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Shortcuts to search engines on New Tab?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

Václav Trpišovský
Václav Trpišovský
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The New Tab page includes some shortcuts by default, including Amazon Search (see "@amazon" in the attached picture), which I dismissed shortly after installation. (The only options are "Pin/Unpin" and "Dismiss".)

However, I want to create such shortcut for another search engine, like https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&iax=images&ia=images and I don't see the option - even if I set the URL to include "%s" and the name of the pinned shortcut begins with "@", as with smart keyword search and the Amazon search shortcut, respectively.

I am an advanced user and don't mind manually editing files in my profile folder (after I back it up of course).

Edit: I found a reference to it in prefs.js in my profile but changing it using user.js only caused the user_pref to disappear with no effect on the tile items. user_pref("browser.newtabpage.pinned", "[null,null,null,null,{\"url\":\"https://www.amazon.com/\",\"label\":\"@amazon\",\"searchTopSite\":true},null]");

The New Tab page includes some shortcuts by default, including Amazon Search (see "@amazon" in the attached picture), which I [[Customize items on your Firefox New Tab page|dismissed]] shortly after installation. (The only options are "Pin/Unpin" and "Dismiss".) However, I want to create such shortcut for another search engine, like https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&iax=images&ia=images and I don't see the option - even if I set the URL to include "%s" and the name of the pinned shortcut begins with "@", as with [[How to search IMDB, Wikipedia and more from the address bar|smart keyword search]] and the Amazon search shortcut, respectively. I am an advanced user and don't mind manually editing files in my [[Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data|profile folder]] (after I [[Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles|back it up]] of course). '''Edit:''' I found a reference to it in prefs.js in my profile but changing it using user.js only caused the user_pref to disappear with no effect on the tile items. <code> user_pref("browser.newtabpage.pinned", "[null,null,null,null,{\"url\":\"https://www.amazon.com/\",\"label\":\"@amazon\",\"searchTopSite\":true},null]"); </code>
Attached screenshots

Modified by Václav Trpišovský

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This still works for me, provided you have a working search engine with the @amazon keyword enabled in "Settings -> Search" as this emulates typing @amazon and a space in the location bar.

You can make the change directly on about:config. 

[{"url":"https://google.com","label":"@google","searchTopSite":true},{"url":"https://amazon.com","label":"@amazon","searchTopSite":true}]

Close and restart Firefox to make Firefox pickup the change.