Firefox Quick Searches and Keywords

I may be the last one to join the party, but I doubt it. I just learned how to use keywords in bookmarks for Firefox. If you have a bookmark with a keyword, you are taken to that bookmark upon typing the keyword in the address bar. For example, I use an online Thesaurus and Dictionary quite often when writing a post. This helps me spell words correctly and it broadens my word range. Using the keyword feature, all I have to do to look up a word is type ‘dict john’ or ‘thes john’ in the address bar and it takes me right to the page.

An Example

To see what I am talking about in action, simply right click on one of your bookmarks and then click on properties. Add a keyword for the bookmark in the keyword field. Save the bookmark by clicking ok. Now type the keyword in your address bar. How sweet is that? Immediately you are taken to the website without having to type the entire location.

Quick Searches

The great thing is you can also use this for quick searches and such. I created a quick search for the online thesaurus by adding a bookmark named Thesaurus Quick Search with a keyword of ‘thes.’ I then set the location to http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=%s. %s is formatting code for a string of text in many programming languages. Basically, this means that %s will be converted to whatever term you type after the keyword in the address bar. This means that now when I type ‘thes john’ in the address bar it takes me to http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=john.

I know this isn’t rocket science but if I never knew of this. I am also sure there are other features like this built into Firefox. If you know of any others, let me know in the comments or by other means.

For the Notre Dame readers out there, here are a couple of hints for searching ND.edu and the directories. Just right click and copy the link location.

• Name: ND Search
  Location: location
  Keyword: nd
  Description: Type “nd ” to search Notre Dame’s website.
• Name: ND Directory Search
  Location: location
  Keyword: nddir
  Description: Type “nddir ” in the address bar to search ND’s directory.