Dogs hide bones, Firefox hides useful tricks

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Browser Tips, Browsers

Dogs hide bones, Firefox hides useful tricks

by Kristin Shoemaker Aug 15th 2008

~~Firefox is like a box of chocolates--~~

No, let me try that again. Firefox is one of those applications that's so hard to write about, because there may be little tricks and shortcuts I've been using for some time, and someone will discover one and say, "Hey, that rocks! Why didn't anyone tell me?" Then light dawns over my marblehead that it is a useful trick, and I should have pointed it out.

So Sean Privitera kindly reminded me that searching Google on Firefox is easier than it appears. Ever been reading something on the web and you have no freakin' idea what the word or phrase means? Select the word in question (if you really want to try it out, select this word: geoduck. It's not a Pokemon), right click, and wonder of wonders, there is an option there to search Google for the selected word.

See a nifty bit of formatting on a website, and you're wondering how it was done? Select that formatting, images and all, and right click. Then click "View Selected Source" and a window will pop up in Firefox showing you (brace yourselves!) the HTML formatting of the parts in question.

I've learned to love my right mouse button. Seriously, developers hide all the interesting stuff there. Of course, the right mouse button in Firefox will allow you to open a link in a new tab or window. But it can also calm some fears about what you might be opening (and how it behaves). Right clicking while hovering over a link can tell you if it opens in a new tab, what the URL is, and allow you to send or copy link location.

It is the little tricks like these that make a browser really useful, and more than just a vehicle for surfing the web. But like geoducks, sometimes you need to do a little digging to find them.

Tags: browser, Firefox, Google, mouse, right click, RightClick, search, tips, tricks

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jeebus said 10:30AM on 8-15-2008

Everyone knows that.

rangdo2003 said 10:47AM on 8-15-2008

This is also available in Opera. Right click on selected text and you have the option to search with several different sites ( Google, Amazon, et al ), or also look it up in dictionary or encyclopedia, translate it to another language or have it spoken to you.

Jeremy said 1:21PM on 8-15-2008

even IE8 has this now

Mike Cerm said 10:50AM on 8-15-2008

This is such an obvious feature that I'd be surprised if anyone tech-savvy enough to use Firefox doesn't know about it.

However, some might not know about the "Context Search" extension. Rather than just the default engine, you can search with any of your installed search plug-ins.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/240

I have dictionary and thesaurus search plug-ins that are easily accessible with a highlight and a right-click. I also have price-comparison search engines plugged in, so if I'm reading a product review and want to find that product at the lowest price, I can just highlight the name, right-click, and choose that search plug-in.

Definitely saves me some copy-and-pasting time.

Soop said 10:56AM on 8-15-2008

That is a useful option to speed up searches. However, I love the addon called QuickDrag (http://mozilla.ktechcomputing.com/quickdrag/)

It makes searching VERY easy. Easy= less clicks :)

IanZ said 10:58AM on 8-15-2008

BTW, the context search is based on the currently selected search engine in your toolbar.

For example, I have Wikipedia selected in there, so when I highlight and right-click, it shows 'Search Wikipedia for "text"'

daniel said 11:28AM on 8-15-2008

"I've learned to love my right mouse button. Seriously, developers hide all the interesting stuff there."

To bad Apple Developers only have the one mouse button- I guess they can only do half as much. [geo-ducks] =)

Max said 10:07PM on 8-16-2008

You DO know that Apple has 3-button mice now, right?

Plus, even with a 1-button Apple mouse, control-click gives us the same menu as Windows users.

Raj said 12:14PM on 8-15-2008

Nice trick

this one is new for me :)

Jeremy said 1:21PM on 8-15-2008

enter this in your browser address about:robots

best egg ever

Sean said 2:06PM on 8-15-2008

Thanks for the link Kristin!

Krish said 3:02PM on 8-15-2008

This is from opera, it was in opera earlier (now also), and the right click menu have more options that firefox.

Mike said 6:56PM on 8-15-2008

I've got this in IE7 as well.. but maybe that's because I have IE7Pro installed. Very neat.

etat said 1:44AM on 8-16-2008

What I'd like to know is why the context search never searches in phrase mode, and how to change it so that it does.

Similarly, why doesn't it go to a URL when one has selected a link or an address rather than plain text?

It would also be very handy to have a submenu with four primary search plugins listed, so that I don't have to change the plugin via the searchbar first.

Thanks Soop for the QuickDrag link, and thanks Kristin for raising the issue.

Ranseus said 4:39PM on 8-16-2008

...and it's not just Google. It'll search whatever "search engine" you currently have selected. To see this in action, select Wikipedia for your search box, then right-click on a selection.

Richard said 11:08AM on 8-19-2008

It's a great feature, except that I don't seem to be able to change it to search Google UK instead of Google USA.

I've even dug in about:config and changed all instances of "google.com" to "google.co.uk" but that didn't seem to work.

Kristin Shoemaker said 7:39AM on 8-18-2008

Richard,

Give this a go:
http://mycroft.mozdev.org/google-search-plugins.html

Mycroft seems to developed a ton of search localization add-ons for a number of engines (Google included) that might make the right-click respond in the correct manner.

Although I agree that's it bizarre that the localization doesn't hold true throughout the browser.

Kristin

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