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I'd like to use the Firefox search field at the top right to automatically navigate to a particular URL based on the value of the search string.

Example: If I type "Kangaroo" and hit enter I'd like to navigate to "http://example.org/?q=Kangaroo".

Is there a straightforward way to do this?

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3 Answers

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This should be easy : Define the URL as a bookmark, then go to its properties and add a keyword. You can then use this keyword as a shortcut to that URL.

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For more information, see for example : Keyword Bookmarks Catalogs Handy Firefox Keyword Strings.

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Thanks - this is the best solution I've found so far. I've set the bookmark to http://example.org/?q=%s, and it looks like %s is replaced by the string I type (for example I can type e Kangaroo). If I decide I want to set up a search box at the top right instead of typing this into the address bar, is it possible to have two search boxes (one for Google and another one next to it) in FF5? – Andrew Jul 28 '11 at 11:38
Multiple search boxes are mentioned as a FF feature request. There is a possible solution here, but it's quite old. – harrymc Jul 29 '11 at 4:43
@Andrew You can install Google Toolbar and get one Google search box from it. You'll have to Customize... the toolbars to move the box from the Google Toolbar to your address toolbar. Then you can hide the Google toolbar. Also, if you set Google as your default search engine and type more than one words (or any string that contains a space) the browser will launch a search as opposed to treating the words as URL. – billc.cn Jul 30 '11 at 23:04
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up vote 5 down vote

Did you know Firefox search bar supports keyword for each search engine ? For example : type g superuser in address bar you will get http://www.google.com/search?q=superuser&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Hope it helps.

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up vote 4 down vote

O'Reilly has detailed tutorial on creating a Firefox search plugin from scratch here http://oreilly.com/pub/h/3033.

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