99% of my searches are on Google, and that’s the default on my quick search as expected. However, that last 1% of my searches are on Wikipedia or IMDb (and sometimes Gmail or The Face Book), requiring me to select those search engines from the pull down menu instead of hitting the Enter key which takes .01 seconds.

Here’s my idea: Instead of traversing the menu to look for the correct search engine, hold down enter, push the first letter of the search engine, then let go of both triggering the correct search engine. Currently, the search is activated on the down stroke of the Enter key, but changing that to the up stroke could add a whole new level of interaction (similar to how mouse clicks are typically registered when you release the button). While this would probably cumulatively save me four minutes through out my entire life time (which I’ve spent writing this), it would be nice to see.

I’m sure there is an obscure Firefox plug-in that allows me to accomplish this, but I’m too lazy to look for it. Heck, I’m too lazy to even use Firefox. Blasphemy, I know.

PS Apparently you can add info to your google search term and it'll bring up the Wikipedia entry to the top of the results.

Labels: browser, search