Using Firefox Search Extensions

Firefox has made your search experience better than ever. Many of us are familiar with the Google search box but there are many different search engines available on the Internet and Firefox has hundreds available to put in the search box drop down list. You can literally spend hours trying to get your wanted information but with these search engine add-ons that are related to more specific categories, they will make your search experience more pleasant and productive.

When you install the Firefox browser you will find the search box on the right side of the screen. It comes with Google as the default search engine but using the drop down box you will find many of the more common ones available also. You can also install others by clicking the Add Engines link. You can pick any one you prefer and it will automatically be added to the list in the drop down box. You can add as many as you like to this list.

You can go to the mozdev site for search engine plugins that are listed by category. You can add hard-to-find search engines by using the search box and add them to your drop down list. Firefox has a way to search using smart keywords. You assign keywords to search engines like book for Amazon.com then when you type book insects into the location bar you will go directly to Amazon.com to books about insects without stopping at the Amazon.com homepage. You can use the Manage Search Engines from the search box drop down list to browse for more search engine options that are offered as add-ons.

Some of the add-ons are Link Queue & Preview Sidebar that lets you preview a link and a list of links you want to remember visiting. KallOut-Search Faster in Firefox lets you search the top sites by selecting text. There are GoogleEnhancer, which gives you more search options such as by date or by language and GooglePreview which inserts preview images of web sites. You can go to Mycroft.mozdev.org to browse through search engines and you can even make your own search engine at the Mozilla Developer Center.

You can browse for search engines by different categories such as Bookmarks which has options like del.icio.us that searches through the most bookmarked sites; Business with (Advanced) SERPAnalytic Google Search that is a new SEO tool to analyze SERPs which is downloaded over 3,000 times a week. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias has an add-on with a complete recipe search engine and an acronym finder. The General category includes Wiki Search, AOL, Ask.com and many more. The Kids category has add-ons like Shmoop that is full of study guides and teaching resources. The other categories include Multiple Search, Music, News & Blogs, Photos & Images, Shopping & E-Commerce, Social & People, Sports, Travel and Video. Each of these categories has several choices in search engines. Each can be added to the drop down list or deleted from it, it is your choice.