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Get to Gmail in One Keystroke
Posted by Gina Trapani at 11:00 AM on March 4, 2008
Speaking of Firefox keyboard shortcuts, reader John writes in:
Noticed a peculiar thing on my girlfriend's MacBook the other day—I hit "g" then Enter from Firefox's location bar, and voila, Gmail launched. I have a keyword bookmark on MY computer configured to make Firefox act this way, but not on hers... maybe this is a built-in Firefox "Easter egg"?Not sure if the g shortcut would be considered an Easter egg, but I confirmed that it works on a pristine Firefox 2.5 profile on Windows, too. Strangely, the dict keyword, which used to take you to dictionary.com, is no longer built in. We're big fans of configuring our own keyword bookmarks. If you haven't already, here's how. Thanks, John!
Tags: firefox | firefox tip | gmail | keyboard shortcuts
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Liyster
Posted March 4, 2008 7:58 PM
When you type in a keyword into Firefox's address bar, it performs a search and sends you to Google's first result (akin to 'I'm feeling lucky').
To test this, do a Google search for 'g' and Gmail is the first result.
I'm not sure why this doesn't work for all searches directly from the address bar - possibly there is a Google algorithm at work that determines the popularity of the first search result?
dale3h
Posted 11:47 AM 4/3/08
The reason this works is because when you type something into the Firefox address part and hit enter, it searches google using "I'm Feeling Lucky" mode to take you to a webpage. If you notice, Gmail is the #1 result for the search term "g": [www.google.com]
dale3h
mixxster
Posted 11:48 AM 4/3/08
Firefox 2.5?
Anyways, this is because Google is Firefox's default search provider. type g in Google and press I'm feeling lucky, same effect.
mixxster
seneschal
Posted 12:12 PM 4/3/08
Ok, those are the technical reasons.
But the REAL reason is the $67 or so million that Google paid Firefox's publisher:
Mozilla's revenues (including both Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation) for 2006 were $66,840,850, up approximately 26% from 2005 revenue of $52,906,602. As in 2005 the vast majority of this revenue is associated with the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox, and the majority of that is from Google. The Firefox userbase and search revenue have both increased from 2005. Search revenue increased at a lesser rate than Firefox usage growth as the rate of payment declines with volume.
seneschal
GBMax
Posted 1:15 PM 4/3/08
Even more fun:
e takes you to E! Online
y to Yahoo
s to craigslist
o to Oprah
and best of all
b to Physical Review B (woohoo!)
I'll let you find out where ! goes on your own.
GBMax
twins8791
Posted 1:15 PM 4/3/08
duhhh
twins8791
nestorius
Posted 1:15 PM 4/3/08
But... I use g for Firefox Quick Search!
nestorius
GBMax
Posted 1:15 PM 4/3/08
Actually, that's at least two keystrokes (g, enter), more if you type ctrl-L to get the the address bar....
GBMax
Gina Trapani
Posted 1:56 PM 4/3/08
@mixxster: Whoops, I meant Firefox 2, sorry.
@dale3h: You're absolutely right. So this isn't a built-in keyword bookmark at all. Thanks for the clarification.
@GBMax: Heh, true!
Updating the post now.
Gina Trapani
Dustin
Posted 1:56 PM 4/3/08
@seneschal: You'r reading that wrong. The "vast majority" of the less than 67 million came from the search bar. Of that, "a majority of that is from Google." Meaning Google didn't pay Mozilla 67 million.
Regardless, you can get money from people doing searches on Google, too. Just sign up through Adsense.
Dustin
thewillum
Posted 2:48 PM 4/3/08
I don't mean to be cocky but I thought this one was pulled out of the "duh" file.
thewillum
Jarett
Posted 5:42 PM 4/3/08
Why do the address bar shortcuts even matter? I just have Yubnub as my default search engine. Does all that and more, without me having to program anything into it.
Jarett
jeffk
Posted 2:02 AM 5/3/08
Does not work for me.
At work I get "The Web site cannot be found...11001 - Host not found".
At home I get my DNS server's search page with suggested links.
Is this dependent on Google Toolbar or some other add-on I don't use?
jeffk
cooke1729
Posted 3:18 AM 5/3/08
del.icio.us manages these quicksearches as shortcuts. I have 14, some functional searches (MSDN, Google, Answers, etc) and some destination (Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar)
[del.icio.us] I love the combo of Firefox, del.icio.us extension and these shortcuts. Saves me from having to touch my mouse when browsing on any of my computers.
cooke1729
Benjo
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
You can also, ya know, create a button on the Bookmark Toolbar...
Benjo
hugoprev
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
Well, on a french version of Firefox, typing the letter g and hitting enter on the adress bar leads to... a website about the g spot. I'll keep my gmail manager plugin at hand, if you don't mind !
hugoprev
nettrotter
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
@Jarett:
yubnub is perfect. thanks for your recommendation.
nettrotter
nettrotter
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
@GBMax: Heh, true!
nettrotter
mtl171
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
i'm using Firefox 2.0.0.12 and it actually works! To be sure i even cleared my history and everything else and it still works! note:i have not customized or changed firefox in any way.
mtl171
allenofmn
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
It's not really a shortcut. By default the firefox location bar uses google "I'm feeling lucky"
The lucky search for "g" is gmail.
allenofmn
titchimp
Posted 7:53 AM 5/3/08
I'm pretty sure typing things into the firfox toolbar just does an "im feeling lucky" search on google. It just happens to be that Gmail is the top result if searching for "g" on google
titchimp
seneschal
Posted 10:45 AM 5/3/08
@Dustin: No, I saw that, but those figures were from 2006 and 2005. So for 2007 I suspect the true amount that Google paid Mozilla to be well north of $67 million.
Anyway, the way it's working Firefox is just another revenue source for Google (by steering traffic).
seneschal
v2h5a81
Posted 7:48 PM 5/3/08
Typing "reader" takes you to google reader.
Typing "books" takes you to google book search.
Typing "maps" takes you to google maps.
Typing "images" takes you to google image search.
Typing "documents" takes you to google docs.
I am assuming that these are keywords that are found through the firefox - google connection.
I hope that I am wrong.
Craigs for Craigslist.com and zoho for zoho.com
These seem like just lucky key words.
v2h5a81
l337_7r4d3r
Posted 3:34 AM 6/3/08
pretty cool... but still slower than the bookmark, or webmail notifier plugin
l337_7r4d3r
twins8791
Posted 9:29 AM 7/3/08
@v2h5a81: either you're clueless or your last sentence was a pun.
twins8791
photoboot
Posted 5:42 AM 11/3/08
its funny, but there is another one-letter shortcuts
typing: e -> [www.eonline.com]
typing: h -> [www.hm.com]
typing: r -> [www.r-project.org]
typing: c -> the speed of light (google)
typing: k -> the boltzmann constant (google)
this make any sense to anyone?
photoboot