Google Custom Search in Alfred?

[ruiguerreiro]

Hello everyone,

 

I ofter have to browse several sites for video tutorials, so I go on each of them, type the tutorial I am looking for and see what they have. Then I go to the next site and repeat the process. It works, but I started wondering if I could search all sites at once.

First I thought I could do it in Alfred, but because most of these sites search is more of a browse thing, I can't get the {query} string that is needed to do that. Here's one of them so you know what I mean https://www.macprovideo.com/

Maybe you can go around this somehow, but I couldn't figure it out.

So I searched Google for a solution, and found Custom Google Search Engines. I didn't even knew it existed, but it does. So you can create a personalized Google search engine that only looks into the sites you want. Pretty cool.

Here's the one I just created https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes

 

Now, with this is mind, would it be possible to use the personalized Google search from Alfred?

 

Thank you all so much for the time,

Rui

[deanishe]

Here you go. Copy and paste this into Alfred or Safari: 

alfred://customsearch/Search%20Tutorials%20for%20%27%7Bquery%7D%27/tut/utf8/%2B/https%3A%2F%2Fcse.google.com%2F%3Fcx%3D013315504628135767172%253Ad6shbtxu-uo%26cof%3DFORID%253A10%26ie%3DUTF-8%26q%3D%7Bquery%7D

 
I've set the keyword to "tut". Go into Alfred Preferences > Features > Web Search to change it.

[ruiguerreiro]

Hi deanishe,

 

First of all, thank ou for your help.

 

Unfortunately I don't think it's working as expected. You see, when I use the personalized Google search that I mentioned in my previous post, I get results from the websites I picked only, whereas in your Alfred search, I seem to be getting no results, or results from Google search help.

Let me use an example. One of my favorite Sampler instrument plugins is Native Instruments Kontakt. I need tutorials to learn Kontakt, so I go to my personalized Google Search, type Kontakt, and I get results matching Kontakt in only the websites I chose for my personalized Google Search. When I do the same using your search in Alfred, this is what I get https://cse.google.com/?cx=013315504628135767172%3Ad6shbtxu-uo&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=kontakt#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=kontakt&gsc.page=1

Not what I wanted

 

Maybe I wasn't able to explain what I need. Sorry if that was the case. And thank you again for taking the time.

[juliosecco]

Hi ruiguerreiro

 

try setting up a web search with this Search URL:

 

https://cse.google.com/cse?r=m&cx=016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes&q={query}

 

it seems to work...

 

I didnt know about Custom Google Search Engine too...

thanks for the tip

 

     Giulio

[deanishe]

Hmm. Alfred or the forum software has mangled the URL. I just did what juliosecco says and then exported the URL from Alfred.

[ruiguerreiro]

Hello there,

 

Hurray! It worked Thank you both so much for your help. It's really appreciated.

 

@juliosecco You are most welcome about Custom Google Search Engines. I was very happy to discover that feature as well.

 

All the best to you guys.

[ruiguerreiro]

Hello there once again,

 

Since this worked so well, I have a couple more custom searches I would like to create. Could you guys share the process of creating the link I need for a new Alfred custom web search? I mean, from the public link I get from creating a custom Google Search, how to I get to the link you shared with me?

 

Thank you so much!

[juliosecco]

Hi,

well, what I did to find the correct link was analyze the google web page using chrome browser.

I have seen that, after typing the search term and hit the button, the page opens a container with inside an iframe.

don't know if you are familiar with html,an iframe is an element of a web page containing another webpage, and looking at the iframe address we have found ( I imagine deanishe did more or less the same thing ) the correct link.

 

BUT, since we have already discover the correct link, I think there's now a simpler way:

 

look at the original custom search address ( I'm removing the https:// part):

 

cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes

 

we have transformed it in:

 

cse.google.com/cse?r=m&cx=016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes&q={query}

 

in a link as you know the parameters are name/value couples following the ? symbol, and separated by the & symbol.

 

so we can guess that cx=016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes is the code assigned by Google at your custom search, a parameter named cx with a value of 016685344683901672096:56dgrtoymes

 

and I'm hopeful that you can look at the link of your new custom search, copy the value following cx= , and simply paste it on new link...

 

example:

 

cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=111222333aaabbbccc

 

will result in:

 

cse.google.com/cse?r=m&cx=111222333aaabbbccc&q={query}

 

hope this helps,

 

     Giulio

Edited June 12, 2016 by juliosecco

[ruiguerreiro]

@juliosecco

 

Yep, that does the trick Thank you so much, once more.