You can trick Chrome into thinking that any super-long URL is a much shorter one by adding it to the list of “other search engines” in the browser’s Preferences pane. One great use for this is to get to frequently-used Google Docs files, like in the image above.
To create a short alias for any page, just copy the URL and right click on the address bar. Click the option to “edit search engines”, then scroll down to the bottom of the preferences page that pops up. Enter a name for the URL you’re adding in the first empty slot, then give it a short alias (one word, or use periods for spaces). Then just paste the URL in the last field and hit the Tab key.
Now, you can enter the alias into the address bar to go straight there, whether it’s a specific forum page, a Google Document, or anything else that would normally sit in a bookmarks folder.
This is especially useful if, like many, you keep the bookmarks bar hidden in Chrome. It’s also great for speed-surfers who like to use the “Omnibar” for anything they possibly can, which comes in handy on a laptop when a track pad can seriously hamper efficiency. Thanks for the tip, Pablo.
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