Smart Keyword Searches for Learners

A finely crafted search query is a beautiful, sometimes painfully beautiful, thing. The official Google Advanced Search Operators offers the promise of unearthing riches from the deep recesses of the Internet as long as you can edit (and remember) the search string to meet your specific needs. Services like G2P and Find Music offer a convenient interface with finely tuned Google search strings for searching for mp3 and e-book files. But you must visit their site first, and cannot refine the query. Mozilla and Firefox offer another solution: the smart keyword search solution, which lets you personalize and pass search queries directly in your browser’s location bar. This article explains how to use them to save and reuse complex search queries.

Download: smart keyword search bookmarks
Version: 0.2
Updated: February 22nd, 2008
Size: 10.02 KB

Version 0.2 includes ten smart keyword searches:

• TeachMe Google Search: Search for syllabi and courses offered by edu sites with Google by typing "teachme <search terms>" in the location bar.
• Article Archives Google Search: Search for articles in the New York Times, Scientific American and The Globe & Mail with Google by typing "nyt <search term>", "econ <search term>", or "gm <search term>", respectively, in the location bar. Search query source: Google Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips & Tools
• Information Collections Google Search: Search directories, encyclopedias and subject indices with Google by typing "dir <search term>", "enc <search term>", or "sub <search term>", respectively in the location bar. Search query source: Google Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips & Tools
• Media Google Search: Search for books, music and videos with Google using "book <search term>", "music <search term>", and "video <search term>", respectively, in the location bar. Search query source: Marc and Angel

Using Keyword Searches 101

In Firefox and Mozilla Suite you can specify keywords for bookmarks by filling in the keywords field in the Bookmarks Properties. When you type the keyword into the Location Bar and hit [Enter], the keyword will be replaced with the bookmarked URL. Try this: Press Ctrl+L to key up to the location bar, type “dict pied-a-terre” (without the quotation marks) and hit [Enter], which brings you to http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pied-a-terre. By default, Firefox comes with several bookmarks with keywords defined, including dict.

Even better, if you add a %s at some place in your bookmarks URL, it will be replaced by the words you type in after the keyword. Known quicksearches or “smart keyword searches,” they offer a way to search the web with the fewest keystrokes possible. I recommend Lifehackers Fifteen Firefox Quick Searches for more pre-packaged search convenience. Now, finally, let’s takes this one step further by incorporating Google’s advanced search operators into your own customized smart keyword searches.

You can set up smart keyword searches manually, or simply import my smart keyword search bookmarks.

Manual Set-Up

1. Do an advanced search on Google. Experiment and refine until you have finely honed results! E.g. If you want to learn the French language, you might try this, which will retrieve French course and syllabi from *.edu sites:

   -intitle:(~tutorial|~syllabus|~guide|~course) site:.edu "French"

2. Bookmark the results page. E.g.,

   http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=-intitle%3A%28%7Etutorial%7C%7Esyllabus%7C%7Eguide%7C%7Ecourse%29+site%3A.edu+%22French%22&btnG=Search

3. In your bookmarks URL (the Location field), find and replace your search term with %s. I also like to trim the URL to just the essential search parameters, deleting for example the number of search results (num=100). E.g.,

   http://www.google.com/search?q=-intitle%3A(%7Etutorial%7C%7Esyllabus%7C%7Eguide%7C%7Ecourse)+site%3A.edu+%22%s%22

4. Open the Properties dialog for your new bookmark. Add a keyword, e.g., teachme
5. Press OK.

You now have a smart keyword search that can be invoked with teachme. Alternatively, steps 3-5 can alternately be done in the Bookmarks Manager, the Bookmarks Sidebar, or using the Firefox Open Book add-on. To use, type "teachme <search terms>" in your Firefox location bar to search for syllabi and courses offered by edu sites in your area of interest with Google.

The finesse in keyword searches lies in desiging the search query, of course. All search engines require different syntax, so it is best to concentrate on two or three, and learn them well. If you choose Google, then the superb Google Guide explains and gives examples of all advanced search operators and the Google Cheat Sheet comes in handy.

Import Smart Keyword Search Bookmarks

I’ve made my smart keyword search bookmarks available to download. Even though I exclusively use Google search queries, any search engine can be used. To import the bookmarks:

1. Right-click on the quick search bookmarks file and choose “Save Link As…” Place the file somewhere on your computer.
2. In Firefox, from the Bookmarks menu, choose “Organize Bookmarks.”
3. From the Bookmarks Manager File menu, choose Import. Choose “Import Bookmarks from File.” Browse to and open the file you just saved.

The smart keyword searches now should be imported and ready to use.

Incidently, the original documentation for Firefox Smart Keywords seems to be offline, but is still available via the Internet Archive: Bookmark Keywords.