Firefox magic: Kill your Search box

I know that 90 percent of Mozilla Firefox users who read this post will think I'm nuts. I can hear you now: "I love my Firefox search engines! How will I search Amazon?!"

Well, I love my search engines, too, but that silly Search box in the Firefox toolbar simply takes up too much room for my liking, especially because you can use all of the functionality of your favorite search engines directly from the Firefox location bar (also called the "address bar" by people like me). I'll show you how.

If you prefer an address bar that goes all the way to the right side of the interface, listen up. It's simple to use Firefox "Quick Searches" in the location bar to eliminate the need for the Search box entirely. By default, Firefox installs with four Quick Search links already in your bookmarks: Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, and Urban Dictionary.

Try it out. Type "wp pee-wee herman" into your regular address bar, hit Enter, and you'll be taken to a special search page on Wikipedia for "Pee-wee Herman" that will automatically direct you to the Wikipedia page for Paul Reubens, with no Search box necessary.

The real trick to killing your Search box is transforming all of your installed engines into Firefox Quick Searches. There are several ways to accomplish the feat, but I'll detail the two most common. After that, removing the actual Search box is a snap.

First method

Right-clicking in any Search box allows you to 'Add a keyword for this search...'

The first technique for changing all of your search engines into Quick Searches is the most reliable, but it takes a bit more effort than the second. Start out by visiting the Web site of the first search engine on your list. Let's use the ubiquitous Internet Movie Database Engine (IMDB) as an example.

On the IMDB home page, find the Search box, and use the drop-down menu next to it to set the type of search you want (titles, names, characters, or "all"). Then right-click in the empty search field and select "Add a keyword for this search" from the context menu. An "Add bookmark" dialog will appear. Name your Quick Search (e.g. "IMDB search") and select your keyword.

I prefer the shortest keywords possible that are easy enough to remember, so I use "im" for IMDB. Decide where you want to save your new search bookmark, and hit "OK."

From this point on, in order to search IMDB, you'll only need to type in "IM

" into your location bar. Give it a try.

Process all of your search engines in this same fashion, creating Quick Searches for each. When you're done, you can kiss that Search box good-bye.

Second method

The Bookmark Properties menu lets you add Quick Searches manually.

The second technique for converting search engines into Quick Searches accomplishes the same goal as the first, but it utilizes that pesky Search box while you've still got it around.

First, select Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks to open your bookmarks directory. Then go back to your open Firefox browser window. It's easiest to sit those two windows side by side.

Start with the first search engine in your Search box. For me, it's CNET Download.com. Type in "s" as your search term, and you'll be taken to this Download.com search result for "s." The URL in the address bar looks like this:

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=s

You see that "qt=s" in the URL? That's your search string. In order to change it to a quick search, all you need to do is change the search term to "%s". If you're searching for "s" already, all you have to do is add a percentage sign before it. The Quick Search URL will look like this:

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=%s

Copy that URL and go back to your Bookmarks window. Select any of the bookmarks in the Quick Searches folder, and hit "New Bookmark." In the ensuing dialog window, add the name of the search ("Download.com search"); the "Location," which is the URL above (http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tag=srch&qt=%s); the keyword you want to use (I chose "dl"); and any optional description. Then hit "OK." You've now got a new Quick Search for Download.com

Simply repeat the process for each engine in your Search box until you create a Quick Search for all of them

.

Removing the Firefox Search box

Once you don't need the Search box, it's simple to remove it.

Now here's the easiest part of the whole process. The Search box can be removed like any other element in your Firefox toolbar. Right-click on any open space in your toolbar, and select "Customize" from the context menu. A Customize Toolbar dialog will then appear.

Simply click on any part of Firefox's Search box (your mouse will transform into a hand icon when hovering over the Search box) and drag it into the Customize Toolbar window. Now you see it; now you don't!

If you've got anything like the default Firefox interface, your location bar will now expand all the way across the toolbar to the right edge of the browser. And if you ever get lost and confused without your Search box, you can always bring it back by opening the Customize Toolbar dialog and dragging the Search box anywhere you'd like on the toolbar.

Sample Quick Search bookmarks

If you're still not quite sure what I'm talking about, you can download this CNET Download.com Searches bookmarks file to view some examples. Once you've saved it locally, open Firefox, then go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks. From the Organize Bookmarks menu, select File -> Import, select "Import Bookmarks from File," and then browse to the "download_search_bookmarks.html" file you saved locally.

Now you'll have a new bookmarks folder named "CNET Download.com Searches" at the bottom of your bookmarks that includes these 20 Quick Searches listed here:

Amazon.com - Type "ama

" to search the shopping site Amazon.com.

Boing Boing - Type "bb

" to search the pop-culture blog Boing Boing.

CNET - Type "cnet

" to search all of CNET.com.

CNET Download.com - Type "dl

" to search CNET Download.com for software.

eBay - Type "eb

" to search the auction site eBay.

Flickr - Type "fl

" to search the photo-sharing site Flickr.

Google - Type "g

" to search Google Web search.

Google Images - Type "gi

" to search Google Images.

Google Maps - Type "gm

" to search Google Maps.

Google News - Type "gn

" to search Google News.

Google Product search - Type "gp

" to search Google Product search.

Internet Movie Database - Type "im

" to search all of the movie and TV site IMDB.

Last.fm - Type "lastfm

" to search the music-discovery site Last.fm.

CNET News.com - Type "news

" to search News.com.

SiteAdvisor - Type "sa

" to search the Web-site security service SiteAdvisor.

Thesaurus.com - Type "th

" to search for synonyms and antonyms on Thesaurus.com.

Urban Dictionary - Type "ud

" to search for slang terms or street meanings on Urban Dictionary.

Webware.com - Type "ww

" to search for Web-related software on Webware.com.

Wikipedia (English) - Type "wp

" to search the community encyclopedia Wikipedia (English version).

YouTube - Type "yt

" to search the video-sharing site YouTube.

Three useful Firefox 3 'awesome bar' hacks

1. Control how many listings you're getting. The default number of sites that show up on the Smart Location Bar, or "awesome bar," of the nwe Mozilla browser is 12. Changing that number works the same way as getting rid of the sites altogether.

Just type about:config into your address bar, hit the "okay" button when the security warning pops up, then paste browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the open box, and hit the Enter key.

Double-click the result, and it'll let you change that digit to whatever you want. One thing to note, though, is if you add more results, it won't make the list any longer than six at a time, so you'll still have to scroll.

2. Keep bookmarks off the address bar. You save a bunch of sites, but you don't want them showing up when you're typing, right? This extension will keep the church-and-state line of browsing history and bookmarks from being crossed ever again.

This probably isn't useful, if you only have a few bookmarks, but it can be very helpful if you've got a huge collection that requires you to scroll down the list to find the site you're looking for, effectively killing any time saving the bar was meant to do.

3. Keep certain sites from showing up altogether. Got a site you'd rather not have others see when they're using your machine? Unless you've got browser history turned off, and the site isn't bookmarked, you're generally out of luck.

There's currently not a way to keep specific sites from showing up or right-clicking to remove them from the list, which is why we have to recommend using Apple's safari it's "private browsing" feature. When toggled, it won't save any of your information, clicks, or cached data for anyone else to find.

If you don't feel like switching browsers that emulates the same thing, deleting only the bits of data from that session. Just don't be surprised if your significant other or kids ask why there's an eyeball in the corner of your screen.

Chat with your friends in Facebook without having to be on the page using a simple feature in Firefox.

So you've been having fun with Facebook's somewhat half-baked chat service for the last day now, but are you growing tired of having to first log-in, then pop-out the chat window? For those of you who want to chat without this two-step process, there's a nice little tweak discovered by Mozilla Links that lets you set Facebook chat to pop out in Firefox's side bar.

I'm not really a fan of sidebar driven applications (gDocsBar not included), but this implementation works out pretty well. It will load up your buddy list and work just like the pop-out version does--minus of course the actual pop-up.

I'm still waiting for Facebook to add away and invisible modes, and allow other chat applications, such as Pidgin, Meebo, and Trillian, to integrate it. In the meantime, this tweak makes it a little more bearable.

Firefox add-on puts Wolfram Alpha in your Google

If you've casually been using Wolfram Alpha, but don't want to give up your Google addiction reliance, there's hope for you yet. A new Firefox extension lets you keep using Google, while showing Wolfram Alpha results on the side of the page.

I've been using it all morning and it's a nice addition if you're a search enthusiast. Your Google results come in just as quickly as they usually do, while the Wolfram ones catch-up on the side. This makes it a good way to test some of the limitations of the new search engine, as it only covers so many topics. My favorite use for it is to pull up nutritional information for fast food and cast lists for movies. Both are activities that usually require going off the results page to find the information I was looking for, whereas Wolfram simply grabs and displays it in an orderly fashion.

The only drawback I've run into with this extension is that it can clip off the bottom of the Wolfram Alpha results unless you've got Google set to show 20 or more search results per page. On some of the longer entries this this means you're not seeing potentially important information. On the plus side, there's a quick link to redo the search in Wolfram Alpha, in a different browser tab.

Note: This extension is experimental, which means you need to be registered with Mozilla's add-ons directory to install it in your browser.

Firefox Add-Ons: Add Just About ANY Engine to Firefox Search Bar Quickly, Easily; Take Screen Caps Directly from Firefox Browser

What can we say, we love Firefox add-ons. This week, two add-ons (one essential favorite) and one add-on we just began using have received updated. Here’s the lowdown. Access and use of both add-ons is free.

1) The Essential Add to Search Bar (1.7) by Malte Kraus makes adding just about any search engine (even some library OPAC databases) to the Firefox Search Bar VERY EASY and VERY FAST. It’s something that can be mentioned at all classes about web browsers and search since no tech skills (except a few clicks) are needed to use it.

In our view, this is one of the most useful and important Firefox add-ons out there.

A) Download/Install the App
B) Go to the search engine you would like to add
C) Place cursor in search box, right click (CLICK #1) and select “Add to Search Bar” (CLICK #2)
D) Box Appears, with name and icon (both can be changed, up to you) (CLICK #3)
E) Now, the search tool should appear in your Firefox Search Bar.
F) So simple but still powerful and very useful.
See the operation in action by viewing this screencast.

Version 1.6 and 1.7 (just released) have added and improved a number of features including:

* all engines with /similar/ names can be added
* non-ASCII characters in parameters are encoded correctly
* HTTP Status Code 304 is successful as well
* corrected Spanish translation
* when an icon selected by the user is rejected, an error message appears that explains why
* engines with the same name can be added (or, in reality: spaces are added at the end)
* engineInfos.xul has IDs so it can have overlays

Btw, you might also find: Organize Search Engines by the same developer of value. We do!

Finally, a similar tool, to add engines to IE is available from MS. Look for the gold “Create Your Own” box.

2) We’ve been using Add to Search Bar for some time and we’re thrilled to see that it continues to be developed.

Recently, we began using another Firefox add-on that also updated this week. It’s named FireShot and integrates directly with Firefox.

It’s free to download and free to use.