How to Use Firefox Keywords

Mozilla's browser Firefox has many excellent features, including what many consider far fewer loopholes than IE for hackers to slip through. One of the features of Firefox that can save you time, and make your browsing experience easier, is the Firefox keyword and search keyword. Type a few letters in the location bar and you'll sail right to your favorite search engine--or even directly to a results page for your search of choice! Read on for the simple instructions for setting up keywords to get you to your Web destinations quickly.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Keywords

1. 
    

   Go to the webpage you want to keyword. Here we've chosen the search engine AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com).

2. 
    

   Bookmark the site.

3. 
    

   Save the bookmark in whichever folder you choose. Firefox has a "Quick Searches" folder where they've already saved some keyworded sites. (See Tips Section for details.)

4. 
    

   Go into "Organize Bookmarks."

5. 
    

   Go into the folder where you saved your bookmark. Right-click the site for options, and choose "Properties."

6. 
    

   Enter a keyword to use for the site. Think of something that will be quick to type, but also easy to remember and not confuse with other keywords. Use lowercase letters. After you've entered the keyword, click "OK."

7. 
    

   Your keyword is set. Now, wherever you are on the Web, you can type your keyword into the location bar. You can see in the area highlighted in the photo that we've typed in our "av" keyword.

8. 
    

   Hit the search button or "enter" on your keyboard and you are quickly routed to the AltaVista homepage.

Search Keywords

9. 
    

   Go to a site you tend to do a lot of searches on. Here we've chosen the seller Amazon.

10. 
     

    Find the empty search box and right-click on it.

11. 
     

    Click on "Add a keyword for this search." A dialogue box should open up as shown.

12. 
     

    Give your bookmark a name, keyword (use lowercase letters) and save to a folder. Click "OK."

13. 
     

    Your search keyword is now saved. At anyplace on the Web, type your keyword into the location bar, followed by the search you wanted to make on that site. We're looking to see what Clive Owen movies Amazon carries, so we've typed in our keyword "az" followed by "clive owen."

14. 
     

    Click on the search button or hit "enter" on your keyboard. You will be taken immediately to the results page for "Clive Owen" on Amazon.com!

Tips & Warnings

• Firefox has already installed some search keywords for you. They are: Google (google), Dictionary.com (dict), Stock Symbol (quote), Wikipedia (wp) and Urban Dictionary (slang). I also tried "imdb clive owen" and got the Internet Movie Database page for Clive Owen to come up, so there may be a few surprises in Firefox as well.