Caitlin Woodward

How often do you find yourself going to google.com to do a search? Going to amazon.com to look for a product? Some suggest using the little search box in the top right of most browser, but personally that search box annoys me. Why not make use of the URL bar?

One of my favorite features of Firefox has always been the keyword search. This allows you to add a keyword to a certain search and perform search with that keyboard inside of the URL bar. Now, anytime I want to google something, I simply type in "gg whatever" in my URL bar. Say I want to look up a YouTube video, I then type in "yt video".

In early versions, it was complicated, but the newer versions build it right into the bookmarks and contextual menus. I will demonstrate this for a regular Google search, but this will work on most search fields.

Step 1: Add a keyword for this Search. Go to the search engine that you want to add a custom keyword for. Right click on a text input box for a search field. Select "Add a Keyword for this Search."

Step 2: Add the bookmark. In the keyword field, add a short keyword for your search. You can name it whatever you want and save the bookmark wherever you want. I like to store mine in Unsorted Bookmarks, that way I don't see it in my bookmarks menu. Also, for my google search, I just use "gg". I don't know why, but that's what my dad used when he taught me how to do this a long time ago.
 

Step 3: You're done! It's that simple. Now, to use it, just go to your URL bar and type in your keyword plus your search term.

I have these set up for all kinds of tools that I use. Google Image - (gi), Amazon (am), IMDB (imdb), Twitter Search (twit), YouTube (yt). The possibilities are endless.