You can use the address bar in Firefox to search the web using your favorite search engine without having to go to the search engine’s website. There is a setting in Firefox that allows you to do this. For our example, we set the address bar to search on Google.
By default, when you enter keywords in the address bar or make a typo when entering a URL in the address bar, the best matching website will be be shown immediately on the active tab.
To change this setting, enter about:config in the Firefox address bar and press Enter.
A message about voiding the warranty displays. If you don’t want to see this message again when you enter about:config, select the Show this warning next time check box such that there is no check mark in the box.
Click the I’ll be carful, I promise! button.
In the Filter edit box, enter keyword.URL. The matching results automatically display.
To edit the value for the keyword.URL setting, double-click the text in the Value column.
To perform a search in Google using the address bar, enter the following into the edit box on the Enter string value dialog box.
You can use the same procedure and tweak the Firefox address bar to search for a keyword on a different search engine instead. To use a different search engine other than Google, enter one of the following search statements, depending on which one you prefer. If you find other search engine URLs to enter for the keyword.URL value, let us know.
- Google Search (I’m Feeling Lucky which Automatically Goes To First Result): http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=
- Yahoo!: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=
- Windows Live Search: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?fulltext=Search&search=
- Wikipedia (GO option Similar to Google I’m Feeling Lucky): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?go=Go&search=
- Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/search/
- Scroogle: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=
- Bing: http://bing.com/results.aspx?q=
Type anything in the Firefox address bar and press Enter to perform your search.
Your search results display in the active tab.
To revert to the default behavior for the address bar, enter the following text as the Value for the keyword.URL setting:
about:neterror?e=query&u=
After you change the keyword.URL to your favorite search engine, when you enter a correct URL, the address bar will still take you to the website. If you make a typo when entering a URL, you get a Server not found error. Changing the address bar to act as a search box can speed up and simplify your web activities.
by Lori Kaufman
So I'm to do this, when I already have a google search space, by default, in my Firefox address bar, or I can customize that same search space to check out any engine I want, just by using the drop-down list available in that space, easily adding a new one if I wish, all without going to any site's home page, all in less time than it took to read the first paragraph here, because….?
From my experience, this does not work if the DNS server you are using has redirect. This is true for OpenDNS and Time Warner Cable's Road Runner service. Because of this, I use the Omnisearch extension to provide this capability.
Or just install Cybersearch extension that will do the same thing and save yourself some time.
No need for such tweak…just install Fasterfox addin….its only one of its features…. and you will enjoy firefox more than ever.
Go to google.com, right-click the actual search box there, choose "Add a keyword for this search", choose the keyword you want (I use "g"). Done.
You can now go to the address bar and type: "g who let the dog out" to do a google search for "who let the dog out". No need for an extension…
No need to go to all of this trouble. All you have to do is download and install the CyberSearch add-on. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now and it works great. You can tweak it till it just about jumps through hoops, too.
There is a less geeky way to achieve this too which I am sure you must be aware or must have already published. You just need to head to any website and right click inside its search box. An option to ‘Add a keyword for this search’ will be presented. You enter that and going forward you can search on that same website from your address bar using the keyword followed by the string.
e.g. Go to http://www.imdb.com, right click their search box and add ‘imdb’ as a keyword for the search. Once done, type ‘imdb The Matrix’ in the address bar and you are good to go.
The keyword searches are stored under the Quick Searches section of your bookmarks.