Before I began using Firefox, I used a IE mod called Avant Browser. Avant was fantastic at the time, it added Tabbed browsing, themes, domain aliases and a little thing called quick searching. If if you are all familiar with Firefox, you are probably familiar with Quick Searching. In my opinion, it eliminates the Search box, which is by default, turned on, in Firefox…Screenshot:

Quick Searching allows you to use the address bar to search virtually any website that has search functionality and you know the proper code. If you look in your bookmarks, you will find a folder called “Quick Searches”. Your quick searches are NOT required to be in this directory however. You can save them anywhere within your Bookmarks. This is where you will find the most difficult part, defining the location. By default Firefox gives you Google, Dictionary.com and Wikipedia, amongst a few others.

The easiest way to modify or add a quick search is to go to Bookmarks>Manage Bookmarks. Once there either click “New Bookmark” or right click on an existing and select “Properties” to change an existing one.
Here is what you’ll see now:

The “Name” is what you will see displayed in your Bookmarks
The “Location” is query code. The %s is required at the end of the code.
The “Keyword” is what you’ll type in the address bar to initialize the search. I like to use one letter, but I don’t think there is a limit as to what you can type. Firefox has “Goog” as their default.

So, for example, if wanted to search for anything on the NFL, I’d type:

As long as there is a space between the “g” and your query, it will work. That’s basically the lowdown on Quick Searching. To help you out, I’ve decided to add some of my Quick Searching Locations for you to add yourself:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/103-4029541-0406217?platform=
gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=%s

Answers
http://www.answers.com/%s

BoxOfficeMojo
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/search/?q=%s

Digg
http://www.digg.com/search?area=all&age=all&sort=new&search-buried=1&s=%s

Download.com
http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=%s

Ebay
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2F
ws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=%s

Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%s

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/find?q=%s

NewEgg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=%s&Submit=
ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Pricegrabber
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search.php?form_keyword=%s

Weather
http://www.weather.com/weather/local/%s

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s

Share This | Posted: October 31st, 2006

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