5 ms·

I don't like going to the front page or even using the browser's search box. Better to type CTR-L to get to the address bar and then use a shortcut registered

by timf 17y ago

I don't like going to the front page or even using the browser's search box. Better to type CTR-L to get to the address bar and then use a shortcut registered "g". "g terms" and you are quickly at the results. alias "g" to "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s Putting this in the address bar also means you get incremental history of previous searches. If the term was long, you don't need to type it again. If you need to modify a recent search slightly, it's there as a template.

liquidben 17y ago
I like using smart bookmarks like this for specialty searches, e.g. only searching Wikipedia http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org But if I'm searching the entire internet, I just hit CTRL+K to jump to the search box. Beatcha by two keystrokes! :-p
- timf 17y ago
  Agreed. But like I said, you won't get the benefits of the history incremental search. Also, I maybe should have mentioned I have a lot of other one letter shortcuts like that so "g" fits rights in.
  - jerf 17y ago
    Actually, you do get history for your searches, and Google's autosuggest, in modern versions of Firefox. What you say used to be true, but from what I can see CTRL-K strictly dominates a bookmark keyword if you're starting from scratch. That said, if you've already got "CTRL-L g space" in your fingers, it's not so much better that you should switch.
    - unalone 17y ago
      You also get this in Safari. Incidentally, for Mac users it's incredibly trivial to set up a hotkey for the search box. I have it mapped to CMD-E, and it greatly eases my web flow.
    - timf 17y ago
      I'm on Firefox 3.5 and didn't see that behavior.
      - jerf 17y ago
        In about:config, do you have browser.search.suggest.enabled set to True? I have a firefox right here and it's working fine. (since that's probably obscure as the joke is old, that's a reference to the ancient copied at http://www.ahajokes.com/lig069.html http://www.ahajokes.com/lig069.html )
InclinedPlane 17y ago
Chrome just plain has this functionality nailed (I hate to sound like a chrome fanboy, but this is truth). There is only one box, it's a combo location/search box. Type in a url: you navigate to that url. Type in a search string: you navigate to the search (using google or whatever search provider you designate) for that string. I'm not sure if this is pre-release chrome 4.0 specific or not, but when you visit different sites (wikipedia, amazon, youtube, stackoverflow, etc.) the first time you perform a search on those sites they are automagically registered in your browser as available search engines. Then, to search those sites specifically direct from the address bar you simply start typing part of the site name/url, hit tab to autocomplete the search provider (much in the way the awesome bar works in firefox), type your search terms and hit the enter key. Thus, 'wiki+tab+napsack problem+enter' takes you to the wikipedia article on the napsack problem, and 'yout+tab+keyboard cat+enter' searches youtube for "keyboard cat" videos, and 'ama+tab+coders at work+enter' searches amazon for "coders at work". It's a very elegant, very practical design that I hope catches on.

by timf 17y ago

liquidben 17y ago

I like using smart bookmarks like this for specialty searches, e.g. only searching Wikipedia http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org But if I'm searching the entire internet, I just hit CTRL+K to jump to the search box. Beatcha by two keystrokes! :-p

timf 17y ago
Agreed. But like I said, you won't get the benefits of the history incremental search. Also, I maybe should have mentioned I have a lot of other one letter shortcuts like that so "g" fits rights in.
- jerf 17y ago
  Actually, you do get history for your searches, and Google's autosuggest, in modern versions of Firefox. What you say used to be true, but from what I can see CTRL-K strictly dominates a bookmark keyword if you're starting from scratch. That said, if you've already got "CTRL-L g space" in your fingers, it's not so much better that you should switch.
  - unalone 17y ago
    You also get this in Safari. Incidentally, for Mac users it's incredibly trivial to set up a hotkey for the search box. I have it mapped to CMD-E, and it greatly eases my web flow.
  - timf 17y ago
    I'm on Firefox 3.5 and didn't see that behavior.
    - jerf 17y ago
      In about:config, do you have browser.search.suggest.enabled set to True? I have a firefox right here and it's working fine. (since that's probably obscure as the joke is old, that's a reference to the ancient copied at http://www.ahajokes.com/lig069.html http://www.ahajokes.com/lig069.html )

InclinedPlane 17y ago

Chrome just plain has this functionality nailed (I hate to sound like a chrome fanboy, but this is truth). There is only one box, it's a combo location/search box. Type in a url: you navigate to that url. Type in a search string: you navigate to the search (using google or whatever search provider you designate) for that string. I'm not sure if this is pre-release chrome 4.0 specific or not, but when you visit different sites (wikipedia, amazon, youtube, stackoverflow, etc.) the first time you perform a search on those sites they are automagically registered in your browser as available search engines. Then, to search those sites specifically direct from the address bar you simply start typing part of the site name/url, hit tab to autocomplete the search provider (much in the way the awesome bar works in firefox), type your search terms and hit the enter key. Thus, 'wiki+tab+napsack problem+enter' takes you to the wikipedia article on the napsack problem, and 'yout+tab+keyboard cat+enter' searches youtube for "keyboard cat" videos, and 'ama+tab+coders at work+enter' searches amazon for "coders at work". It's a very elegant, very practical design that I hope catches on.