubNub is that it gives you a single common interface to query your favorite sites and tools.
So how do I use it with Quicksilver?
The disadvantage of YubNub is that it’s a website. To use it, you must first open a browser, go to http://www.yubnub.org, then type in a command. For Quicksilver enthusiasts, this is way too many steps and clicks.
With Quicksilver’s WebSearch plug-in and Triggers, you can instantly bring up a YubNub search window no matter where you are in the system. Here’s how:
1. Install the WebSearch module
If you don’t have it yet, install Quicksilver. Then, in Quicksilver’s settings window:
Press the Plugins button at the top of the window
Select All Plug-ins in the left column. In the right column, scroll down to find Web Search Module. Check the box to install.
Restart Quicksilver to activate the plug-in.
2. Create a Trigger for YubNub
In Quicksilver’s settings window:
Press the Triggers button at the top of the window.
Click the Plus icon at the bottom of the window, and select HotKey.
In the pop-up that appears:
Paste this exact URL in Select an Item field:
qss-http://www.yubnub.org/parser/parse?command=***After pasting the URL, the Action field will automatically change to “Search For…”
The next step must be followed exactly:
- Press the Tab key until the Target field is selected.
- Press Command+X to clear the field. Note: You must use Command+X and not the Delete key.
The result must look like this (or it won’t work):
After pressing Save, we can now assign a Hot Key:
Select the command you just created in the Triggers list and press the Info Icon on the bottom-right of the window. A drawer will appear.
Next to the Hot Key field, click Edit and assign a keyboard shortcut. I like to use Command+Shift+Y
3. Now use it
To enjoy the rapid search power of YubNub and Quicksilver from anywhere:
Check out the most-used YubNub commands. Or for the complete list, go here.
Call up the YubNub search window by pressing the Hot Key you just created (Command+Shift+Y in our example).
Type in any YubNub shortcut and it will automatically launch your browser with the results.
Bonus Tip
Jonathan Aquino just pointed out another awesome trick. To run multiple YubNub commands at once, use the mash command. For example:
mash sanjaya-malakar wp gim imdb gn
The result looks like this in your browser:
All done. Now, go show your friends and amaze them with your nimble search prowess.
19 Comments
Julian Schrader
2:35 pm
Great tip!
Just did this and it’s great!
Steve Dallape
2:47 pm
Sounds really cool, but I followed the instruction to the letter and cannot get it to work. When I press the hotkey, the YubNub site opens in my browser. Not sure what I did wrong, or maybe there is another QS setting somewherre that I don’t have set correctly.
Chanpory
2:55 pm
Hi Steve, this usually happens when setting up the trigger and the Target field is not properly cleared. I’ve made this mistake before as well.
When you are first setting up the Trigger setup, make sure you are using Command+X to clear the Target field, so that all you see is “Type to search.” If there is anything else in there, it will go directly to YubNub.
If that doesn’t work, send me a screenshot of your Trigger setup window, and I’ll take a look. Hope that helps.
Rich
3:00 pm
This is fantastic! But it’s a little bit better to set up YubNub as a custom web search source in the Quicksilver catalog and then use this to set up the trigger as described above. If you do this, you can give the trigger a nice name rather than just a URL. It’s also much easier to get to via the usual Quicksilver interface rather than by a trigger if you prefer to do things that way.
Jonathan Aquino
10:42 pm
What a lovely review! The pics and video are great.
Here’s a trick for running several commands at once: the mash command:
mash sanjaya-malakar wp gim imdb gn
Chanpory
11:02 pm
Jonathan, Wow, I didn’t know about the mash trick. I’ve updated the post with your extra tip.
Thanks!
Arif
3:31 am
nice…nice…NICE! One serious problem though, after putting up this trigger, my Quicksilver preference pane, doesn’t launch up anymore. I have to quit Quicksliver restart and then select Quick Silver preferences from the menu bar.
Any idea, what gives?
nicholas
9:08 pm
hm, i did exactly as told… i even used the same trigger… but it still goes to yubnub page…
too bad, one thing that made me work with shiira browser for so long is because it was easier to manage searches…
Steve Roesler
4:46 am
As a long-time Quicksilver user, I’m going to give this a shot. And I’m glad I came into the conversation a little late to benefit from the tips:).
Thanks, Chanpory.
foobar
9:36 am
fucking horrible instructions
thanks for making it as confusing as possible.
Chanpory
9:55 am
Foobar,
Quicksilver isn’t the most easy-to-figure piece of software. I tried to be as detailed as possible and included screenshots and step-by-step instructions. Sorry, it didn’t work for you. When you post an easier-to-follow guide, let me know and I’ll link you.
Vanessa
4:23 pm
Great screencast and a good tip. Besides the “mash” feature, is it better than using the “Web Search Module” Plug-in and doing this . instead?
Seth Talley
4:49 pm
If you end up with a browser window and you can’t for the life of you get “type to search” for the life of you, tab and shift tab around a bit. I had to clear a blank “file” icon out (pressing cmdX just gave me a bonk).
Totally slick.
Daniel
6:59 am
I’ve been having this problem with Quicksilver web searches for ages. Everytime that I come across a new web search that I want to add, it takes about an hour to get it working. I would have the same result as Seth, and previous posters. The secret is at the “Command-X” stage. The purpose is not to have an empty text field in the third row but to have one that says “Type to search.” If the third row has a blinking text cursor or an icon then it won’t work. The solution is to tab out of the field, and then tab back. Then press Comman-X. This will remove the icon and change the row to say “Type to search.” If this doesn’t work, do it again. Sorry for being repetative, but it confused me for a very long time.
Gabriel Kent
7:08 pm
A Firefox Add-on.
Firefox 2+ users can try RubNub for YubNub. v1.5 was just released and also offers supports embedded YubNub commands (example: rub://g+hello searches google for ‘hello’).
Enjoy:: http://rubnub.org
(full disclosure, I made RN4YN)
>||;)
Joe Dunn
5:12 pm
Nice tip. Since I usually use google, I don’t think it’s worth it for me to type the “g” every time. But I think I’m going to hotkey a yubnub search anyway, because it seems useful for things I’d rarely search.
Mike
1:01 pm
Doesn’t work for me… just brings me to the yubnub home page.
gutenmter
3:22 pm
If you’re an avid PS3 gamer, then you know the importance of saving your progress for future game play. Pls, help me!
scott
11:48 am
daniel’s comment about the field where you type cmd+x has just fixed it for me. like he says, you need to tab out of the field and tab back in so that there isn’t a blinking cursor or anything, and then type cmd+x, then save.