OpenSearch (specification) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
OpenSearch is a collection of technologies that allow the publishing of search results in a format suitable for syndication and aggregation. Introduced in 2005, it is a way for
OpenSearch consists of:
# OpenSearch Description files:
website
A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
s and search engine
A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
s 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
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...
at the ''O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference'' on 15 March 2005. Draft versions of OpenSearch 1.1 were released during September and December 2005. The OpenSearch specification is licensed by A9 under the Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Support
Web browser
A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...
s that support OpenSearch include Safari
A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...
, Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a Proprietary Software, proprietary cross-platform software, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft and based on the Chromium (web browser), Chromium open-source project, superseding Edge Legacy. In Windows 11, Edge ...
, Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...
and Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...
.
Mozilla have indicated that they will deprecate OpenSearch search addons in favour of WebExtensions search addons. This will not affect the ability to manually add an OpenSearch engine from a website As of December 5, 2019, search engine add-ons for Firefox that are powered by OpenSearch have been removed from Mozilla Add-ons.
Design
OpenSearch consists of:
# OpenSearch Description files: XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...
files that identify and describe a search engine.
# OpenSearch Query Syntax: describe where to retrieve the search results
# OpenSearch RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...
(in OpenSearch 1.0) or OpenSearch Response (in OpenSearch 1.1): format for providing search results.
# OpenSearch Aggregators: Sites that can display OpenSearch results.
# OpenSearch "Auto-discovery" to signal the presence of a search plugin link to the user and the link embedded in the header of HTML pages
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
Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...
are the only ones formally supported by OpenSearch aggregators, however other types, such as HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
are perfectly acceptable.
* Auto-discovery of an OpenSearch Description Document is available from both HTML and Atom or RSS feed documents via Link relations
A link relation is a descriptive attribute attached to a hyperlink in order to define the type of the link, or the relationship between the source and destination resources. The attribute can be used by automated systems, or can be presented to a ...
in the form of application/opensearchdescription+xml Internet media type
In information and communications technology, a media type, content type or MIME type is a two-part identifier for file formats and content formats. Their purpose is comparable to filename extensions and uniform type identifiers, in that they ident ...
.
Alternatives
Mozilla Firefox offers a bookmark keyword feature where an occurrence of in the bookmark URI gets replaced with the terms typed in the address bar following the initial keyword. *Sherlock (software)
Sherlock is a now-defunct file and web search tool created by Apple for the "classic" Mac OS, and carried through to early versions of Mac OS X. Sherlock was introduced in 1998 with Mac OS 8.5 as an extension of Finder's file searching capa ...
See also
*Representational State Transfer
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...
(REST)
* GraphQL
GraphQL is a data query and manipulation language that allows specifying what data is to be retrieved (" declarative data fetching") or modified. A GraphQL server can process a client query using data from separate sources and present the res ...
* OpenURL
An OpenURL is similar to a web address, but instead of referring to a physical website, it refers to an article, book, patent, or other resource within a website.
OpenURLs are similar to permalinks because they are permanently connected to a r ...
* Search/Retrieve via URL
Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) is a standard search protocol for Internet search queries, utilizing Contextual Query Language (CQL), a standard query syntax for representing queries.
SRU, along with the related Search/Retrieve via Web (SRW) serv ...
(SRU)
* Z39.50
Z39.50 is an international standard client–server, application layer communications protocol for searching and retrieving information from a database over a TCP/IP computer network, developed and maintained by the Library of Congress. It is cov ...
References
External links
* {{web browsers Internet search engines Web syndication formats XML Open formats 2005 software