In order to install Retro Links you will need to be using
Firefox and have
Greasemonkey installed. Once Greasemonkey is running when you click on the link above you will be prompted to install the script. To see that it is working you can do a Google search - the links will be inserted near the bottom of the Google search results page.
Background:
Once upon a time Google's search results page had links to "Try your query on" other search engines like Infoseek and Excite. You can still see these links preserved on the
April Fool's page from 2000. Over time it became increasingly difficult to maintain these links (think of all the people who would want to be on this official list of other search engines!) and eventually they were removed. The Retro Links script restores these links to their original position and lets you choose, from a list of dozens of search engines and web sites, which ones you want to show.
If you like this idea you might also want to check out
Customize Google, an extension that adds links at the top of the page and has a bunch of other customizations in addition, and
Try This Search On, a Greasemonkey script that adds a bar of persistent links across many sites.
FAQ:
How do I change which links are shown?
Click on the [+] to bring up the options interface. Make your selections and click the Save button when you are finished.
What if the site I want is not one of the 42 options?
You can add more sites to the options by making a simple code change. To edit the code go to Tools -> Greasemonkey -> Manage User Scripts, select Retro Links and click the Edit button. Simply add the name and url of the new site to the RL_LINK_OPTIONS array, following the examples that are already there.
How do I turn on/off the update notification?
The script checks to see if a newer version is available once per day. If an update is available a red box will appear in the bottom right corner of the page with a link to download the latest version. If you want to stop checking for updates go to Tools -> Greasemonkey -> User Script Commands and select Retro Links -> Never check for updates. To start checking again select Retro Links -> Check for updates daily.
*Disclaimer: I am a Google employee, but Retro Links is not an official Google project. I chose which links to include based on my personal preferences and web surfing habits. These decisions do not represent the opinions of my employer.