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0 pointsmyfonj6y ago0 comments

There is ancient feature of regular bookmarks to serve as "search keywords" [1]: just give it a some keyword and use `%s` in place of URL you want to substitute with value encoded as URI fragment (IIRC, or `%S` to be used more verbatim). In Firefox it is directly in "New bookmark" form; in Chrome it is dug somewhere in "Search engines" corner of settings.

For example setting keyword `t` for uri `data:text/plain,%S` and entering `t foo` into location bar will navigate you to `data:text/plain,foo`, i.e. "make document". If Google Docs have GET endpoint for creating documents, it should work. For searching you can apparenly use `https://docs.google.com/document/?q=%s`.

[1] https://www-archive.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/keywords

0 pointsmyfonj6y ago0 comments

[1] https://www-archive.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/keywords

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4 comments · 2 top-level

vatueil6y ago· 2 in thread

The parent comment was referring to how Chrome automatically adds search engines. You only have to "dig into" the settings menu if you want to change the keyword or add a custom search.

Even if you're adding it manually, I think the list of search engines is a more intuitive place to put such a feature than "bookmark keywords".

Compared to similar features in Chrome or DDG's bangs, Firefox's bookmark keywords seem less discoverable to me.

nine_k6y ago

While less discoverable, bookmarks with %s allow "searching", or rather URL macro-expansion, for pages that lack search features.

vatueil6y ago

The exact same trick works with custom search engines in Chrome as well.

They're equally powerful. Automatically adding search engines means users don't have to do so by hand, but you can still manually create a "search engine" too (e.g. "https://xkcd.com/%s/" with the keyword "xkcd").

In Firefox I keep a folder with bookmarks that have keywords, but I would prefer the UI in Firefox's search engine settings (the bookmark manager doesn't have a keywords column).

The problem is few will discover Firefox's bookmark keywords unless they're told about the feature, and manually create such bookmarks, while Chrome automatically creates keywords for search engines and prompts users to try them out.

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MayeulC6y ago

I have noticed that menu entry for years, and tried using it, but I had no idea how (and I guess it wasn't big enough of an issue for me to look it up). Thank you for explaining.

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