Scott Granneman

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Mozilla Keywords and Bookmarks

The Mozilla Web browser (available at http://www.mozilla.org) is already a fabulous browser with a lot to offer users, but I've got an even better reason to use it: customized keywords tied to bookmarks. And when those bookmarks come from search engines, you've got an even more powerful tool.

Imagine this: you want to search Google for all Web pages about Alan Moore's Watchmen. Instead of going to Google's Web site, you just type this into your Web browser's address bar —google alan moore watchmen— and hit Enter on your keyboard. The next thing you know, you're at Google's Web site looking at a list of Web pages relevant to your search. Pretty neat, huh? Well, it's easier than you might think. Just follow the steps below.

1. Go to the Bookmarks menu & choose Manage Bookmarks…

2. In the Bookmarks window, go to the File menu & choose New Folder. Call it Search. Position it in your bookmark hierarchy where you'd like it.

3. Click once on the Search folder so that it's chosen. Now go up to the File menu & choose New Bookmark.

4. In the Add Bookmark window, give your new bookmark a Name of All Music& a Location of http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&opt1=1&sql=%s. Then click OK.

5. Now, right click on the bookmark you just created and choose Properties. For Keyword, enter allm. Then click OK. Close the Bookmarks window by clicking the X in the top right corner or by going to the File menu and choosing Close.

6. Now for the big test! In the address bar of your Mozilla Web browser, enter the following, without the quotation marks: "allm beatles". You should end up at the All Music Web site with search results for the Beatles. Now try this, again without the quotation marks: "allm radiohead". You'll end up at the AllMusic Web page for Radiohead. Since there's only one search result at All Music for Radiohead, you go directly to the specific Web page; since there's several results when you search for the Beatles, you end up at a search results page. It's just a particular quirk of All Music. Here's another. Try this in your Web browser's address bar: "allm rollingstones". You'll end up at a search results page for the Rolling Stones. Notice that we left out the space between "rolling" and "stones". If we had entered this—"allm rolling stones"—we would have gotten bad results. It's another quirk of All Music that spaces cause problems. The larger point here is that you'll need to experiment with your various Keywords after you've created them.

What were we doing above? The key magic occurs in step 4 above. See the "%s"? That is a variable, and that variable is replaced by the term(s) that we search for in step 6. So when we type "allm radiohead", "allm" is replaced by http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&opt1=1&sql=%s and the "%s" in the URL is replaced by "radiohead". That means you can probably use any URL from a site that offers search.

Here's an example from this site. I provide a search engine here at granneman.com. Go down to the search box at the bottom of this page and enter "Mozilla". Look at the URL you get on the search results page: /find/results.htm?cx=003524329036053746080%3Ahif5p086wse&cof=FORID%3A9&q=mozilla&sa=Search. Notice the "mozilla", the term that we were searching for? If we created a bookmark & replaced "mozilla" in the URL with "%s" & then gave it a Keyword, you could search my Web site using a special keyword at any time.

Here are some bookmarks and keywords that you can use. Many of them are for Web Developers, but several are for general searching tools. For each item, I've provided you with a suggested keyword, the URL you should use in your bookmark, and an example of how you would use the finished keyword. Have fun!

Several of these tips & information came from these Web sites:

WebSanity Top Secret