Just want to share a quick tip today for speeding up a site-specific search I use all the time. As a fly geneticist, I find myself constantly searching the Drosophila community resource Flybase for specific genes, transgenic stocks, and references. By leveraging the power of custom searches in my application launcher of choice Alfred, I can get the information much more quickly than ever before.

Alfred allows me to hit a global hotkey, type in a string, and magically be transported where I want to go as quickly as possible.

The custom urls I use are as follows:

Search for the Flybase entry for a gene of interest:

http://flybase.org/cgi-bin/quicksearch_solr.cgi?caller=quicksearch&tab=basic_tab&context={query}&data_class=FBgn&species=all&search_type=all

Search Flybase for transgenic stocks related to a gene of interest:

http://flybase.org/cgi-bin/quicksearch_solr.cgi?caller=quicksearch&tab=basic_tab&context={query}&data_class=FBst&species=all&search_type=all

Search Flybase for scientific papers that mention a gene of interest:

http://flybase.org/cgi-bin/quicksearch_solr.cgi?caller=quicksearch&tab=basic_tab&context={query}&data_class=FBrf&species=all&search_type=all

Those urls may look scary, but they just tell Alfred what to do with my search query. If you are on a Mac, do yourself a favor and dowload Alfred.