Google has started a new search engine called searchmash that they are using to test new concepts. Personally, one of the best features of searchmash is the absence of advertisements. That’s right, no ads. Employing a clean, simple interface, there’s also no sign of Google unless you view the privacy policy or terms of service statement. The engine appears to run using Google’s search algorithm, though I haven’t seen any verification of this — even Google seems to be keeping quiet about what the site can do except to say that it’s being used to test user interfaces etc… The features of the engine can be found here. My favorite ability of the site is a box on the right of the screen that lets you quickly change your search results from web to wikipedia, blogs, images, and videos that play on the search results page. So far I’ve been very impressed with the site.
To make searchmash your default search engine from the firefox address bar just open “about:config” and search for the “keyword.url” variable. Change this value to:
http://www.searchmash.com/search/
now when you type something into the address bar you will be taken to searchmash’s results for that phrase. You can do this with any search engine or search box on the web, because Firefox is awesome!
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