Searching from the Firefox address line

One of the nice things I liked about the Chrome browser was searching from the address line, that area at the top of the screen where you would normally type in some URL like http://www.sutor.com. Firefox has a search area on the upper right, but I really like the idea of having one place to type in something meaning “this is what I want, you figure out how to get me there.”

I don’t believe that Firefox did not have this capability when it first started, but you can now set it up to do a search. In fact, it probably works to some degree right now. Try it.

To make Firefox initiate a Google search when it can’t decode what you typed as a web address, do the following:

1. Type in about:config in the address line.
2. If you get scared off by the warning on the next page, stop. Use the search entry area instead.
3. Otherwise, click the button about being careful.
4. Scroll down to where you see keyword.URL in the first column (which is called Preference Name).
5. Double-click on it and replace the command there with http://www.google.com/search?q= .
6. Click the OK button and you are done.

I first learned about this technique at LiewCF.com, which says pretty much exactly what I told you above. Kudos to that site and author.

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