Power Up Searching with CyberSearch

Comments (1) · July 3, 2008 at 10:08 am · Firefox Settings, Firefox Usability

Is Firefox 3’s search functions not powerful enough for you?

If you’d like to power it up some, you need to pick up CyberSearch.  This extension allow you to perform various Google searches right from the address bar.  The fun doesn’t stop there.  It also displays the results in the awesome bar format along with your history.

You can do a number of special searches too, depending on the keywords that you use. You can do a Web Search, Local Search, Video Search, Blog Search, News Search, Book Search, Image Search, or Patent Search.

If you still need help wrapping your mind around this tool, be sure to check out the video tutorial on it they have put together for you.

Pick up this Firefox add-on on the Firefox Add-ons site or from CyberNet News.  Also big congrats to Ryan and Ashley for putting out such an awesome Firefox extension!  Great job!

Turning a Bookmark into a Search Tool

Comments (5) · September 3, 2007 at 5:00 am · Firefox Basics, Guest Authors

Bookmarks in Firefox have a very powerful feature that most people don’t know about. Let’s take a look at this:

1. Click on Bookmarks.
2. Right-click on any bookmark you have there.
3. Choose properties.

Now, third from the top, there is a text box called “Keyword”. Most likely, this is blank because by default it’s not used at all. Welcome to the wonderful world to keyword bookmarking. Let me show you how to use it.

Say for instance that you wanted to create a keyword bookmark for the search on firefoxfacts.com. Ok, lets go to that page. After using the Firefox Facts search using the words “test”, I come to the page:

http://www.firefoxfacts.com/index.php?s=test

If I bookmark it, it will look like any other bookmark.

Then, if I look at the properties of my newly created bookmark, I can make a few changes to it to transform it into a keyword bookmark:

1. Notice that the my search term “test” is in the address in the location field.
2. Replace that with the string “%s” to get http://www.firefoxfacts.com/index.php?s=%s.
3. Add a keyword to the keyword field. I chose “fxfacts” but anything will work. Use something short and you can remember.
4. Press OK.

Yay, now we have a keyword bookmark. This is how to use it:

1. Type the keyword of the bookmark in the address bar. (In my example “fxfacts”)
2. Type any search terms after that. (My example: “fxfacts bookmarks”)
3. Press the enter key.

Firefox will now take me to the Firefox Facts search for bookmarks just like that. Let’s see IE7 can do that!

Post by Samuel Brisby - Sam is currently a student majoring in computer science who loves and supports anything open-source especially the Firefox browser. Questions or comments can be sent to spamuel42 (at) gmail.com.

Keyword Inspiration

Comments off · April 23, 2007 at 7:13 am · Firefox Usability

Finding yourself short on words when it comes to describing that really cool Web page you just found via keywords?

Now usually one or two might do you, as far as keywords go. Every so often though, you just can’t think of any good ones to use. That is where the KGen extension for Firefox comes in.

KGen (Keyword Generator) is an extension that allows you to see what keywords are strong on visited web page. Than, you can retrieve them for social sharing (tag filling) or webmastering/SEO.

+ Download and Install the KGen Extension for Firefox!

Using Firefox for Job Hunting

Comments (1) · March 20, 2007 at 6:45 am · Firefox Usability

Now I am pretty happy with the several jobs that I have, but I know some other folks out there might not be as lucky as I am. I get to help people out 24/7 and I think that is a pretty cool job.

If I could have had a easier way of getting to where I am today - I would appreciate that as well.

I recently ran across a Firefox extension called Percula. What does it do? It helps you search Monster.com for jobs or employers depending on the keyword that you highlight on a Web page. Say you were looking at this page here and highlighted the word Firefox. After that all you would need to do is right click and you could search for jobs that have something to do with Firefox.

If you are looking for a new job or you find yourself using Monster.com a lot, this extension could save you a lot of time. It makes searching for a future workplace just a little ‘bit easier.

+ Download and Install the Percula Extension for Firefox!

Assign Keywords to Search Engines

Comments (2) · January 22, 2007 at 8:00 am · Firefox Usability

Now this extension does add a lot of functionality when it comes to searching. The SearchWords extension for Firefox allows you to assign keywords to your search engines inside of the browser.

Assign keywords to your search engines for quick and easy access to all of your search engines without using the search bar and without having to switch from your current search engine. To use, add keywords to your search engines via the search engine manager and then simply type ‘keyword searchterm’ into the address bar and search away!

This gives you another quick way to do your searches.

+ Download and Install the SearchWords Extension for Firefox!

SearchWP

Comments (1) · July 13, 2006 at 4:56 am · Firefox Usability

I hate it when I search for something, and then I have to scroll up and down to find what I was looking for once I get on a Web page that has it. For an example, say you were looking through a terms of service agreement for the word cancellation. Well with SearchWP, the words you searched for will provide menu buttons so you can find them a little faster.

[Learn More About SearchWP!]