Smart Keywords
An interesting recent addition to Firefox features and functionalities is the Smart Keywords feature. If you find yourself visiting the same site for different information, you can assign keywords to your search parameters and the site while using Firefox. With the help of these keywords you can go to the specific sections of a site with a single click. For instance, if you find yourself visiting Ebay to look at what mobile phones are up on sale, you can add a smart keyword to this section by bringing up the context menu on the search box in Ebay and clicking on “Add Keywords for this Search….” A Firefox dialog asks you to define a bookmark and a keyword to associate with this search action. In the Ebay example, if you add a keyword “EbaySearch” the next time you want to visit Ebay to find out what “Motorola” phones are available all you would need to do is type “EbaySearch Motorola” in the location box , Firefox will take you directly to Ebay mobile section and show you only phones manufactured (or in any way related to) Motorola.
What Firefox does behind the screen to implement this feature is that it bookmarks the page and the next time you use the keyword, it loads the page and performs an automated search with the parameter passed along with the keyword as the search criteria. This decreases the time you spend navigating to a particular site and filtering information to get what you want.
You can also add smart keywords to existing bookmarks by navigating to the particular bookmark from the menu Bookmark. Point the cursor to the particular bookmark and bring up its context menu right-clicking on it. Then click on its property menu item, Firefox presents a dialog to allow you to add/edit keyword associated with thebookmark. This keyword can be used in the location bar to not only visit the bookmarked page but also perform search on it.
Using Search Option From Context Menu
While reading something on the Web haven’t you at times made a mental note to do a search on an interesting term or phrase later on but then you just have n ever really gotten around to doing it? With quick search feature you can just highlight the word and from the context menu, click on “search Google for [search terms] “. The search results are displayed in another tab of the browser (in Internet Explorer it opens in the same page by default). This eliminates the need to go to Google search or even type your search criteria manually.
Retrieving Passwords
With so many new Web-based services coming up it becomes really difficult to keep track of account information of every service and often I find myself trying to remember the site’s password but most of the time I am unable to recall it and thus lose access to a useful service. If you face similar problems, Firefox may be able to help you reclaim your forgotten passwords (provided it has been cached locally).
It is a pretty simple and neat trick actually. Go to menu Tools|Options then go toSecurity tab and click on the button captioned “Saved Passwords“. You are presented with a list of user names whose passwords are available, select a user name and click on “Show Passwords” button. Firefox reveals the password in clear text !
Of course, this can be dangerous if the information falls into wrong hands, but to avoid this you can protect the setting by using “Use Master Password“” feature. Additionally, when Firefox prompts you to save password during login, click on “Never for this site ” button .
These are only some and probably the simplest Firefox tweaks, plenty more on the way!