OpenSearch and IE 8

For some time, MediaWiki has provided an OpenSearch interface to allow supporting browsers to list your favorite wiki as a search provider right in your browser’s built-in search bar.

Firefox since version 2.0 supports type-ahead search suggestions as well, making it easier to reach the page you’re looking for without typing the whole thing:

Internet Explorer introduced basic OpenSearch support in IE 7, letting you add Wikipedia as a search provider, but still didn’t include the handy type-ahead search suggestions.

IE 8 beta 2 has finally added support for the search suggestions, including an extended format which allows including text extracts and images with the results. We’ve added support for this in the OpenSearchXml extension, now enabled on Wikipedia and all the Wikimedia sites:

You won’t have to change anything on your wiki to support search suggestions on IE 8, but with the extension you’ll get a little extra bling. ;) The description text and image extraction is still a little experimental, but does a pretty good job, and we plan to bring these capabilities into the core software where they can be used in other search and site map interfaces.

3 thoughts on “OpenSearch and IE 8”

  1. All wikis, all languages. Just add the search provider when you’re at the site. (This works pretty much like in Firefox, though IMHO the IE method is a little more confusing.)

  2. “now enabled on Wikipedia and all the Wikimedia site”

    Sure? I cannot find an entry in the conf files. But maybe I missed something, haven’t installed IE8 beta until now.

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