Mozilla Firefox it remained one of the few web browsers around that uses its own rendering engine, different from that of Chromium and most of its derivative software products. The application continues to represent a valid alternative tool for surfing the Web and among its “folds” it hides some really useful pearls. Like the one we present in this article.
The address bar of modern web browsers has become, over time, an increasingly versatile and intelligent tool. It is an excellent tool for searching for information: without even going to the Google or Bing home page, you can instantly send a query to the search engine set as default.
How to search the web with Firefox, from the address bar
Firefox does not escape this trend by offering a “smart” address bar that allows you to search not only on Google but also on other platforms. To realize this, just access the search settings of Firefox. You can do this by typing about:preferences#search in the address bar.
At the option Default search engine, you can specify the engine Firefox should use for each search made via the browser’s address bar. Using the symbol @ followed by the name of other platforms, you can start one search online using for example Bing, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay. In this way it is possible to get answers not only from alternative engines but also from Wikipedia and from ecommerce sites come Amazon ed eBay.
When you type a string in the address bar, the browser checks whether or not it has the appearance and structure of a URL. When the user does not type a URL, the string entered in the address bar is automatically transferred to the search engine configured as default.
Search history, open tabs, bookmarks from the address bar
Using some special symbols, to type like prefix for the search carried out through the Firefox address bar, it is possible to customize its behavior.
What we propose below is a bit one of secret tricks of Firefox to date best kept. Although many users do not know its existence, the mechanism we describe is useful for to do research even more effective. There syntax that we present, in fact, helps to narrow the boundaries of a search and allows you to reuse any information collected by Firefox over time.
Do you want to try search for a website visited in the past but can’t remember its name? You can refer to chronology Firefox Web. Do you want to quickly find a web page stored in the bookmarks? You have opened a lot of cards navigation and you can no longer find the ones you need? In all of these situations (and more…) you can leverage the taskbar.
Syntax to use to improve searches through the Firefox address bar
Try typing one of the following characters in the Firefox address bar as the first character. You will activate some sort of smart filter which allows you to limit your search to a specific group of items.
^ Search within your browser history.
* Search your bookmarks.
+ Search for information within the pages “tagged” by the user.
% Find the string in open tabs.
# Looks for a match in the page titles.
$ Find any matches in web addresses (URLs).
? Search among the suggestions of the default engine.
Typing the symbol ^ or * in the address bar, then pressing the space barFirefox shows in this case respectively Chronology e Bookmarks. The same goes for the other symbols listed above.
It’s not strictly necessary to press the space bar after typing the initial symbol. In this case, however, Firefox does not expose les labels explanatory like Chronology e Bookmarks to the left of its address bar.
For what concern browser Of Google, we suggest reading our guide on how Chrome works. Most of the suggestions presented also apply to Chromium and third-party browsers built from its source code.