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Nicholas Saunders
Asked: 2022-06-11 22:13:44 +0800 CST

How to add keyword search shortcuts with Firefox?

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How are "word" or similar shortcuts assigned to search engines in Firefox to search specific search engines?

Concretely, it's entirely possible to use @wikipedia to search Wikipedia from the Firefox address bar. It's easy enough to add "wikipedia" as well.

As here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_keyword_searches

are only some websites supported?

Where are these key words viewable in settings or other configuration files to edit directly? The above kb article says to use a bookmark which is confusing. Wouldn't there be a list of keyword shortcuts for search?

see also:

https://superuser.com/q/850883/977796

However, it doesn't seem possible to directly add arbitrary search engines through the settings option. Specific search engines can be added, but only some. Not all search engines are listed.

firefox

1 Answers

  1. Adding a keyword search happens by right-clicking the input field of a search engine and selecting "Add a keyword for this search". For example, you could add "g: %s" to be able to search Google with "g: askubuntu".

    This is an ordinary bookmark. However, you will not find it in the Bookmark library under "g:". That is because "g:" is not the name of the bookmark, but a keyword of the bookmark. In the Bookmark Library, you only find the Bookmarks by name. So the trick is to remember the name of the bookmark: one is automatically suggested when you create the bookmark. In case of creating this keyword search for Google, the bookmark name was "Search Google".

    Indeed, you can create the same bookmark by bookmarking the site by clicking the star in the search field of the top bar. Then open it in the Library. Next to the Tags field, there is a "Keyword" field where you can fill "g: %s".

    It would even work if you fill "g: %s" in the tag field. However, a bookmark can have only a single keyword, and if a kayword of one bookmark matches the same tag in another, the bookmark with the keyword will be selected by default when you type the string in the search field.

    I hope this will provide some more insight in how this works. It is not that obvious indeed.

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