New Google Toolbar Brings Browse By Name
Philipp Lenssen writes "The newest release of the Google Toolbar (Internet Explorer only) comes with a Browse by Name feature. It lets you enter keywords in the browser address bar, and when Google decides this is a sure bet you will be directly forwarded to the right page. Is this the return of Internet Keywords?"
http://toolbar.google.com/bbn_help.html for (a little) more info
I downloaded this thing about a week ago after a format, and without having performed any rigorous testing my impression is that it takes me directly to a page *only* if the URL comprises my search terms. So it's much more selective than "i'm feeling lucky".
To take a (random) example, typing "harman kardon" takes me to harmankardon.com. However, typing "harman kardon amplifiers" takes me to a standard search results page. Same thing with "mazda" vs "mazda trucks".
So IMHO it ends up being a rather benign little time-saver.
Keywords are enabled by default in Firefox but you can easily disable them.
- Type about:config in the URL field
- Look for the keyword.enabled line and double-click it
- Replace "True" with "False"
Et voila !
"Naughty, naughty, naughty, you filthy old soomka !"
You could actually do this in IE as well by merging the values below into the registry:
e arch?q=%s&btnG=Google+S earch"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl]
"provider"=""
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\g]
@="http://www.google.com/s
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
I've been using this built-in support in both browsers for years...
1. Go to your favorite web page (say www.nytimes.com).
2. Bookmark it (CTRL-D)
3. Go to the Bookmarks Manager (CTRL-B)
4. Scroll down to the entry you just added and press CTRL-I to edit it.
5. On the dialog that appears, there's a "Keyword" entry field, enter the "keyword" that you want to use for this web page you have bookmarked (example: nyt).
6. That's it!. Next time you enter "NYT" (unquoted of course) on the url entry field and press [enter] you're taken to www.nytimes.com
7. repeat for every web page that you want to create your personal keyword.
Some other suggestions:
1. Drop Internet Explorer and MS-Lookout! ^R^R^R^R^R^R Outlook.
2. Install Mozilla as your primary browser and e-mail client.
3. set your IE proxy to some non-existant internal IP address (10.x.x.x), on the exceptions list, put the windowsupdate page (makes it impossible for IE to reach out any page on the net, except windowsupdate).
FC