Custom Firefox search engines?

December 22, 2004 / Filed under: Browsers, Web Development

From mozilla.org:

Up in the top right corner of Firefox, there’s a handy search box that puts search engines at your fingertips. When you download Firefox, a number of searches (like Google, Yahoo, and Ebay) are included but you can easily add more. There are literally hundreds of search engines available. The following are some of the most popular:

  • A9 Search – Amazon’s web and shopping search.
  • AltaVista – Another popular way to search the web.
  • Ask Jeeves – Ask it questions and get answers.
  • CDDB – Find album, artist, and song information.
  • LEO – English to German translator.
  • IMDB – The Internet Movie Database.
  • Merriam–Webster – English dictionary search.
  • Wikipedia – The incredible free encyclopedia.
  • Find lots of other search engines...

My question is... for developers using Firefox, why not allow an option to have a custom search box – one that calls any file you wish to process the input?

For example, my Archives page has a search box, to search for past entries. Sometimes I need to quickly find a past entry. Why not allow me to have THAT in Firefox, for immediate access? In other words, Firefox should allow developers to specify ANY form action file to process the input in the search box.

If this was possible, I probably wouldn’t use my Archives search box for my custom Firefox search engine. Rather, I would use search boxes that I have for local applications that I have developed, such as usernames and passwords. I have a local database for that, and it would be helpful to have instant access to it.

Comments/Mentions

# Matthew at 12/26/2004 11:18 pm cst

What a wonderful idea Matthom. My suggestion is for you to email information about your idea to the developers of Mozilla Firefox. The whole point of open source is anyone can influence a project ie improve it, and it will not be ignored (hopefully or they reply with no).
BTW I just encountered a bug with your webpage for this blog, for making this comment. I'll email you now with an image of my experience, while I encounted the problem.

# Matthom at 12/27/2004 4:21 am cst

Matthew, thanks for your feedback. You have a good point. I will make an effort to email Firefox developers.