A Few Reason's I will keep using Google Search over Windows Live Search

Every now and then, I check out Live Search to see how they are doing. This time I was prompted by a friend who just happens to work for Live Product Search. I'm afraid to say, that only after a short time I am changing back to Google. First let me say what I think they got right.

Pros

1. Search Results - I have to admit that the search results are much better than they used to be. I remember a time when I would type in a .NET Namespace and couldn't get the correct result unless I clicked on one of the next pages. That being said, I couldn't say they are necessarily better than Google, but they are definitely more up to par than I found them in the past. (If only they could fix MSDN search results and get rid of that horrible little search popup window on the Microsoft ASP.NET site I will be thrilled.)
2. Minimalist Design - They have now Googlized the site by taking a minimalist approach and I think this provides a much better user experience. This is the very reason I will never use Yahoo or MSN. There is far too much clutter and it is distracts from the end purpose of searching.
3. Live Product Search - My friendship notwithstanding, I have to admit that the product search is pretty slick. Not only do they do a great job of recognizing your search results, but they also aggregate pictures, reviews, and features very well. I have not seen Google functionality that offers this type of interface. The only problem I noticed was that when I did a search on "Nikon D70", the "Compare prices" link was disabled. I do like the compare prices functionality and it is a feature I often use with Google Shopping search.

And now with the reasons why I will keep using Google Search over Live Search. Some of these may seem fairly mundane, but when combined they add up to a lot.

Cons

1. Google Toolbar - Neither of the following features were available in the Live Toolbar.
• Word Find - This functionality shows the search items to right of the toolbar and then you can click on them repeatedly as they will be highlighted in the displayed page. Because many of my searches are technical in nature, I often end up combing through forums and blogs. This makes it much easier. Live Search provides similar functionality, but it involves opening another window which is just one more step.
• Up Button - It may not seem like much, but another feature I often use is the "Up" button which allows you to move up a subdirectory. This is very handy if you have a URL with a dozen query strings or an FTP directory.
2. Google News - This is only one click away and I like the way it aggregates the news of the day. You can also rearrange it according to your preferences. I usually hit this once or twice a day to quickly skim the headlines and then drill in if I see something of interest. Live Search does have a News link, but clicking on it only means you can now enter a search term for the news. Of course, the Windows Live Home Page and iGoogle are alternatives since they allow you to customize your own home page, but I have never been happy with how long they take to load.
3. Street Address Recognition - Although I think the Live Maps are great and have some advantages over Google Maps, Live Search did not recognize my home address. Google Search on the other hand, recognized my address and provided me with a map at the very top.

Windows Live Writer Rocks!

If you haven't checked this out yet, I highly recommend it. As this is a technical blog, the best thing about it is the ability to easily copy and paste code. This is something that Blogger handles very poorly. I have shown some screenshots and sample code that has been copied and pasted below.

Download Windows Live Writer

Screenshot

C# Code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
}
}
}

HTML Code

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

SharePoint Designer - Disable "Open last Web site automatically"

I have a couple dozen web sites I have to maintain and one annoying thing for me was that SharePoint Designer always opened the last web site automatically. Fortunately, you can disable this by going to the Tools - Application Options menu and then unchecking "Open last Web site automatically when SharePoint Designer starts."

SQL Server - Include column headers when copying or saving results

If you ever copy and paste your query results from SQL Server Management Studio into Excel or Notepad, you will definitely want to check this option under Tools - Options (Query Results - SQL Server - Results to Grid). Otherwise you will not get the column headers.

FontConverter.ConvertFromInvariantString - Add Italics

I didn't find the MSDN documentation very complete when it came to this. It was fairly obvious that I could feed "Verdana, 15.75pt" into the ConvertFromInvariantString method and get the right font returned, but I wasn't sure how to make that Italic. Since I am using this to skin my application, I wanted to put this string in a config file.

FontConverter fc = new FontConverter();Font headerFont = (Font)fc.ConvertFromInvariantString("Verdana, 15.75pt, style=Italic");

How to create a screenshots of modal dialogs in Windows Vista!

This is one that was bugging the hell out of me. I've been using Windows Vista for a while now and have been trying to keep the User Account Control on, but slowly tweak it so that it is usable. One of the problems I kept running into was that certain User Account Control dialogs were globally modal and prevented me from getting screenshots. The only thing they allowed you to do was click "Allow" or "Cancel." I couldn't find anything online to resolve this and even the Windows Vista Snipping Tool wouldn't work. Ultimately, I found my answer in the security options for User Account Control:

1. Open the Start - Run menu and type secpol.msc.
2. Navigate to Security Settings - Local Policies - Security Options.
3. Disable "User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation."
4. Voila! You can now use PrtScn and Alt+PrtScn or the Windows Vista Snipping Tool like before.

MSDN Webcast Portal - Seven Deadly Clicks!

First let me say that if you haven't checked out the WPF Soup To Nuts Webcast Series, I highly recommend it. My only problem here is that it takes a total of seven clicks to get to the content! Come on...where's that Web 2.0 experience?! If only they could throw these on MSDN Channel9.