I’ve been using the Quick Search Box for the mac (QSB) now for three months, and I can’t recommend it enough. Like Quicksilver, it changes the way you interact with your computer. Instead of browsing for information, you simply search. It is liberating in the same way gmail is — you no longer spend time organizing because your information is always at your fingertips via lightening fast search.

The simplest way to use the QSB is as a launcher. Instead of browsing the Applications folder, or stacking your doc with the apps you use, you simply open QSB (cmd key twice by default, I use cmd-space), and start typing the name of the application you want to launch. You can also use it for quick actions like searching the web, or wikipedia. To search wikipedia, you simply start typing “wik…” then hit <tab> then type your search followed by return. A wikipedia search will open in your default browser. QSB is also integrated with Google Docs, which makes opening a Google Doc a two second operation. For example, I was working on a presentation to the zoning board of appeals. To open the presentation, I simply started typing “zoning” and using the arrow keys, selected the presentation. (Note the Google Docs integration doesn’t support Google Apps accounts just yet, Update: the latest release now supports Google Apps! (More info…) but it still isn’t integrated with Google Sites at this time.)

As you can see from that screenshot, QSB also has several other utilities like quick access to dictionary definitions. It also searches your conacts, making conact information also a couple of seconds away.

I’m using the mac version but an equivalent version of the QSB is included in Google Desktop for windows.