Patent ID: 8352513

Claim:
A method, comprising: displaying, using one or more processing units, a command button within a menu bar, wherein the command button is available to a plurality of applications on a system; receiving, using the one or more processing units, input activating the command button, wherein the input causes a text entry region to be displayed; receiving, using the one or more processing units, an input into the text entry region, wherein the input corresponds to a search request; processing, using the one or more processing units, the search request as the input is received by searching indexed content and metadata; generating, using the one or more processing units, a set of search results, wherein the set of search results is categorized into a plurality of categories, wherein the set of search results is abbreviated to include a select number of the most relevant matches to the search request, and wherein the set of search results includes one or more applications; displaying, using the one or more processing units, the set of search results in a search result region, wherein the displayed set of search results includes a show all command, and wherein activating the show all command causes a full set of search results to be displayed in a separate window; and receiving, using the one or more processing units, a selection of an application, wherein the selection causes the application to be launched from the search result region.