How to Twitter Directly from the Google Quick Search Box

A little while ago GT discussed the Google Quick Search Box, a very versatile search tool that can be downloaded directly to your Google Desktop on any Mac computer. Although I’ve always been a big fan of the native Mac search tool, the ability to use the Google Quick Search Box for multiple purposes wins me over. One of those things you can do with it, aside from search, is Tweet. Google discussed it recently on the Mac blog, and I’ll go over how to set it up.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

One of the main reasons I am not a very prolific Twitter user, is possibly because I don’t want to be logged in to several social networking sites at the same time, just in case I feel compelled to share my thoughts. However, with the Quick Search Box from Google (QSB), you can easily give in to your most spontaneous impulses for sharing on Twitter.

4 Steps to setting up Twitter in the Quick Search Box

The beauty of the Quick Search Box is that it is open source, and thus extensible. Setting it up so you can send Tweets directly from the Quick Search Box is really easy:

1. Click the down arrow on the right side of the search box and select preferences.
2. Select the “Add Accounts” tab and click “add”.
3. Select Twitter as your account type and provide your user name and password.
4. Click “Setup”

How to Tweet

To send a Twitter message in the QSB, you need to start by entering a space in the search box. Now enter the text you want to send to Twitter. To actually send the message (don’t forget there is a 140 character limit for Twitter, but the QSB will not ‘alert’ you to the limit as you type!), you need to hit the tab key on your keyboard to get a list of possible actions. By selecting “send Twitter status” and hitting enter you are sending your message off to your Twitter account.

The benefit of easy ‘Twittering’ using the Quick Search Box is also a possible disadvantage at the same time: if it is so easy to Tweet, we might just use it a little too much!

What do you think? Is easy access to Twitter making you a more active user, and do you miss the actual Twitter interface?