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New-ish versions of Firefox (I'm currently on 3.6) have the nifty "search bookmark" feature, which allows you to create searches in the location bar with custom URLs, e.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s.

This is really great, but when trying to mange the engines in the search bar, I was dismayed at the lack of customisability there. It looks like the two search methods are entirely distinct.

Is there a way to put custom URLs in my search bar, or do I have to just hope that whatever I want is on the long but finite list of plugins at mycroft?

Thanks

UPDATE: done a bit more research, posting my own answer

mwfearnley
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2 Answers2

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It looks like Firefox's search box (exclusively?) uses OpenSearch/MozSearch xml files, which allow some extra features over search bookmarks, e.g. autocomplete. And, unlike Opera (and Chrome?) it doesn't allow the settings to be customised.

So I guess OpenSearch plugins and search bookmarks are only superficially related, but the fact that they can both be given keywords that work in the address bar makes them appear more closely tied than they really are.

It looks like the answer is that custom URLs can't easily be created. Although if other browsers support it, I think it might be worth a feature request.

In the meantime, there are some generators listed on the OpenSearch page, that look like they allow search plugins with arbitrary URLs to be added.

mwfearnley
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What I do is install Omnibar which melds the two to a certain extent. Or, you can rely on entirely search bookmarks paired with KeywordBookmarks.com which is beneficial because they, unlike search plugins, sync with Weave.

digitxp
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