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0 pointsquaunaut11y ago0 comments

Honestly, my issue with Firefox all comes back to the Omnibar: I just like how Google does it better. And the only Firefox plugin I've seen that gets similar to that behavior, is slower at every step of the way. Also, having to manually add every search engine is a hassle even if you are willing to put up with the extra steps that plugin asks.

I really like Google, but I want to support open source(and am not quite willing to put up with Chromium). But for me, core usability is still king, and nothing really touches Chrome for that.

0 comments

CarlHoerberg11y ago

That's fixed in 33: http://msujaws.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/faster-and-snappier-...

quaunautOP11y ago

That doesn't really fix what I like most.

I like being able to hit a, see Amazon.com hilighted, hit tab, and have that be searching Amazon.

Or to do the same thing with GMail, Wikipedia, Youtube. It's the core functionality I like most with Chrome.

cpeterso11y ago

How do I enable the Omnibar search behavior you describe? When I enter "a" in the Omnibar, I see amazon.com in the Omnibar drop down list, but when I hit tab, Chrome just highlights the next item in the drop down list. It doesn't search Amazon. Have you manually added Amazon to Chrome's "Manage search engines" list?

Firefox has something similar: "Keyword Searches" bookmarks. I define my own search shortcuts, such as "am" for Amazon, "imdb" for IMDB, "nf" for Netflix, and "w" for Wikipedia. Using "am Harry Potter" or imdb or nf or w will use those respective website's own search forms to find "Harry Potter".

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address...

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_keyword_searches

2 more replies

wldcordeiro11y ago

You can do that in Firefox and with more granular control. If you right click in a search box you can choose to "Add a keyword for this search" and then you can make the keyword whatever you choose.

For example: I have a folder in my bookmarks containing like Youtube which is this url https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&oq=&gs_l= associated with the keyword "yt" so I can type yt <search term> and it loads the Youtube results. I've also added one for the Mozilla Developer Network (mdn <search term>), Python Documentation (py2 <term> or py3 <term>) and I add others as I use them more.

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PetitPrince11y ago

My solution to this issue is to use DuckDuckGo along with their bang commands [1]. So if you were to look for a replacement Wacom stylus on amazon, you would input "!a wacom stylus".

DDG bangs works with all large website or search engine (!g for google, !w for wikipedia), and with smaller, specialized one as well (I can look up words definition in the Trésors de la Langue Française Informatisé with !tlfi , and a particular protein in the Protein DataBase with !pdb).

If you use the official extension[2], you also get search suggestion out of the search box

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...

MichaelGG11y ago

I agree, this is the single most lacking feature in Firefox. That said, I gladly sacrifice it to get a bit less under Google's control.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

CarlHoerberg11y ago

That's fixed in 33: http://msujaws.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/faster-and-snappier-...

quaunautOP11y ago

That doesn't really fix what I like most.

I like being able to hit a, see Amazon.com hilighted, hit tab, and have that be searching Amazon.

Or to do the same thing with GMail, Wikipedia, Youtube. It's the core functionality I like most with Chrome.

cpeterso11y ago

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address...

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_keyword_searches

2 more replies

wldcordeiro11y ago

You can do that in Firefox and with more granular control. If you right click in a search box you can choose to "Add a keyword for this search" and then you can make the keyword whatever you choose.

2 more replies

PetitPrince11y ago

My solution to this issue is to use DuckDuckGo along with their bang commands [1]. So if you were to look for a replacement Wacom stylus on amazon, you would input "!a wacom stylus".

If you use the official extension[2], you also get search suggestion out of the search box

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/duckduckgo-fo...

MichaelGG11y ago

I agree, this is the single most lacking feature in Firefox. That said, I gladly sacrifice it to get a bit less under Google's control.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse