Google Quick Search Box


Google Quick Search Box is an application launcher and desktop search tool developed by Google for Mac OS X computers. It allows users to search files, URLs, and contacts on their computer, as well as performing actions on the results.

History and status

GQSB was first released as a developer preview on January 12, 2009. It is still in beta, and a new version is released approximately monthly. The releases follow the sequence of chemical elements from the periodic table. The first public release was named Scandium and the current release is Cobalt. Like other Google products such as the Chrome browser, QSB is open-source software. However, just as with Chrome, Google distributes official builds with extra functionality. In the case of QSB, this includes plugin validation, auto-update, and Google-branded icons. Later it became a fully open source product, and just called Quick Search Box. In Mac OS X Snow Leopard, QSB has replaced Google Desktop.

Comparisons to other products

QSB is similar to another Google product, Google Desktop. However, there are several key differences between the two products:
In addition to file search, QSB is distributed with a suite of plugins that allow additional functionality. These include:
Users have noted that the functionality as compared to Desktop is reduced, especially in the area of in-document text searching, Gmail message searching and web history searching.