Refine your searches with plugins

Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Search

Refine your searches with plugins

by Lisa Hoover Aug 24th 2007

The search engine box on Firefox's toolbar is a really handy feature, especially since there are several engines to choose from. Did you know that you can fine-tune your search even further by adding plugins available from the Mycroft project at the Mozilla development community Web site?

Want to search only Creative Commons pictures at Flickr? There's a plugin for that. Looking for a way to search Wikipedia, YouTube, or TorrentSpy right from the search box? There are plugins for that too. In fact, there are over 12,000 of the little devils to choose from .

You can browse the list of plugins by category, or enter the URL of a Web site to see if what you're looking for exists. All the plugins will work on Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox and SeaMonkey, and many will work on IE7 (a symbol next to the plugin will let you know). Once you find what you want, simply download it and start searching. Most of the time, a browser restart isn't even required.

Of course, Download Squad's plugin will be the first one you add, right?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steve said 2:46PM on 8-24-2007

In my book, one of the most important search plugins is the mycroft plugin. I plugin to search for other plugins.
http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html?name=mycroft+project&sherlock=yes&submitform=Search

Todd said 3:00PM on 8-24-2007

Or better yet, just use YubNub! Way easier, faster, fun even!

At the YubNub command line, just type "dls" then a space, then whatever you are looking for inside this site.

CLI FTW!

camron said 3:30PM on 8-24-2007

firefox's keywords is WAY better. no need to switch with a dropdown, just type a different letter before your query (in the address bar).

Josh said 4:46PM on 8-24-2007

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3698

OpenSearchFox is perfect for adding more plugins. Right click, Add OpenSearch, Choose a Name. Done.

Thom said 2:53AM on 8-25-2007

If you're into Games - the Wazap plugin seems to tbe the most comprehensive one out there. www.wazap.com

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