Alfred V2 Sneak Peek: Workflows | Hacker News Reader

Alfred V2 Sneak Peek: Workflows

blog.alfredapp.com

129 pointsneilmiddleton18 comments

I'll share a tip for Alfred that makes me faster on the computer:

Think of all those times you google something just to click the first link. "twitter gem github", "ebay tickle me elmo", whatever.

Reassign Alfred's I'm Feeling Lucky (Google) hotkey to "L".

Now you can Opn+Space (whatever brings Alfred up), "l twitter gem github" or "l ebay tickle me elmo" and it brings you directly to the webpage.

It's also nice because it lets you type where you want to go instead of wasting brain cpu cycles remembering the URL. "l hacker news". "l rails guides". Or even "l ebay". "l github".

And you don't even need to have your browser open. Just do it from any other app. It's huge.

Out of curiosity, what's your miss rate, i.e. how many times is the first site not what you wanted?

Close to 0%.

You'd be surprised how accurate your google intuition is. But the main reason you don't miss is because you're using this Alfred shortcut to go somewhere specific. In other words, it's helpful for navigating (when you know you'd want the first result), not when you don't actually know where you want to end up.

Consider these:

    l wiki amphetamine
    l gwern nootropics
    l github turbolinks
    l soundcloud radiohead

They'd go where you'd expect and are good examples of when I elect to use this shortcut.

However, here are some bad usage examples because you're trying to navigate when you really want to search:

    l amazon piracetam 
    l buy piracetam

Buying the first Google result isn't how you shop. Instead, you'd `l amazon` to navigate and then search for "piracetam" on Amazon. Or you'd just `buy piracetam` and let it bring up the Google results. The first google result for `amazon piracetam` also happens to go to an Amazon 404.

edit: Not the best example considering Alfred ships with an Amazon shortcut (`amazon piracetam` actually launches an Amazon search), but I hope the point is still clear.

For gems I ended up building http://gemfinder.herokuapp.com purely so I could plug it into Alfred. 99 times out of 100 it ends up on a Github page for the gem in question.

Alternatively, if you like seeing the results page:

Bring alfred up -> type query -> start vimium link mode -> choose a result

It looks like this:

opt-space -> Riak ElasticSearch River -> f -> a

and it allows me to scan the results page, where I often need to hit the 3rd or 4th result.

I highly suggest picking up vimium if you use Chrome.

As a long time Alfred user, the workflow feature looks really astounding. Custom google searches were a huge boon to my productivity when developing (i can search APIs in a flash now).

If im reading this correctly, with intelligent workflows I can populate my Alfred results list with carefully curated search results.

This looks like the push I need to pony up and support andrew like i shouldve been doing all along.

Please share your tips to search through API

I love Alfred, so this looks like a really solid update. It doesn't seem to be too in your face so it's just a nice treat for power users.

I use Alfred every day, but maybe this is getting a little beyond the program's scope. Hope it doesn't increase memory usage much.

I love Alfred, so my main hope is for it to retain its simplicity and speed during this update (I don't see myself using this feature as I don't use any of the current advanced features either - other than the calculator).

I love Quicksilver. How is Alfred better?

Workflows also remind me of Apple's own Automator.

Quicksilver is probably more powerful, but Alfred (to me) seems much simpler and there's a lower barrier to entry.

Where with QS I had to "think" whenever I used it, Alfred's interface, in the parlance of apple, "just works".

Really? Quicksilver has always felt like a natural extension of my brain. Then again I've never tried Alfred, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

I switched recently and couldn't be happier. The bottom line is I find that Alfred is much faster. Other then that they're roughly equivalent.

I switched cause I found the interface to me much cleaner and easier to work with.

Alfred is simpler, and noticeably faster than a non-fine-tuned Quicksilver in my experience. And the little details are done better - e.g. punch in an equation and it'll show you the results as you enter them, and hit enter to copy the results. Small, but I use it often enough that I would miss it.

For anyone with a fine-tuned Quicksilver install, you're basically weighing the more advanced features (e.g. "find file -> open with -> find application" is a favorite of mine) against Alfred's "Power Pack" - it'll cost you $ and probably a bit of speed to switch to Alfred. Ultimately though, a highly customized Quicksilver install has basically no competitors.

I bought Alfred last week, it's incredible!

workflow opens a lot of possibilities!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com