MSN Search: PDC Edition

Today
at noon we’ll be giving a session at PDC’05 titled Tips, Tricks, &
Hacks.  We’ll be talking about advanced search syntax for both web
and desktop search.

 

For
the web, I’ve prepared a hack that makes some of
our advanced search syntax more accessible, specifically to
developers.  The hack is a Trixie
/ Greasemonkey script that modifies the MSN Search interface at run time with javascript.

 

Take a look at a screenshot below or read on to see the syntax we’re illustrating with this script:

  • Site search: MSDN.  Use a query like “pdc (site:msdn.com | site:msdn.microsoft.com)”

  • Blog search. Use a query like “pdc hasfeed:”

  • Ranking sliders.  Click search builder and then result ranking to play with these.

Try it out.  I bet you’ll find great value in becoming a MSN Search power user.  Installing the script will help you explore the possibilities.

For
IE, you’ll need to first install Trixie and then save the script file
into Program Files -> Bhelpuri -> Trixie -> Scripts.


    -Andy Edmonds, PM