This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Èròjà atẹ̀lélànà yii ni a ti fi pamọ́ fọ́jọ́ pípẹ́. Jọ̀wọ́ béèrè ìbéèrè titun bí o bá nílò ìrànwọ́.

Firefox URL Auto-Go?

  • 7 àwọn èsì
  • 29 ní àwọn ìṣòro yìí
  • 1 view
  • Èsì tí ó kẹ́hìn lọ́wọ́ Zé Picelli

more options

In firefox 3 (I just upgraded to 8..) I used to be able to type something like this, in the address bar: "youtube pink floyd welcome to the machine" and it would automatically go to the most common youtube page that fit that description. Another example: "imdb iron man" and it would take me directly to the page about Iron Man on IMDB.

Firefox 8 doesn't seem to do this, and only goes to a google search page. Is there any way to change this? Perhaps in the about:config? Or even an add-on?

In firefox 3 (I just upgraded to 8..) I used to be able to type something like this, in the address bar: "youtube pink floyd welcome to the machine" and it would automatically go to the most common youtube page that fit that description. Another example: "imdb iron man" and it would take me directly to the page about Iron Man on IMDB. Firefox 8 doesn't seem to do this, and only goes to a google search page. Is there any way to change this? Perhaps in the about:config? Or even an add-on?

Ọ̀nà àbáyọ tí a yàn

For what you were doing you would need to change your keyword.URL in your "about:config" settings. See Location Bar search (external - search engine) -- this was the value in Firefox 2 which seems like what you had carried over:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

I use keyword shortcuts and keep then in a folder named "K" on my bookmarks toolbar that contains my keyword shortcuts in alphabetical order, and some additional folders.

I can make them very specialized so I don't have to enter a lot of search arguments into search boxes. But there is no way that I can get what I want from the first hit let alone the even the first ten hits. I look for 100 hits at a time, not the default of 10.

Name: imdb: The Internet Movie Database

Location: http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%s
Keyword: imdb:
Description: IMDb: The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.

So to use type: (presuming that iron would be next to man in wording)

imdb: iron-man
imdb: intitle:iron-man

The following was just created by right-clicking in the You Tube search box, the choosing "Add a keyword for this search..." which is built-in to Firefox.

Name: yt: Search YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Location: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=
Keyword: yt:
Description: Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

For more information on keyword shortcuts see

Ka ìdáhùn ni ìṣètò kíkà 👍 2

All Replies (7)

more options

Those are 'smart keywords' setup in Firefox. Did you create a new profile when you upgraded? They should have carried over...

If not, here is how to add them -> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Smart%20keywords

more options

The concept sounds exactly the same as what I'm looking for, but I never had to create a "smart keyword" in the first place for this to work. And as far as I know, I kept the same profile. As computer illiterate as it sounds, I just installed 8.* ontop of 3.*, it never asked me to create a new profile so I assume it kept the same one?

I'm unfamiliar with all the new firefox stuff because I was a hardass and refused to upgrade until now.

more options

Then you kept the same profile... :-)

You may have had an add-on that did it for that isn't compatible with 8. I suggest the smart keywords route as it is the "supported" feature

(Shhh.....I run both 3.6.24 and the latest nightly on my PC)

If your issue is resolved, to help other users find solutions, please return to this Thread and Sign-in to the forum with your Username and Password:

click on "Solved It" Next to the reply ABOVE that BEST solved your Question

DO NOT click "Solved It" next to this reply

more options

Ọ̀nà àbáyọ Tí a Yàn

For what you were doing you would need to change your keyword.URL in your "about:config" settings. See Location Bar search (external - search engine) -- this was the value in Firefox 2 which seems like what you had carried over:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

I use keyword shortcuts and keep then in a folder named "K" on my bookmarks toolbar that contains my keyword shortcuts in alphabetical order, and some additional folders.

I can make them very specialized so I don't have to enter a lot of search arguments into search boxes. But there is no way that I can get what I want from the first hit let alone the even the first ten hits. I look for 100 hits at a time, not the default of 10.

Name: imdb: The Internet Movie Database

Location: http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%s
Keyword: imdb:
Description: IMDb: The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet.

So to use type: (presuming that iron would be next to man in wording)

imdb: iron-man
imdb: intitle:iron-man

The following was just created by right-clicking in the You Tube search box, the choosing "Add a keyword for this search..." which is built-in to Firefox.

Name: yt: Search YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Location: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=
Keyword: yt:
Description: Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

For more information on keyword shortcuts see

Ti ṣàtúnṣe nípa David McRitchie

more options

@fmdeveloper: Oddly enough, all my add-ons carried over. None were incompatible with 8. Also, I am setting posts as helpful but I'll wait till I at least get a full answer as to why this no longer works as it did before, for the solution.

@dmcritchie: I do understand the smart keywords system; my question now is why did I never have to go and manually create a smart keyword. It worked for any site, even if I'd only been to it once, or even if I'd never been there. It always worked, with many different sites.

I see what you mean by the google thing, I'll give that a try. I did, however, find this in the config: browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion It's set to version 2.

Ti ṣàtúnṣe nípa RavenPanther

more options

@dmcritchie

Setting my url.keyword string as "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=" seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

more options

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I've been crying my heart out since Firefox 4 came up because I am 100% addicted to this Auto-Go feature from v3. Thanks to you, now I'm using the latest version of Firefox AND I get to go automatically redirected to pages I want to, without getting that google search results page.