Manually add search engines to firefox for use with Omnibar?
One extension I really enjoyed with Chrome was QuickMarks, which allowed you to type 'b ' in the omnibox to search and open bookmarks. I found you can use the '*' key in firefox but it doesn't work as efficiently as it doesn't bring it up for you, you have to tab through suggestions.
I use omnibar and like the way you can use multiple search engines with keywords at the beginning. Like 'g <search>' to search google for <search>. Is there a way to add manual search engines to this list? And better yet, is there any way to add bookmarks as a search engine? That way I could set the keyword to b, type 'b mo' <ENTER> and it would open up a Mozilla bookmark.
All Replies (4)
I don't use the Omnibar extension, so I don't know how it integrates with the native Firefox features. I'll just talk about the native features, and if you try them, please report back on whether they help.
You can assign a letter to a particular search engine plugin using the Manage Search Engines dialog (at the bottom of the drop-down on the native search bar). Select the engine and click Edit Keyword to create or modify the keyword.
For bookmarks, you can switch * to b using the about:config preferences editor.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box that appears above the list, type or paste urlbar and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark preference and change * to b then click OK. You can test immediately.
Regarding a quicker way to load a particular bookmark, you can assign it a keyword (e.g., dil for www.dilbert.com), but this would be on a one-by-one basis, so probably only practical for those you use frequently. To add a keyword, you need the full properties dialog (right-click the bookmark in the menu or sidebar or Library); the drop-down from the address bar star icon doesn't show this field.
Ilungisiwe ngu jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
You can change your search engine in Search bar - add, change and manage search engines on Firefox or create a custom search engine addon for firefox here Mycroftproject.com
@jscher2000:
Thank you. I had set the browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark to 'b' but my main concern was having to tab through the suggestions rather than it just loading it up for me when I hit enter.
I did not realize the bookmarks had keywords, that is definitely useful for my most common used bookmarks, but the one downside is I'd have to type the exact keyword to open it. Quickmarks was great because it would open the top search result for bookmarks.
I think it would be very useful to have a Search Engine option available for local bookmarks. Is there a URL for accessing, or even searching, local bookmarks? Something like about:bookmarks?
@Nellus91
Thank you. I have used mycroftproject for adding quite a few sites to my search engine list.
There probably is a way to open bookmarks in a tab, perhaps using the internal address of the Bookmarks Sidebar. But when I experiment with searches in the sidebar (Ctrl+b) or Library dialog (Ctrl+Shift+b) the order of the results is... I have no idea what order that is. So it doesn't strike me as more useful than the address bar in getting to the right result quickly.