Comments | voyager42: Nifty opera trick

voyager42

Nifty opera trick

Mar 01, 2007 14:38

The way Opera lets you abbreviate searches in the address bar has always been one of my favourite features. For example, if I want to do a Google search on "particles" I can type "g particles" in the address bar (where the URL goes). Opera comes with a number of pre-defined abbreviations for various search engines. Recently, they've introduced a ( Read more... )

Comments 4

jerith March 1 2007, 13:25:18 UTC

Firefox has a similar feature, called "quick searches" that can be found in the bookmark management dialog. They're fairly basic in that you essentially just provide a "shortcut" string (defaults to "google" for Google, but I shorten that to "g") and a URL with a %s where the search terms go. Google's is "http://www.google.com/search?q=%s". I also added a code search version, summoned by "gc " that points at "http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=%s".

That is the default voyager42 March 1 2007, 13:29:19 UTC

What you describe is how Opera has always done it. I didn't mention it, but in addition to the pre-defined abbreviations, you can add your own "search engine". Now it is much simpler.

Re: That is the default jerith March 1 2007, 13:35:56 UTC

*nod*

I never looked into how Opera's was implemented, I just used it. Mostly, however, I was pointing out that Firefox does have a similar (if somewhat more primitive) feature. I expect an extension that adds the functionality you described to hit the interweb Real Soon Now...

"I'm Feeling Foxie" anonymous March 5 2007, 07:10:47 UTC

If you type a string of length 2 or more in Firefox's address bar, Firefox searches Google and directs you to the first returned website's page, similiar to Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky". Quiet nifty if you want to 'ask' the Internet a question...

Such as the other day when I didn't know how long I must boil an egg for. I simply typed "how long to boil egg" in the address bar and whala... 3-5 for soft to medium and 10-12 or hard boiled. ALL HAIL TO THE INTERNET!

Sorry Johan, not trying to start a FF vs. Opera flame-war here - FYI. I found 10-12 minutes to be a little too much and reckon 7-8 minutes is just about right when creating those delicious hard-boiled eggs, perfect for summer cold lunches at the Botanical Gardens... hmmmmmm :)

Cheers, al.