REVIEW: Ambrosia iSeek
Contributed by
Staff
January 9, 2004 1:45 AM
iSeek. Sometimes.
I've been using iSeek since it was released and can say right off, I like it. Honestly though, I'm not surprised since the folks at Ambrosia do such good work, and features like customizable searches make this application a joy to use.
Now, after saying that, I must admit that I just don't use it that much. And here is the simple reason why. I typically always have a browser window open. With a keystroke I can have a new tab or window open and since most browsers can try to guess the website you want I barely have to type in the URL of my search engine. And while it's true that the search field provides convenient access to the search field and handles the process of opening the results in a new window for me, I do have one beef that really keeps me from using this thing more.
Let me explain. I use an original iBook which runs at an 800 x 600 screen size. Very often the menubar is over crowed and the extra items on the right side of the bar start to drop off as the number of application menus increases.
For example, I have my Airport Status, my modem status, and my volume control all in my menubar. This is in addition to the battery/charge indicator and clock. This is fine when I'm using the Finder but with a program like Mozilla or AppleWorks these controls start dropping off. iSeek bites the dust right away and I can improve that speed when I'm connected to the Internet since I have my machine set to display connection time in the menubar too. This naturally eats up far more space than even the clock.
I find that the easiest solution is to simply switch to the Finder and perform searches from its menubar.
I can easily see how handy this app would be with larger screens, which are after all much more prevalent today. But using it on a smaller screen takes some patients.
The good news? Well this problem actually took far more page space to describe and cover than the trouble it creates. The truth of the matter is that this is a creative application that is a great example of the power of programming for the Mac. Furthermore, it adds some functionality to the Mac that Windows users have had in the form of the Yahoo! search bar, or Google plugins. And while Safari has a Google search field, this thing goes well beyond a search field for a particular engine. The customization allowed in this application puts it over the edge as far as search plugins go.
The short of it is that if you have at least a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution screen this program is worth the modest registration fee. Heck, even if you don't have the screen real estate, this thing is probably worth it. Even if you use it only as much as I do, it's still cool technology.
After thought
As an aside, as new searches are performed, the results are spawned into a new browser window. This is likely how it should work to keep from clobbering previous search results. Still, while not as intuitive, a potential enhancement to this feature would be to have new search results open into a new tab. If this were done, I would expect it to only work if tabs are enabled, and for the new tab to open in the same window that previous results were opened in. If there are no previous results, then open a new window.
Additional thought
From a rules sort of perspective, this app really seems to overload the scope of the menubar since it ignores the real function of the menubar. But then again, so do all the other icon-style menus found in the menubar. On the contrary, it demonstrates the flexibility of the OS.
© 2004 Kaomso
