Mycroft project
Encyclopedia
The Mycroft project provides a collection of search plugin
Search plugin
A search plugin provides the ability to access a search engine from a web browser, without having to go to the engine's website first.Technically, a search plugin is a small text file that tells the browser what information to send to a search engine and how the results are to be retrieved...

s for Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....

-based web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

s. The open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 project is hosted on Mozdev.org
Mozdev.org
mozdev.org is a website that offers free project hosting and software development tools to the Mozilla community. Many Firefox extensions are hosted on the site, but Thunderbird and SeaMonkey extensions and stand-alone Mozilla-based applications can also be found. It is free to set up a project...

 and has been in existence since 2000. The project is named after Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...

, the fictional older, smarter, and less ambitious brother of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

, as a reference to Mycroft being based on Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

's Sherlock
Sherlock (software)
Sherlock, named after Sherlock Holmes, was a file and web search tool created by Apple Inc. for the Mac OS, introduced with Mac OS 8.5 as an extension of the Mac OS Finder's file searching capabilities. Like its predecessor, it can search for local files and file contents, which it does using the...

 search technology.

Browser compatibility

Search plugins on Mycroft are compatible with the following:
  • Mozilla Firefox
    Mozilla Firefox
    Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

  • Mozilla Application Suite
    Mozilla Application Suite
    The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...

  • Netscape
    Netscape (web browser)
    Netscape 7 was a series of proprietary cross-platform Internet suites created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by AOL to continue the Netscape series after Netscape 6. There were three main editions released from the Netscape 7 series; being Netscape 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2...

     7
  • Internet Explorer 7
  • Google Chrome
    Google Chrome
    Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

  • Beonex Communicator
    Beonex Communicator
    Beonex Communicator was an open source internet suite based on the Mozilla Application Suite by Ben Bucksch, a German Mozilla developer, which have a higher security and privacy level than other commercial products....



A search plug-in provides the ability to access a search engine (or other websites with a search feature, e.g. Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...

) from a web browser, without having to go to its website first.

Technically, a search plug-in is a small text file that 'tells' a computer what information to send to a search engine and how the results are to be retrieved.

Browser independent search

Search plugins on Mycroft can also be used through different user interfaces, bypassing the browser. One example is the free linux software Gnome-do.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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