5 Little known Firefox features that will improve your browsing efficiency

March 17th, 2008
Firefox is by far the best web browser available. Here are five features I use daily that you may not know about that will turn you into a lean, mean, browsing machine.
1. “Ctrl+F” is so last year. All the cool kids are using “/”.
If you hold “Ctrl” and press “F” you’ll bring up the standard find bar in Firefox. Boring. This is fairly common knowledge. What most people don’t know is that if you press “/” (slash) you’ll bring up the quick find bar. The difference with the quick find bar is that it clears and closes itself once you click anywhere or stop typing for a few seconds, leaving you to continue on your merry browsing way.

Time saved by not having to: Close the find bar when you’re done using it.
2. Make searches come to you.
How often do you load a website and immediately use their search box? Well, you can make the search box come to you. If you right click on the search field of any website you’ll see the option to “Add a Keyword for this Search…”. When selected, you’ll bring up an option box that looks a lot like the one used to bookmark a site with the exception of the extra “Keyword” field. This essentially allows you to bookmark a search. Typing “KEYWORD+SPACE+QUERY” will bring up the search results for the search field you bookmark as if you typed your query directly into the sites search box. For example, if you bookmark dictionary.com’s search with the keyword “define”, simply typing “define chide” would bring up the definition of “chide” on dictionary.com.

Time saved by not having to: Load a website’s front page when you just want to use their search.
3. Acknowledge your mouse’s bastard child; the Middle-Click.
Firefox utilizes your mouse’s middle click (i.e., pressing the scroll wheel down), so you should too. You likely already know that middle-clicking a link will open that link in a new tab, but did you know middle-clicking anywhere on a tab will close that tab? This comes in especially handy when closing multiple tabs because you don’t have to keep moving the mouse to the next tab’s “X” icon as the tab sizes keep changing with every tab you close.
Time saved by not having to: Use that pesky hand-eye coordination.
4. Copy&Paste into Google no more!
Highlight any text on a website and then right-click on it. What do you know, there’s an option to “Search Google for…” the text you have highlighted. Well I’ll be a copy and pasting monkey’s uncle!
[UPDATE] - Jeff G, from the comments, pointed out that this feature does not always use Google, but instead uses the default search engine you’ve selected in Firefox.

Time saved by not having to: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+T, type google.com, hit enter, Ctrl+P, hit enter.
5. Show your Auto-Complete who’s boss.
Using auto-complete is a great way to be more efficient. That is, unless your auto-complete brings up dozens of junk-complete options for you to choose from. Next time in the email field of a web form and Firefox brings up a mile long list of all those bogus emails you’ve used in the past to avoid spam, just press the down arrow once and hold down the delete key to remove all those useless “suggestions”. You can also use the up and down arrows to pick and choose which items you want to remove.
Time saved by not having to: Fish through a list of junk.

DieselMinded's Sig:

DIESEL BOMBERS OWNER & FOUNDER

CLICK HERE FOR SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION
CLICK HERE TO BECOME A PREMIUM MEMBER AKA BOMBARDIER

Amateurs Built the Ark, Professionals Built The Titanic
__________________________________________

2002 Cummins , Super B Turbo , ATS Intake Manifold , ATS Exhaust Manifold , Suncoast Triple Disk Torque Converter , Suncoast ProLoc Valve Body , 5.0 KDL , Diamond Eye 4" Turbo Back Exhaust , Quadzilla Adrenaline w/ Pulse Monitor , KORE Pace Suspention , Schied VP44 , EEP 150HP Injectors , 150 Air Dog

Tried it, didnt like it...i'll stick to IE thanks!!

Longhorn's Sig:

Brad

2008 MegaCab 3500 Laramie Auto, Airaid CAI, FLO-PRO DPF Delete 5" TBE, 35x12.5x17 Toyo M/T, Customized Carli Starter Kit, Carli Long Travel Airbags, Remote 2.0 shocks, and Thuren Drop Links NEXT: (Thanks to my suspension guru Kevin at High Rollerz Trucks and HRT Offroad), EDGE HOT Juice/Attitude, Raider Canopy, Mopar BedRug, Bushwacker Pocket Flares (NEVER AGAIN)!

______________________________________________
/ Become a BOMBARDIER ««« or »»» Donate Any Amount \

Give Aways | Sweepstakes | Casino | Arcade | Bomb Bay | Bomb Bar | Bomber Gear

Send In Your Photos And Videos - media@dieselbombers.com

LOGANSTANFORTH's Sig:

THEY SAY CRIME DOSENT PAY, BUT NEITHER DOES FARMING THESE DAYS

i love the middle click, i use that the most

2500HeavyDuty's Sig:

I didn't like the fox at first but once I used it for more than half an hour and started using all the little shortcuts and awesomeness, I actually would rather be punched in the face than use IE...it runs slower, it freezes more often and there seem to be a ton of firefox knockoff shortcuts that work 'almost' as good....

I use the highlight google search right click and the mouse stepchild middle button A LOT. didn't know about the quick search '/' thing, that's awesome. another thing I like, is WHEN windows freezes, battery dies, computer shuts off, firefox freezes...firefox will restore the session exactly how it was.

if you guys ever get bored, go look through the firefox add-ons, too; there's all kinds of cool stuff in there!

greasemonkey's Sig:

93 w250 club cab, NV4500, flat bed.
www.Calguns.net
I have this condition, where I perceive OEM parts as insufficient and in need of aftermarket replacement; maybe that mindset just stems from the domestic vehicles that I've owned.

Dayaaaam! Might have to try her, I mean it.

akguppy's Sig:

05 GMC D/A CC 4x4
07 Yamaha TW200
1989 Honda PC800 Pacific Coast
07 Yamaha RS Vector Mountain SE
88 Honda Foreman Four-Trax 350D
03 Rage'N 27' SUT

I love me some firefox, and that hot chick in the firefox shirt is awesome.
Scott

dieseljunkie's Sig:

2004.5 2500 Quad Cab Molten red with silver lower stripe, long bed, 4x4,315/70/17 Firestone Destination A/T's, Mopar under the rail bedliner, rubber bed mat,Updated in tank lift pump after my first kill. Isspro boost,EGT, and Fuel pressure gauges, Muffler MIA, Silencer Ring MIA AMSOIL throughout, including a EA Drop in air filter.Kills: 1 LP 08/04/05. 22,467 Miles, 1 center carrier bearing in rear drive shaft 4/24/10 62,480 miles.

Firefox Rocks..

If You Still Use IE And Don't Like FF - You Need To Get Your Head Checked!

Other Than Yahoo's Radio Player Doesn't Support FF, I Have Yet To Find A Downfall With The Fox

Firefox uses so much less memory than IE does too.

Begle1's Sig:

A custom-made electro-digital-hydraulic water injection system with a 1990 D-250 wrapped around it that on a good day might break 15 seconds in the quarter.

thats the only thing i seen, but i dont listen to radio anyway

Yahoo's Launchcast Is Pretty Sweet. You Can Customize Your Own Radio.. & Can Dump A Song If Ya Don't Like It.

Safari

DangerousDuramax's Sig:

'05 2500HD CC/SB, LT, 2WD, Black
Click Here For My Garage

Change isnt change until there's change.
Do everything on purpose for a purpose lest it be a thorn in someone's side and waste of everyone's time.
They can take your life, freedom, and possessions but they cant take your knowledge or your God.

It's all about Pandora, baby.

Pandora needs more Steppenwolf, though...