Google Custom Search + MSDN + Chrome Omnibox = bliss

So, this is a technology fusion post. The ability to do this has been around for a while, but I have just recently put one and one and one together to get three.

MSDN is well known for being a monolithic, barely navigable Leviathan of a programmer resource. For the most part, I have avoided it by using the local version installed by Visual Studio. However, at my home machine, I have opted out of the huge MSDN install and started using the online version instead. Typically this consisted of doing a google search with "msdn" as a keyword.

Recently, while setting up a custom search engine for the Omnibox in Chrome, it occurred to me that there is a better way.

After a bit of time, i have tacked together the following:

1. Find a Google Custom Search tailored for MSDN (tip of the hat to Joel Coehoorn)
2. Familiarize yourself with the Omnibox search shortcuts
3. Set up a custom search engine for Chome that points to your custom google search:

Name:MSDN
Shortcut:msdn
URL:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=018205968162215846785:zeur6t7rqb8 
&ie=UTF-8&q=%s&sa=Search

[Note: Although this URL is on two lines for long line wrapping purposes, you will need to rejoin them for entry in Chrome.]

So now a reasonable MSDN search can be accomplished in the browser via shortcuts. Typing "msdn" [TAB] "object" gives the System.Object entry as the first result. Next on my list would be getting the results to be in the loband version of MSDN.