Learning To Blog VIII: 5 More Handy Searches

I've been taking the list of blogging tips that Harvey (Bad Example version) as courses in an attempt to learn how to blog. If you saw the post yesterday evening, you know this little blog has passed the 50,000 visit mark, and it's almost at 100,000 page views. So, maybe I'm learning some stuff after all.

Oh, and judging by the response we've received, others seem to appreciate this series. Which is odd, because they can just go to Harvey's site (Bad Example) and take them. But, hey, who am I to argue? I'm still learning how to blog.

Anyway, Harvey made a recent addition to his list, following up his tips on adding Google search to the site. He offers more search features:

5 More Handy Searches

Fresh from the sidebar of Ferdy of Conservative Cat come these handy search boxes that you might like to include in your own sidebar, as I've done here at Bad Example.

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
• Technorati Cosmos
• Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB)
• TV Tome

I tested the code at a couple of my experimental Blogger sites &
it seems to work fine. If you copy it whole from what I list in the
extended entry and paste it somewhere in your sidebar, it should do the
trick.

Well, that was short and sweet. I had previously added the Technoati search box to this little blog. But I haven't added any of the others. And, until I read Harvey's post, I didn't know the other four were available. So, I'm 1-and-4 on this course.

I've used IMDB and TV Tome a lot in everyday use, and looking up stuff for posts. Mostly obscure information about movies or TV shows I reference in a post. I'm going to brag a little now. Much (that is, more than half) of the time, I knew the information, but wanted to verify. Lots of the time, I'm close, but have some detail wrong, and checking helps keep me from making an even bigger ass of myself. And, sometimes, I'm way off base, and those sites help a lot.

I also use the Dictionary and Thesaurus on occasion. Sometimes to verify spelling (like the Lifebuoy� comment in yesterday's Headline News).

But, before now, I never knew they could be added to sites.

Oh, Harvey also has the code listed. Since some browsers don't always copy text easily, I'm going to list it here in an easy-to-copy format.

<br /> <!--- RESEARCH CENTRAL ---><br /> <br /> <h2>HANDY SEARCHES</h2><br /><br /> <p><table border="0" width="200"><br /><br /> <tr><td align="center"><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.m-w.com/tools/search/images/dict1.gif" width="146" height="28" /><BR /><br /><br /> <form action="http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary" method="post" target="_blank"><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="book" value="Dictionary" /><br /><br /> <input type="text" name="va" size="25" /><br /><br /> <input type="submit" value="Search" /><br /><br /> </form><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.m-w.com/tools/search/images/thes1.gif" width="142" height="28"><BR /><br /><br /> <form action="http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus" method="post" target="_blank"><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="book" value="Thesaurus" /><br /><br /> <input name="va" size="25" /><br /><br /> <input type="submit" value="Search" /><br /><br /> </form><br /><br /> </td></tr><br /><br /> </table></p><br /> <br /> <!-- Technorati --><br /><br /> <p><TABLE border="0" width="200"><br /><br /> <tr><td align="center"><hr /><br /><br /> <h2><a href="http://www.technorati.com">TECHNORATI</a> COSMOS</h2><br /><br /> <p><form id="searchform" method="post" action="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html" target="_blank"><br /><br /> Enter keywords or a URL to search the Technorati blog database.<br /><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="rank" value="" /><br /><br /> <input id="st" type="text" name="url" size="25" maxlength="127" value="" /><br /><br /><br /> <input type="submit" class="submit" value="Search" title="Technorati: Search Results" /><br /><br /> </form></p><br /><br /> </td></tr><tr><td align="center"><hr /><br /> <br /> <!-- IMDB --><br /><br /> <h2><a href="http://www.imdb.com">IMDB</a> Search</h2><br /><br /> <p><form action="http://www.imdb.com/Find" method=post target="_blank"><br /><br /> Enter a movie name, a TV show name, or a person's name<br /><br /> to search the Internet Movie Data Base<br /><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="select" value="All" /><br /><br /> <input type="text" name="for" size="25" /><br /><br /><br /> <input type="submit" value="Search" /><br /><br /> </form><br /><br /> </td></tr><tr><td align="center"><hr /><br /> <br /> <!-- TV TOME --><br /><br /> <h2><a href="http://www.tvtome.com">TV TOME</a> Search</h2><br /><br /> <p><form name="search_form" action="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/Search" method="post" target="_blank"><br /><br /> Enter a TV show name or a person's name to search the TV Tome<br /><br /> episode database<br /><br /><br /> <input type=hidden name="searchType" value="all" /><br /><br /> <input type=text name="searchString" size="25" /><br /><br /><br /> <input type="submit" value="Search" /></form></p><br /><br /> </td></tr></table></p><hr /><br /> <br /> <!-- End of Searches --><br />

I hope this helps.