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Has anyone actually been able to do a web search from Spotlight?

P

pickaxe

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2012
760
284
I haven't been able to get any of the new Spotlight web suggestions mentioned at WWDC... ever. Are these US-only or something?

Furthermore, the Search Google/Search Wikipedia from previous OS X versions has been removed - a regression...
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,635
10,398
Detroit
It's working for me in the US. I just typed in Star Wars.
Capture3.PNG
 
P

pickaxe

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2012
760
284
Oh. Thanks for the screenshot.

I wonder why non-US users don't get to use IMDB, Wikipedia or Bing?
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
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I don't know, but I'd expect it to work for more or all countries by the time the public release is available.
 
A

anyjungleinguy

macrumors 6502
Mar 6, 2012
308
217
I'm in the UK and while it never worked for me on Public Beta 1, it has worked occasionally on Public Beta 2. It's definitely not consistent, though. For example, it's not working at all at this very minute.

Have you checked Activity Monitor for the related process name? I can't remember it specifically but check if it's there and if it is, whether it's actually running or crashed.
 
S

slyr114

macrumors newbie
Jul 24, 2014
28
2
Does anyone know how to hide the spotlight icon on yosemite? I use alfred and would like to hide the search icon from the menubar.
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,635
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Detroit
Julien said:
That's not a web search. It is a Safari cache result on your Mac. Wikipedia is a web search result but available mostly in the US only as of now. Bing search is coming but yet to be enabled.
Click to expand...

Actually, no it isn't a web cache. I, just this morning, installed Yosemite in VMware 7 and had just finished installing the PB 2 update on it. Running that search in the screenshot was literally the very first thing I did with that install.
 
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Julien

Julien

macrumors G4
Jun 30, 2007
11,847
5,441
Atlanta
SandboxGeneral said:
Actually, no it isn't a web cache. I, just this morning, installed Yosemite in VMware 7 and had just finished installing the PB 2 update on it. Running that search in the screenshot was literally the very first thing I did with that install.
Click to expand...

Sorry, did not look close at your pic. It's still not a true web search but just a suggested web site for you to visit. You seem to only get these on certain commercial sites (that I have seen). If you click on the Wikipedia link you get real web search info. When Bing is enabled you will get Bing result info in the Spotlight window.

Also Maps info in Spotlight is a true web search.
 
J

j800r

macrumors 6502
Jan 5, 2011
399
140
Coventry, West mids, England
slyr114 said:
Does anyone know how to hide the spotlight icon on yosemite? I use alfred and would like to hide the search icon from the menubar.
Click to expand...

The revamped Spotlight is just as powerful as Alfred if not more so. :s
Ditch it, you don't need it anymore.




As for the net results thing they're probably phasing that in. I get wiki results, nothing from Bing or IMDB though unless I search through Safari directly. It'll get there though I'm sure of it and I doubt it's a bug. Just a missing feature and they have said the betas etc will be missing some features.
 
S

slyr114

macrumors newbie
Jul 24, 2014
28
2
I still like alfred better after giving the new spotlight a chance, i only use it for quickly launching apps and opening files. Alfred is more compact in its results window and such.
 
Julien

Julien

macrumors G4
Jun 30, 2007
11,847
5,441
Atlanta
Just to add it looks like Apple is testing Bing in a limited way. Just playing around look at what I got.

Also when I typed police a 2ed time I got different Bing results.


ScreenShot2014-09-04at110613AM_zpsa216c16e.jpg


EDIT: Here is another that doesn't show the results page in the Spotlight window. Must be testing.

ScreenShot2014-09-04at110634AM_zpsc3d2434a.jpg
 
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