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I'll share a tip for Alfred that makes me faster on the computer: Think of all those times you google something just to click the first link. "twitter gem gith

by danneu 14y ago

I'll share a tip for Alfred that makes me faster on the computer: Think of all those times you google something just to click the first link. "twitter gem github", "ebay tickle me elmo", whatever. Reassign Alfred's I'm Feeling Lucky (Google) hotkey to "L". Now you can Opn+Space (whatever brings Alfred up), "l twitter gem github" or "l ebay tickle me elmo" and it brings you directly to the webpage. It's also nice because it lets you type where you want to go instead of wasting brain cpu cycles remembering the URL. "l hacker news". "l rails guides". Or even "l ebay". "l github". And you don't even need to have your browser open. Just do it from any other app. It's huge.

adamnemecek 14y ago
Out of curiosity, what's your miss rate, i.e. how many times is the first site not what you wanted?
- danneu 14y ago
  Close to 0%. You'd be surprised how accurate your google intuition is. But the main reason you don't miss is because you're using this Alfred shortcut to go somewhere specific. In other words, it's helpful for navigating (when you know you'd want the first result), not when you don't actually know where you want to end up. Consider these: l wiki amphetamine l gwern nootropics l github turbolinks l soundcloud radiohead They'd go where you'd expect and are good examples of when I elect to use this shortcut. However, here are some bad usage examples because you're trying to navigate when you really want to search: l amazon piracetam l buy piracetam Buying the first Google result isn't how you shop. Instead, you'd `l amazon` to navigate and then search for "piracetam" on Amazon. Or you'd just `buy piracetam` and let it bring up the Google results. The first google result for `amazon piracetam` also happens to go to an Amazon 404. edit: Not the best example considering Alfred ships with an Amazon shortcut (`amazon piracetam` actually launches an Amazon search), but I hope the point is still clear.
neilmiddleton 14y ago
For gems I ended up building http://gemfinder.herokuapp.com http://gemfinder.herokuapp.com purely so I could plug it into Alfred. 99 times out of 100 it ends up on a Github page for the gem in question.
biscarch 14y ago
Alternatively, if you like seeing the results page: Bring alfred up -> type query -> start vimium link mode -> choose a result It looks like this: opt-space -> Riak ElasticSearch River -> f -> a and it allows me to scan the results page, where I often need to hit the 3rd or 4th result. I highly suggest picking up vimium if you use Chrome.

by danneu 14y ago

adamnemecek 14y ago

Out of curiosity, what's your miss rate, i.e. how many times is the first site not what you wanted?

danneu 14y ago
Close to 0%. You'd be surprised how accurate your google intuition is. But the main reason you don't miss is because you're using this Alfred shortcut to go somewhere specific. In other words, it's helpful for navigating (when you know you'd want the first result), not when you don't actually know where you want to end up. Consider these: l wiki amphetamine l gwern nootropics l github turbolinks l soundcloud radiohead They'd go where you'd expect and are good examples of when I elect to use this shortcut. However, here are some bad usage examples because you're trying to navigate when you really want to search: l amazon piracetam l buy piracetam Buying the first Google result isn't how you shop. Instead, you'd `l amazon` to navigate and then search for "piracetam" on Amazon. Or you'd just `buy piracetam` and let it bring up the Google results. The first google result for `amazon piracetam` also happens to go to an Amazon 404. edit: Not the best example considering Alfred ships with an Amazon shortcut (`amazon piracetam` actually launches an Amazon search), but I hope the point is still clear.

neilmiddleton 14y ago

For gems I ended up building http://gemfinder.herokuapp.com http://gemfinder.herokuapp.com purely so I could plug it into Alfred. 99 times out of 100 it ends up on a Github page for the gem in question.

biscarch 14y ago

Alternatively, if you like seeing the results page: Bring alfred up -> type query -> start vimium link mode -> choose a result It looks like this: opt-space -> Riak ElasticSearch River -> f -> a and it allows me to scan the results page, where I often need to hit the 3rd or 4th result. I highly suggest picking up vimium if you use Chrome.