Google release free Quick Search Box for Mac

Google Quick Search Box in action Google has released Google Quick Search Box for Mac (qsb-mac). QSB is a BSD licensed utility which pops up a search box when the Mac Command key is pressed twice. Search utilities like this are not new on the Mac; Quicksilver for example, was open sourced when the original developer stopped working on it. However, most of the preceding applications have come from an application launching background rather than generic searching. The first release of Quick Search Box, labelled version 2.0.0.808, is able to search data on the local system and on the web, with dynamic results appearing as a query is typed.

The search box indexes installed applications, allowing it to be used as a program launcher. It can also search the address book and itunes library and be used to open websites. Currently, Gmail and Firefox, aren't searchable, but these are promised in the future. Quick Search Box only runs on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and is available to download from the project site. This first release is a developer preview and Google are looking for developers to participate in extending the Quick Search Box's functionality.

(djwm)