Making Searching More Integrated
8th August 2006
Apart from an internet connection and a computer, what else do you need when you want to search for something online?
Yes! A browser.
It’s true that many people still seem to think that the little blue e (or the little compass, if you’re on a Mac) is the internet, but more savvy users like yourselves know that a browser is just another program and that it can easily be replaced.
Mozilla Firefox has become amazingly popular in the last couple of years, but for those of you who still don’t know about it, allow me to pimp it out a bit. There are many security and usability reasons why you might like Firefox better than other browsers, but I’ll stick to pointing out its integrated search features.
By default, Firefox comes with a search bar positioned to the right of the address bar:
Other browsers such as Opera have this, and it seems that IE7 will add this whenever it is actually released, but I prefer the way Firefox does things. You can enter your keywords, including any other search syntax, such as Google’s site: command, and the search results will be displayed in the browser.
The default search engine used will be Google, but you can easily change that by clicking on the G icon. You can also add other engines by clicking “Add Engines.” This takes you to the Mozilla Add-ons site from where you can add new inegrated search engines.
If you dislike using the search bar, or if you get rid of it because it takes too much space, you can enter your search directly into the address bar, which will do a Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” search. This can be changed to use something else since sometimes the results don’t seem all that lucky, but I’ll leave the details of that for another post.
If you want to use another search engine from the address bar, first go to the site and then right click in the entry area and select “Add a Keyword for this Search…”
The keyword search is saved as a bookmark. A dialog will open asking you for a name, the keyword that will activate the search and where you would like to save the bookmark. I recommend the Quick Searches folder which should already be in your bookmarks.
Now searching with Ask.com is as easy as entering “ask anything” into your address bar. One cool thing to remember is that if you hit ALT + Enter, your search will open in a new tab, which in case you didn’t know, is one of Firefox’s best features.
That’s pretty much all you need to know about searching in this browser. What are you waiting for? Go download and make your searching more efficient.
