14
votes
How to search and switch between Tildes groups in Firefox using bookmarks
I just wanted to share a handy feature in Firefox that can be used to create shorthanded keywords. For instance, you could make it so that typing "t ~books" brings you to "https://tildes.net/~books". Or "ts banana" that brings you to Tildes search engine, searching for "banana".
I've been using a similar trick on another browser I use for years (Qutebrowser), but lately I've been using Firefox more and a post on the Ferdiverse reminded me that I could do this in Firefox as well.
Instructions
- In FIrefox, open the Bookmark Manager. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+O , alt: Burger-menu in the upper right > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks)
- Select a folder where you want to save your bookmark
- Go to "Organise > Add Bookmark"
- Enter whatever name you like.
- In the URL textbox, enter the static part of the url you want to use. Replace the part that can change (like the page name or the search term with this: "%s"
- Example for switching communities or go to the frontpage: "https://tildes.net/%s"
- Example for searching: "https://tildes.net/search?q=%s"
- Optionally, add tags seperated by a comma in the tags textbox.
- At last, choose a keyword. This is the word that replaces the static part of the URL when you use the bookmark. For example, I use "t" for the community-switching and "ts" for searching.
- Save you bookmark and try it out. When you now type just the letter "t" in your URL-bar and press enter, it should bring you to the home page. When you type "t ~books" , it should bring you to the books community page.
You can use this feature with any website, so I encourage you to play around with it :)