Anyone who has used The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) to aid in developing software, knows how difficult it is to search using MSDN's search.  The solution?  Use Google!

Google has site-specific search capabilities.  This means you can make Google only return results from specific sites.  You can even set it to return results from two or more specific sites, and no others.  To help you search MSDN, you should set those sites to be "msdn.microsoft.com" and "support.microsoft.com".

Why not just "microsoft.com"?  There are many sub-domains under microsoft.com that are not related to developing software.  Without specifically defining your site to only to the "msdn" and "support" sub-domains, you would get lots of irrelevant results.  To make things even easier, create your own Google search box with the site-specific information in the search field by default.

The Code:

<FORM name=googleform method=GET action="http://www.google.com/search">
<INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=80 maxlength=255 value="">
<INPUT type=submit name=btnG VALUE="Google Search">
</FORM>

<FORM name=googleform method=GET action="http://www.google.com/search">
<INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=80 maxlength=255 value="site:msdn.microsoft.com OR site:support.microsoft.com ">
<INPUT type=submit name=btnG VALUE="Google Search">
</FORM>

Here are the forms the above code creates.  Test them out:

The top form is a normal Google search, and the bottom one is a site-specific Google search.  The reason I use both, is so that I do not have to delete "site:msdn.microsoft.com OR site:support.microsoft.com" in my search field to perform a regular Google search every time.

Put The Code Where?

Copy and paste the above code into your own HTML document, then set that document to be your home page.  As explained in my Windows XP Setup Tweaks & Tips article, your home page should not be set to anything that pulls attention away from your work.  Many popular home pages do this (hotmail.com, msn.com, yahoo.com, slashdot.org, etc.)  Instead, use a home page that increases your productivity, like google.com or your own homepage with faster links to Google's site specific searches as I have explained here.

Also See:

• Windows XP Setup Tweaks & Tips

About the Author:  I am Matthew Doucette of Xona Games, an award-winning team-of-two indie game development studio working on Xbox 360 and PC games.  We have released Decimation X, a 1-4 player shmup, which is Japan's #1 best selling #1 top rated Xbox LIVE Indie Game.  We are currently working on Duality ZF, a groundbreaking 1-4 player shmup.  It features dual play, the ability to control two fighters at once, a beautiful electronic Imphenzia soundtrack, and a massively upgradable 32-stage spread/laser weapon system.  4 player dual play allows up to eight fighters at once.  Many of these features are never before seen shoot'em up firsts.  Check out our Duality ZF trailer and help spread the word with our official dualityzf.com website.  Coming soon to Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

*Also known as a shmup or 2D shooter.