Intro
eSaba Search is a project I, Elias Saba, started in early 2006. The idea is simple: provide access to all the search engines of the internet on a single page. The implementation, however, was not so simple.

The Past
One of my favorite features of Firefox is the Smart Keyword Search. For those unfamiliar with it, it allows you to access a websites search form from the toolbar (i.e. typing "google christmas" in the Firefox address bar will load a google search result for the term "christmas"). It wasn't long before I had a large list of Smart Keywords in my Firefox bookmarks. I loved being able to access a websites search form without having to first navigate to that website. That was when I had the idea to make a single page which provided the same convenience. And so the eSaba Search idea was born.

The Present
After getting the idea, I created the first version of the eSaba Search. I took all the search form information I accumulated in my Firefox Smart Keyword bookmarks and created a page with a button for each Smart Keyword. It was a start, but I wanted to add more pages to search. Through a google search, I came across the Mozilla-Mozdev Mycroft project. The Mycroft project is a user created database of search engines one could add to their Firefox Search Field. I wrote a program that downloaded, extracted, and formatted the thousands of search engine files on the Mycroft servers. The total came to 4,160 search forms. I rewrote my eSaba Search page and included all 4,160 search links. That is the point I'm at now.

The eSaba Search is nowhere near finished. The only reason I've promoted it to a Beta is because, while incredibly slow, it actually works (most of the time). Currently, the page works best with Firefox. The only other browser I have tried it with is Internet Explorer and it does not load correctly. I will address this issue once the page is more stable. When loading in Firefox, the page often trips an "Unresponsive Script" warning. This is due to the large amount of information being retrieved. If this happens, click continue and the page should load.

The Future
I have many ideas to improve the eSaba Search. I just don't know when I'll find the time to implement them. Optimization is the main concern right now. Loading the 4,160 search forms is putting a large strain on both the browser and the server. I have several ideas to fix this problem. In addition to making the page load faster and react to the user quicker, I plan to give the user the ability to customize the page in several ways. If you have any ideas/bugs/complaints/comments for the eSaba Search, please send them to: eSabaSearch@esaba.com