Goosh: A Unix-Like Command-Line Interface for Google
by Sam Dean - Jun. 03, 2008Comments (5)- Related Blog Posts
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Every once in a while, you run across something online that appeals to you for inexplicable reasons. That's how I feel about Goosh. Goosh looks and feels like a Unix shell, and behaves quite a bit like DOS, in fact. It's a command-line interface that is powered by Google. I wouldn't use it as my main front -end for doing Google searches, but I agree with Webware that the application has a charming retro feel.
Goosh is short for Google shell, in case you were wondering, and the application was created by Stefan Grothkopp (it is not a Google product). The application is tuned to understand some shorthand for what you mean when you search for something. For example, I frequently get annoyed with mapping applications that make me enter a lot of text and do a lot of waiting for what I want. In Goosh, I can type "place San Francisco" and I'll instantly get back Google Map results showing me a couple of views of the city.
In the screenshot below, you can see my search terms right next to the command line interface, and my retrieved map below that. In this way, Goosh is actually interesting as a single page from which I can access various Google services.
 
I hardly think that a Unix-like command line interface is the wave of the future, but Goosh is a lot of fun to noodle around with.
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