Aqua-Soft ForumsThis is a first thread in what I hope becomes a regular series of software reviews by me. If this goes well and you find my reviews helpful, I will continue to write other reviews. Here goes!
Released by David Watanabe
Inquisitor is an app that lets you perform Google searches from your desktop, rather than using a browser. The app primarily features two windows- one for searching Google for web pages, and another for searching for images. Other windows can be utilized as well- News, Shopping, Dictionary, and Thesaurus.
Web Search Window
The web search window lets you browse through HTML documents pertaining to your search topic- in other words, searching google without the browser. Although this sounds as though it might come in handy, in all actuality, it is not. One of my main beefs for this window is it's complete lack of descriptive text. In a real Google search, you get results that list the web page title, a description, it's address, etc. However, with Inquisitor, you get only the page title and address. This probably won't be a problem when searching for specific topics (i.e., Apple, Microsoft, etc.), but will definately be a problem when dealing with ambiguous searches. For instance, I do a lot of papers for college, and Google is essential in helping me find sources. If I type "Constitutional Convention Problems Setbacks" into Inquisitor, I will only get web page titles- no descriptions of the page, which is essential in finding accurate sources. Although this does not sound like a huge problem, you'd be surprised just how dibilitating it is to have no descriptions availible.
This is this window's greatest flaw, and really it's only big one. There are a couple more annoyances, however:
- If I get 25 search results, I cannot resize the window vertically to display them all- I have to use a rather annoying scrollbutton to do so
- There is no 'Display English Results Only' option, as there is at Google. (This applies to all languages, not just English)
Image Search Window
This window is better than the Web Search, but still has it's flaws. It nicely fades in the search results, and when the results are clicked, Safari promptly displays the link (when coupled with Safari's new option to open app links in new tabs, Inquisitor makes for a great way to search for images).
However, the preview thumbnails are painfully small, so small that at times it is difficult to tell whether or not the image might contain anything I'm looking for. The previews at most are 48x48, which is much too small, especially considering that at times the image previews in Google itself are too small.
This window also features the annoyance of not being able to resize vertically in order to display more search results.
Other than that, the Image Search is pretty cut and dry.
News Search Window
This window is much like the Web Search Window, displaying titles of articles pertaining to your search topic. However, the lack of description here is not really a problem, unlike the Web Search. News articles generally use headlines to catch a reader's eye, so in this aspect, the lack of description actually works in it's favor. Again, cut and dry, displaying headline and source in an easy to use manner. Also, when coupled with Safari's new 'new tab from external link' feature, this makes it a breeze to view several articles at once.
Shopping Window
This one is interesting- it lets me see items related to my search that I can buy. For instance, a search for 'Weezer' turned up Weezer stickers, CD's, sheet music, etc. along with a price and source. Some issues with this feature:
- There is no indication if prices have been converted. For instance, say a Weezer CD comes up in my search results. The price is $11- but how can I be sure it's $11 USD? The site offering the CD may be Canadian, and the price is $11 Canadian. Same goes for overseas markets- will the price from an item at Amazon.co.uk automatically be converted from pounds to dollars? I can't tell, and Inquisitor won't say.
- The thumbnails are again small, just as they were in the image window- I had a hard time telling the difference between a Weezer CD and a Weezer sheet music book- both images were the same, only one of them was slightly more rectangular.
This was an interesting feature, one that I didn't expect. The idea is great, it just needs more work.
Dictionary/Thesaurus
These features both worked well, looking up your search terms at Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, respectively. A nice feature that saves some typing. A nice addition would be a slang dictionary.
Preferences
The Preferences pane was seriously lacking in options. Currently, there are two options- setting how responsive the windows are, and whether the links open behind or in front of Inquisitor- a handy option. However, there are several options missing that I'd like to see:
- The option to choose which browser the results open in
- The option to set the number of search results displayed per page per window.
- The option to increase the size of image preview thumbnails
- Window priority options (Always on Top, Always on Bottom, etc.)
Overall Summary
Inquisitor is a nice utility to have around for doing casual searches, for catching news headlines, and basially to just quickly look for a quick bit of info on the web before you forget it. It has some great options I didn't cover (i.e., Search for current iTunes artist), and also is nice to have to do quick image searches. However, power users will still want to go to the Google site- the search site itself wins hands down when you need all the info you can get on your sources (i.e., when writing my papers), and many will feel restricted by Inquisitor's small size.
It is important to remember that Inquisitor is still in beta development (0.62) and that more features will undoubtedly be added. Hopefully the features added will be some that I mentioned above.
My Rating: ********** 6/10
-godpunk
