Does Google have a Command Line Interface?

12 Responses (Yours?) | Thursday, June 5th, 2008 « Previous Next »

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It’s hard to believe that many of us started learning computers before there was any kind of GUI, or Graphical User Interface. We existed on the command line. It took the release of Win 95 to get me away from the Command Line.

When we talk about a command line vs GUI, we’re talking about interfacing with a computer with some kind of text prompt. This is where you don’t have anything to click on, you would have to type in text. GUI is basically like a set of icons or pictures. So keeping this in mind, I came across Goosh the other day. Goosh is basically the unofficial Google shell. Imagine if Google existed on a command line only. That is exactly what you get on this website. Goosh is written by Stefan Grothkopp, and it is NOT an official google product!

So you basically have some text, and then a blinking cursor. Basically you’re going to type in the type or search, such as Wiki or News… or just put in your keywords. Bang there you go! It brings up your search results. If you type in Clear, it will clear the screen. You can keep searching all day long. Why would you want to do this? It’s fun! It’s nostalgic! It’s just nice and clean, and simple.

Try this out. It’s a website, not an application or anything you need to download. It’s different and fun. I promise that if you’re a Geek, you’ll be entertained.

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12 Comments

Computerwhiz1

June 9th, 2008
at 8:15pm

Chris Pirillo iPhone Weather Apps I?d Like to See Download My Free Premium WordPress Theme Is the Windows UI Important? Upload Digital Photos to Web Albums for Free!Does Google have a Command Line Interface?

News

July 12th, 2008
at 3:10pm

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Adrian Corscadden

June 5th, 2008
at 10:27pm

How did you make it fullscreen?

FF, in OS X, doesn’t have a fullscreen option.

Or, did you just zoom in, using OS X’s zoom?

marcel

June 6th, 2008
at 12:13am

This is a lot of fun.
nice tip!

spataro

June 6th, 2008
at 2:41am

I’ve done the same some years ago on my IusSeek.com (italian laws and cases), just for fun, at the hidden link:

http://www.iusondemand.com/64

oh ! It’s no more hidden now … :-)

C.S McClendon

June 6th, 2008
at 3:15am

its interesting, but I would never survive without gui. cli is just so very hard on the eyes. I have a very hard time seeing the comp as it is.

David B

June 6th, 2008
at 6:28am

I like this.. :)

There’s something to be said about it’s minimalist interface ;)

Plus as I’m a unix admin.. makes me feel right at home.. ahhhh the command line :)

YouTube - Does Google Have a Command Line Interface?

June 6th, 2008
at 9:46am

[...] Honours for this video (11) Loading… Sites linking to this video (3) Clicks URL 50 http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/06/05/does-google-have... 4 http://chris.pirillo.com/ 1 http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=wy [...]

AidanF

June 6th, 2008
at 2:39pm

I just started working at an insurance brokers this week and they use a program called cdl which is very similar to this. Going from being used to the GUI in WIndows XP and Mac OS X Leopard it was a bit of a shock to the system but you get the hang of it after a while :)