Make Google suggest the fallback search instead of Google, Amazon and wikipedia?

[emattias]

I only ever use google to search from alfred. Is it possible for alfred to start giving me google suggest as the fallback search instead of offering me to search google, amazon or wikipedia?

[jdfwarrior]

I only ever use google to search from alfred. Is it possible for alfred to start giving me google suggest as the fallback search instead of offering me to search google, amazon or wikipedia?

 

There IS but it's probably not as straight forward as what your hoping for. Since a script filter can't be assigned as a fallback action, you have to create the fallback search item and make THAT run the script filter that provides feedback. Does that make sense? Not sure how familiar you are with creating workflows..

 

Anyway, an example of this would be, I type in 'alfredapp' and I get no file/contact results so it shows a list of your configured fallback items (Google, Amazon, Wikipedia). You could remove those or add just add Google Suggest to the top of the list and then when it drops to fallback, Google Suggest is an item listed in the fallbacks list, but you have to press Enter to select that before the results show up. It wouldn't be an instant search like it is if you use the 'g' keyword.

[emattias]

If I understand you correctly you can't currently make alfred fallback to actually triggering one workflow with inline results without selecting it from a list with one item. Couldn't you make it so that if there is only one fallback it can be auto selected? My goal was to make alfred behave as similar to the chrome adressbar as possible. It would be even cooler if it mixed my chrome history into the results also, but that seams much more complicated. Unless perhaps chrome offers an api to get the same results as the chrome adressbar..?

 

Is there a bug tracker where I can add a feature request?

 

Btw, I think I rather have inline results than suggestions. So I guess having this workflow as the fallback: http://www.alfredforum.com/topic/940-google-search-in-line-results-workflow/

[jdfwarrior]

If I understand you correctly you can't currently make alfred fallback to actually triggering one workflow with inline results without selecting it from a list with one item. Couldn't you make it so that if there is only one fallback it can be auto selected? My goal was to make alfred behave as similar to the chrome adressbar as possible. It would be even cooler if it mixed my chrome history into the results also, but that seams much more complicated. Unless perhaps chrome offers an api to get the same results as the chrome adressbar..?

 

Is there a bug tracker where I can add a feature request?

 

Btw, I think I rather have inline results than suggestions. So I guess having this workflow as the fallback: http://www.alfredforum.com/topic/940-google-search-in-line-results-workflow/

 

Alfred isn't set up to do that. I asked Andrew the same thing when he was getting Alfred 2 together and he makes a good case for why it doesn't work that way. If a fallback could insert results into Alfred by default the way that you are suggesting then it greatly minimizes his efficiency at being able to give you the local results you could be looking for. For instance, if I wanted to find Andrew in my contacts, if I typed 'andrew' currently, he would pop up as my number 1 result and Alfred would have given me EXACTLY what I was looking for, quickly and easily. If a script filter were the default, then I would have to skim past all the suggested results first to get to the result that I am actually looking for. It allows you to be specific in what you are looking for or what results you get back instead of getting just a bunch of random results that you have to pick through to find what you wanted. If you're having to dig through results to find what you actually wanted then we've defeated the purpose of Alfred.

 

Also, yes you CAN search Chrome History with Alfred (with a workflow) but it once again follows the same fate as mentioned above if something like that is made default.

 

As a side note, the workflow you referenced.. there is one identical that is included with Alfred. In the workflows area, if you click the + in the bottom left hand side, and select Examples->Google Suggest, that workflow comes bundled with Alfred and does the exact same thing.

[emattias]

Alfred isn't set up to do that. I asked Andrew the same thing when he was getting Alfred 2 together and he makes a good case for why it doesn't work that way. If a fallback could insert results into Alfred by default the way that you are suggesting then it greatly minimizes his efficiency at being able to give you the local results you could be looking for. For instance, if I wanted to find Andrew in my contacts, if I typed 'andrew' currently, he would pop up as my number 1 result and Alfred would have given me EXACTLY what I was looking for, quickly and easily. If a script filter were the default, then I would have to skim past all the suggested results first to get to the result that I am actually looking for. It allows you to be specific in what you are looking for or what results you get back instead of getting just a bunch of random results that you have to pick through to find what you wanted. If you're having to dig through results to find what you actually wanted then we've defeated the purpose of Alfred.

 

Also, yes you CAN search Chrome History with Alfred (with a workflow) but it once again follows the same fate as mentioned above if something like that is made default.

 

As a side note, the workflow you referenced.. there is one identical that is included with Alfred. In the workflows area, if you click the + in the bottom left hand side, and select Examples->Google Suggest, that workflow comes bundled with Alfred and does the exact same thing.

 

I'm not suggesting that the fallback search will be triggered immediately when starting to type in alfred. My thinking was that when alfred has decided that it can't find a match and it decides to show the fallback search list it will then (if configured to) run the fallback search (in my case google).

 

I've tried the Examples->Google Suggest workflow but it not the same as my second workflow link(http://www.alfredfor...sults-workflow/). Instead of showing suggested search terms it shows the actual search results inline in alfred, so you can directly from alfred go to the result.