6 ms·

This is an offshoot discussion and I have nothing against DDG or bang commands -- just presenting another side of convenient searches. > I know Firefox had ins

This is an offshoot discussion and I have nothing against DDG or bang commands -- just presenting another side of convenient searches. > I know Firefox had install-your-own search plugins forever, but the total lack of friction of typing “!yt badgerbadgerbadger” to get specifically YouTube results was fantastic. I find "use your own search" to be much less friction than going through DDG since it takes me right to results from the custom search, rather than having to redirect through DDG before going to the results. (Edited to add the following) I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't make me a little paranoid to think of EVERY search I do going through one provider regardless of their current privacy stance. I've used them since 2002ish in Opera, continued using them in Chrome, and now I use them in Firefox. AFAIK you don't even need "install-your-own search plugins" -- just right-click on the search box on the site you want to search, and add keyword. For example, I have "aj" for Amazon Japan and "au" for Amazon US, so I can just hit cmd-t for a new tab and type "au pretzels" directly in the address bar. This has the advantage of letting you define your own, too.

grimgrin 7y ago
There's a thing I wish FF had that Chrome has had for a long, long time (an older comment of mine): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20056174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20056174 re: ease of searching within sites and building that availability (of sites) up
- pottertheotter 7y ago
  I switched back to FF from Chrome a year ago and that's one of the things I miss the most. I really like FF and will continue to support them, but there were so many little conveniences Chrome got right that FF seems to completely ignore.
  - rekoil 7y ago
    Yep, the simplicity of Chromes keyword-based search feature is so good, I have several setup which aren't even really searches at all, such as translate from detected language to English (tren Some sentence in other language). You can of course do this in Firefox as well, but in Chrome -besides Chrome most of the time just adding them automatically- there's a simple preference pane where I can easily configure the three important parts; keyword, pretty title, and search URL with %s as the search token. I wish Firefox would add this, it's a big holdover for me.
- paulintrognon 7y ago
  I don't understand the behavior your are talking about. I tried in Google Chrome and could not figure it out. In Chrome's address bar, you type the name of a site (say reddit.com), then tab, then some keywords, and that does a google search for your keywords inside reddit.com?
  - silverwings 7y ago
    On chrome://settings/searchEngines you can see all the search engines and their search queries listed. In the keyword column, you can also see the associated keyword. This means if you wanted to search in npmjs.com, then type npmjs.com and then a space in the omnibar. Ofcourse, if you wanted to make it shorter, you can edit the keyword in the same page to say `npm`, then you can search by using npm followed by a space or tab
    - cja 7y ago
      I've used that in Firebird/Firefox for over ten years. If I remember correctly it's configured by adding a keyword to a bookmark and adding a placeholder within the bookmark URI.
  - kandeel4411 7y ago
    google had this capability for a long time, if you want to search for a result in a specific site, you need to type in the search site:www.reddit.com. i.e: " some error site:www.stackoverflow.com"
mlang23 7y ago
Wow, thanks for sharing. I didn't knew about the add your own keyword functionality. Pretty nice!
tripzilch 7y ago
The advantage to me is that I sometimes use a new browser and lose these settings. Also for defining my own, I seriously haven't found a search that isn't already in DDG. Maybe back in the old days when you wanted a search box from a specific forum (though the site: operator usually works better imvho). I was totally with you on Opera in 2002, however :) All the way until they dumped their own engine and lost many of their unique features. It was still kinda fun to use last time I installed it though. But it also feels just like Chromium with some stuff tacked on.
jncraton 7y ago
Exactly. I like to do this for both speed and privacy. You can even use DDG bangs as your keywords. I do this for the bangs that I use most frequently (e.g. !w) for both reduced latency and increased privacy. This means I keep the muscle memory for using bangs on other folks machines, but I still get improved privacy and speed on devices that have my bookmarks synced.
coryfklein 7y ago
Wait if I browse Amazon Japan will I find like, different and better things?
- angott 7y ago
  Maybe yes. But also way more expensive shipping :-)
- sdrothrock 7y ago
  Different things, definitely. Better? Depends on what you need! I use Amazon Japan because I live here, though.

grimgrin 7y ago

There's a thing I wish FF had that Chrome has had for a long, long time (an older comment of mine): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20056174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20056174 re: ease of searching within sites and building that availability (of sites) up

pottertheotter 7y ago
I switched back to FF from Chrome a year ago and that's one of the things I miss the most. I really like FF and will continue to support them, but there were so many little conveniences Chrome got right that FF seems to completely ignore.
- rekoil 7y ago
  Yep, the simplicity of Chromes keyword-based search feature is so good, I have several setup which aren't even really searches at all, such as translate from detected language to English (tren Some sentence in other language). You can of course do this in Firefox as well, but in Chrome -besides Chrome most of the time just adding them automatically- there's a simple preference pane where I can easily configure the three important parts; keyword, pretty title, and search URL with %s as the search token. I wish Firefox would add this, it's a big holdover for me.
paulintrognon 7y ago
I don't understand the behavior your are talking about. I tried in Google Chrome and could not figure it out. In Chrome's address bar, you type the name of a site (say reddit.com), then tab, then some keywords, and that does a google search for your keywords inside reddit.com?
- silverwings 7y ago
  On chrome://settings/searchEngines you can see all the search engines and their search queries listed. In the keyword column, you can also see the associated keyword. This means if you wanted to search in npmjs.com, then type npmjs.com and then a space in the omnibar. Ofcourse, if you wanted to make it shorter, you can edit the keyword in the same page to say `npm`, then you can search by using npm followed by a space or tab
  - cja 7y ago
    I've used that in Firebird/Firefox for over ten years. If I remember correctly it's configured by adding a keyword to a bookmark and adding a placeholder within the bookmark URI.
- kandeel4411 7y ago
  google had this capability for a long time, if you want to search for a result in a specific site, you need to type in the search site:www.reddit.com. i.e: " some error site:www.stackoverflow.com"

mlang23 7y ago

Wow, thanks for sharing. I didn't knew about the add your own keyword functionality. Pretty nice!

tripzilch 7y ago

The advantage to me is that I sometimes use a new browser and lose these settings. Also for defining my own, I seriously haven't found a search that isn't already in DDG. Maybe back in the old days when you wanted a search box from a specific forum (though the site: operator usually works better imvho). I was totally with you on Opera in 2002, however :) All the way until they dumped their own engine and lost many of their unique features. It was still kinda fun to use last time I installed it though. But it also feels just like Chromium with some stuff tacked on.

jncraton 7y ago

Exactly. I like to do this for both speed and privacy. You can even use DDG bangs as your keywords. I do this for the bangs that I use most frequently (e.g. !w) for both reduced latency and increased privacy. This means I keep the muscle memory for using bangs on other folks machines, but I still get improved privacy and speed on devices that have my bookmarks synced.

coryfklein 7y ago

Wait if I browse Amazon Japan will I find like, different and better things?

angott 7y ago
Maybe yes. But also way more expensive shipping :-)
sdrothrock 7y ago
Different things, definitely. Better? Depends on what you need! I use Amazon Japan because I live here, though.