OpenSearch
OpenSearch is a collection of technologies that allow publishing of search results in a format suitable for syndication and aggregation. It is a way for websites and search engines to publish search results in a standard and accessible format. OpenSearch was developed by Amazon.com subsidiary A9 and the first version, OpenSearch 1.0, was unveiled by Jeff Bezos at the Web 2.0 in March, 2005. Draft versions of OpenSearch 1.1 were released during September and December 2005. The OpenSearch specification is licensed by A9 under a Creative Commons license.
Summary
OpenSearch consists of:
- OpenSearch Description files: XML files that identify and describe a search engine.
- OpenSearch Query Syntax: describe where to retrieve the search results
- OpenSearch RSS (in OpenSearch 1.0) or OpenSearch Response (in OpenSearch 1.1): format for providing open search results.
- OpenSearch Aggregators: Sites that can display OpenSearch results.
OpenSearch Description Documents list search result responses for the given website/tool. Version 1.0 of the specification only allowed one response, in RSS format; however, version 1.1 provides support for multiple responses, which may be in any format. RSS and Atom are the only ones formally supported by OpenSearch aggregators, however other types, such as HTML are perfectly acceptable.
Search engines and software that support OpenSearch
- A9.com
- Nuvvo e-Learning
- OSFeed
- Internet Explorer 7
- Eluta.ca
- WWW::OpenSearch - Perl module
- textualize's opensearch -- Python module
- Kwiki::OpenSearch - Perl module for use within the Kwiki wiki engine.
- PEAR Services_OpenSearch - PHP OpenSearch API library
- OpenSearch Klip - for use with the Klipfolio software
- searchplugins.net - create OpenSearch plugins for use with IE7 and Firefox2 (Minefield or Bon Echo) builds
- Search Addons - Search engine listings and providers for your browser's search bar.
- Mozdex.com OpenSearch
- Nestoria - UK Property Search Engine.
- Nurse Web Search - Health Internet Search Engine.
- Drupal.org OpenSearch Module (Steven Wittens)
- YaCy
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0 - implements OpenSearch, and a subset named MozSearch. MozSearch is not intended for web use, only for Firefox related projects. Extended features from Mozsearch are usable in an OpenSearch file with an XML namespace prefix.
- nutch - open source web-search software
- Yandex - Russian search engine
- Xapian's Omega search frontend includes an "opensearch" OmegaScript template.
- BoardReader Forum search engine
- Zoom Search Engine - search engine software that produces OpenSearch compatible search results.
Directories of OpenSearch feeds
- An open directory of public OpenSearch Description Documents was made available at A9 as of August 5, 2005. This directory can be accessed via an HTML search, an OpenSearch RSS feed, or via its underlying Description Document.
Plugins for making blog content available to OpenSearch APIs
- ROME OpenSearch Java Module (Beta) - Rome A9 OpenSearch 1.1 API for Java (Michael Nassif)
- MovableType - OpenSearch 1.1 (Alf Eaton)
- MovableType - OpenSearch 1.0 (Niall Kennedy)
- WordPress (Chris Fairbanks)
See also
External links
- OpenSearch.org -- official website, including specifications
- OpenSearch.a9.com -- site for submitting searches to a9.com
- Ready2Search -- OpenSearch plug-in editor on Web