Maybe folks here already know about this, but I found it quite
interesting. I haven't figured out if you could do this in Internet
Explorer yet, but I've been experimenting with keyword browsing in
FireFox.
You can create a keyword for a web site, then instead of either typing the
URL into the address bar, or searching through your book marks, you just
type the keyword into the address bar.
More importantly, you can adjust the URL in the book mark and add a
variable into it. Let me give an example.
I use www.ninjawords.com because I can't spell to save my life, and
sometimes the spell checker doesn't even know what I am talking about.
NinjaWords seems pretty good at figuring out what I meant to spell, and it
is simply a really fast front-end to wiktionary.
Anyway, I can set up a keyword, n, with a URL of www.ninjawords.com/%s
Then I I can open FireFox, type:
n sprocket
And it immediately brings me to the definition page for sprocket. Saves
me the time of going to the web page, then typing sprocket into the search
field and hitting enter.
You can set up keywords for all kinds of sites that take inputs, like
google maps, or google calendar. So, if you use google calendar, you
could have a keyword, say, cal, setup and then you could just open FireFox
and type:
cal dinner with Dave and Patty on Friday at 6:00 at their house.
Poof, I've just entered that event in my google calendar.
www.lifehacker.com had a great article about this, and although I've had
to stumble my way through setting up a couple of these key words, it seems
pretty useful so far.
Does anyone know if this is possible in IE? Not really sure if I care as
FireFox is very slowly drawing me in. And IE has been pissing me off
recently. But a lot of people prefer IE, so just thought it would be
helpful to them if someone knew about keyword browsing there.
Of course, maybe I am way far behind the times, and everyone has been
doing this for the last couple of years.
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [email protected]
Tel: (412) 268-9081
For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit:
http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
Send any questions regarding list management to:
[email protected]
