Goosh (the unofficial Google shell) provides command line interface on the web for several Google services to keep the command line junkies happy.
Linux users who are comfortable with command line prompt, will love to surf the net from command line using Goosh.
Goosh allows you to quickly search Google web, images, news and Wikipedia search. The output is presented in a very nice readable command line environment.
For the impatient, go to Goosh prompt, and type “web {keyword}” at the prompt to search Google from the command line.
Once you like the basic output come back to this article and figure out how you can use Goosh effectively using the 15 examples given below.
1. Google web search from Command Line Prompt
Following is the syntax for the search.
Syntax: [web|search|s|w] keywords
Start the search using s followed by the keyword as shown below. This will gives you the top most 4 URL as result.
guest@goosh.org:/web> s the geek stuff
To get more search results do one of the following.
guest@goosh.org:/web> more
(or)
guest@goosh.org:/web> {Enter-Key}2. View Google Map from Command Line
Goosh command ‘place’ is used to do a google map search from the goosh prompt. Following is the syntax to do the search in google maps.
Syntax: place/places/map/p address
Fig: Locate Address in Google Map
Use wiki command to search the Wikipedia website as shown below. Following example will search for geek in wikipedia and return the output.
syntax: [wiki|wikipedia] keyword guest@goosh.org:/web> wiki geek
4. Open Website in Browser from Command Line
Following example will open http://www.thegeekstuff.com
syntax: go/g URL guest@goosh.org:/web> go www.thegeekstuff.com
5. Perform Calculations From Command Prompt
Use Calc for calculations as shown below.
Syntax: calculate/calc guest@goosh.org:/web> calculate 100+1 100+1 = 101 guest@goosh.org:/web> calculate 124/5 124/5 = 24.8
6. Search Google news from Command Prompt
Goosh command ‘news’ is to read news on your favourite topic from the goosh prompt. Following is the syntax for reading Google news.
The following example provides the latest news about Michael Jackson.
Syntax: news/n KEYWORD guest@goosh.org:/web> news michael jackson
7. Translate a word in Google Translate from Goosh Prompt
Goosh provides a command to translate a word from one language to another language.
Following example translates the word “Good Morning” from English to Spanish.
Syntax: translate/trans/t [lang1] [lang2] STRING guest@goosh.org:/web> translate en es good morning translating "good morning" from english to spanish: "buenos días" guest@goosh.org:/web>
8. I’m Feeling Lucky – Get the 1st Search Output Always from Command Line
Simulate the “I’m Feeling Lucky” Google button behavior from command line as shown below. The example below will open the 1st results for Paris Hilton automatically.
Syntax: lucky/l searchkeywords guest@goosh.org:/web> lucky paris hilton
9. More: Get more results, that is the next results set page.
Goosh command “more” gives next set of URLs for your last search which is very useful when you want to go beyond the next 4 results.
syntax: more/m guest@goosh.org:/web> more
10. Search Google Images From Command Prompt
Use Goosh command images as shown below.
Syntax: images/image/i searchword
The following example shows the 1st output of the image for search “taj mahal”
Fig: Google Image Search
11. Google blogs: Search in blogs using Google blog search.
Goosh command “blogs” in goosh is used to do search in blogs using google blogs search. This will display the list of blogs URL which matches the given keyword.
Syntax: blogs/blog/b blogsearchwords
12. Search YouTube Videos from Command Prompt
Goosh provides a way to do a google video search using command “video”. The following example shows how to search for Susan Boyle’s YouTube video
Syntax: video/v KEYWORDS guest@goosh.org:/web> video susan boyle
Fig: Search Youtube from Command Prompt
13. All available Goosh commands
Goosh command “ls” command is used to list out all the available goosh commands.
Syntax: ls guest@goosh.org:/web> ls web news more blogs read feeds place translate images video clear wiki help cd site open go lucky ls addengine load calculate settings gmail login logout
Help command gives more details about a specific goosh command as shown below.
ramesh.thegeekstuff@goosh.org:/web> help settings help: settings command aliases parameters function settings (set) [name] [value] edit settings examples: set lang de - sets language to german set lang - displays value of lang-setting settings - displays all settings settings reset - reset all settings to default values
14. View and Edit Goosh Settings
View the current Goosh settings as shown below.
guest@goosh.org:/web> settings name value default help lang en en google default language results 10 4 number of results for google-searches (1..100) timeout 4 4 timeout for ajax requests in seconds (1..100) style.bg #FFFFFF #FFFFFF goosh background color style.fg #000000 #000000 goosh font color style.hl #009900 #009900 goosh highlight color style.sh #666666 #666666 goosh 'shaded' color style.link #0000CC #0000CC goosh link color style.vlink #551a8b #551a8b goosh visited link color place.width 300 300 width of map image (20..600) place.height 150 150 height of map image (20..500)
To change the default number of results shown from 4 to 10 use the following command.
guest@goosh.org:/web> settings results 10 results is set to "10".
15. Access Gmail from Command Prompt
When you enter login command as shown below, it will forward you to Google accounts page to enter your authentication to login to Gmail.
Syntax: login guest@goosh.org:/web> login
Once you enter this command, it loads Gmail login page. You just enter your gmail account details (username and password) and hit enter which will log you into gmail.
If the provided credentials are correct, it provides you a Goosh prompt with your account name in it. This indicates that you’ve successfully logged in to gmail from command prompt.
ramesh.thegeekstuff@goosh.org:/web>
Goosh command “gmail” is for you to read and write in gmail. It provides you to access your gmail account in google shell itself. This is a mobile version of the gmail embedded for easy display.
Syntax: gmail ramesh.thegeekstuff@goosh.org:/web> gmail
