Firefox and Opera both offer keyword bookmark searches by default, and Internet Explorer users can have them too—with a little tweaking. The Productivity Portfolio weblog runs down how to set up custom keyword searches in IE using the previously mentioned TweakUI utility for Windows XP. Here are our favourite 15 keyword bookmark searches.
Dear Lifehacker, I’m trying to make a keyword search bookmark for Lifehacker.com in Firefox, but it’s not working. In the address bar, I can type http://lifehacker.com/search/myterm/ and it’ll search for “myterm” but when I make a quick search bookmark for this, using http://lifehacker.com/search/%s/, I get a “Bad Request” error since Firefox doesn’t replace the %s with the actual search term. All my other keyword search bookmarks work great. Am I doing something wrong? Signed, Desperately Seeking Quick Search
Most of our readers, savvy searchers that they are, likely know all about Google’s “site:whatever.com” function, which lets you search for a term inside a specific web site. Now the search engine has made it possible to do this-site-only searches from a search box underneath certain top results (based on, the company says, “metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users”). It might be convenient if you stumble upon a site you didn’t know about in your own searching, but it’s also an easy way to help your less web-savvy Uncle Bif and Aunt Marge find what they’re looking for, rather than explaining the semantics of search to them. Search within a site: A tale of teleportation [via ArsGeek]
Blogger Jenny says that when she puts an important item in a “safe place” so she won’t lose it, she usually winds up forgetting where it is and, well, losing it. Her solution is to make a private, searchable database of locations via email: I put my passport back where I found it and then I emailed myself: Subject: Passport Message Body: In your backpack in the closet. I also copied my brother on the email and applied the label “Stuff.” This way when I lose my passport next time I can simply pull up my email and see where it is located.
Looks like a good way to “index” stuff when you’re defragging your home. Quick Tip: Never Lose Anything Again [hackaddict.net]
Empower yourself with the most accurate medical advice online by utilizing the tools available to you online. CNN proposes that you filter out websites that are not backed by medical professionals and to only focus your energy on those that do have medical credence. Additionally, seek out bloggers who have the same disease so that you can learn more about their personal experiences. Chances are, they have done some substantial research themselves and have linked to the most powerful resources on the subject matter as well which gives you access to additional useful guides and articles. Study the organisations and people who post to determine whether their goal is informational (versus marketing). In the former case, you’re usually given more objective information. Combine all tools available to you because nothing works alone. Be curious and view the medical advice from all angles before accepting anything as truth. Tips for Savvy Medical Web Surfing [CNN]
View the relationships between words using webapp Visual Thesaurus which displays synonyms, antonyms, adverbs, and adjectives for any particular search word. Enter a phrase in the search box. Your search term will appear in the center of the screen and additional nodes will crop up to indicate related terms. Click on any of these nodes to dig deeper and get more word associations. Mouseover any node to get a quick definition. Visual Thesaurus is a powerful tool that quickly builds vocabulary. The only downside is that the application runs for a limited amount of queries and then you’re prompted to pay the $2.95/month fee. (Tip: Reopen the Java application and you can run additional searches.) Previously mentioned VisuWords does nearly the same thing (albeit slower) and is completely free. Visual Thesaurus
You know you put that phone number in some file on Monday, but you’re drawing a blank as you gaze at your Vista desktop. The How-To Geek offers a solution for those who haven’t explored Windows Vista enough to learn the syntax of the Start menu’s search box. The syntax for finding an Excel spreadsheet, for example, within a range of dates is: name:xls modified:2/1/2008..2/20/2008
The Geek has, as always, way more information on this technique and a mouse-powered one as well, including the syntax for finding files based on date created or just “date.” Got any more Vista-specific search tips for your fellow Lifehacker readers? Feel free to drop them off in the comments. Find Files Within a Date Range with Windows Vista Search [The How-To Geek]
New BitTorrent search engine PizzaTorrent is a meta-search engine that scours the most popular public torrent trackers and sorts the results by the health of the torrent. Very similar to previously mentioned YouTorrent, PizzaTorrent adds a nice categories feature that sorts results one step further by the result type, which makes finding that special download that much easier. PizzaTorrent [via TorrentFreak]
You may have noticed that standard Google searches put the search terms right in the URL—as in google.com/search?q=tech+jobs+portland. That’s fine in most cases, but what if you have the sneaking suspicion your boss or IT guy is looking through your Google searches, or you don’t want your searching history sold by your ISP to marketers? Tech blog Digital Inspiration ferrets out 10 Google-mirroring URLs hosted by Google on its own servers, seemingly created for the purpose of offering a little shielding from prying eyes. See the full list after the jump.
