Back to the Firefox extension. It adds six new icons to the right side of the Firefox location bar which look a lot like the icons that the Tagmarks extension is adding in that place. Users with the Tagmarks extension enabled might run into troubles. This has not been tested and is just an assumption.

The icons provide easy access to the following functions:

• Copy URL
• Create Tiny URL
• Search Site
• Up One Directory Level, Double-click for Root
• Tags
• Anonymous Surfing

Some functions require an explanation while others are pretty obvious. Copy URL copies the url of the current tab to the clipboard. Create Tiny URL will create a tiny url and replace the current url with the Tiny URL which could then be copied with the Copy URL button.

Search Site will simply open a google search in a new tab that uses the site parameter and is waiting for user input. Up one directory level does what it says while a double-click on the item loads the homepage or root address of the site.

Tags shows a few tags that can be used to tag websites while the anonymous surfing icon will reload the current website using an anonymization service.

Several of the functions are configurable by right-clicking them. A right-click on the Search Site icon will open a search form that can be used to search the site directly. The most extensive settings are available for the anonymous surfing function. Users can pick from a few dozen web proxy servers and configure a domain to be always loaded by a proxy.

The URLBar extension for Firefox 3 adds a few interesting features to Firefox that might appeal to more than just a few users. One option that would make sense would be keyboard hotkeys for the functions which would speed up the process. Another viable option could be to automatically use a proxy on a specific tab even if the domain gets changed.

Three tab thumbnails are shown by default but the value can be changed in the about:config settings by changing the parameter browser.ctrlTab.previewsCount. Users who prefer the old way and do not need or like this new tab thumbnails preview feature can turn it off completely by setting the parameter browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed to false.

Firefox 3.1 also introduces several changes to the Firefox location bar. Users will finally be able to define the Firefox 3 auto complete feature. The first noticeable change is the addition of five characters that, when entered in the location bar, will restrict the search. The characters can be entered anywhere in the location bar.

(via Mozillalinks)

• History = ^
• Bookmarks = *
• Tags = +
• Titles only = #
• Addresses only = @

That’s however confusing and a feature that only a few Firefox users will really take advantage of. The default characters can be changed in about:config as well.

Far more interesting is the possibility to change the default search, that is the search when no special char is entered. The special chars can be changed which includes their removal. Now if you want that the normal search is only searching your History then you would simply remove the ^ char in the about:config settings of the History parameter. Here are the five parameters:

• browser.urlbar.restrict.history
• browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark
• browser.urlbar.restrict.tag
• browser.urlbar.match.title
• browser.urlbar.match.url

Removing the special char will apply the restriction by default which will help all the users who complain about the Firefox 3 location bar.

Firefox 3 adds some great new features to the location bar which will speed up the web browsing experience tremendously. Before that we should take a short look at the features that have been introduced in Firefox 2 and how they have changed in Firefox 3. This will lead to the new features that Firefox 3 is providing.

The keyword function remains more or less the same. Keywords can be added to any bookmark in Firefox. A keyword can be any char which will load the bookmark when entered in the location bar. Keywords can be combined with parameters %S or %s to perform searches from the location bar, for example a search on your favorite blog without visiting that site first and entering the search term. A great article about keyword searches can be found at the MozillaZine website.

It is still possible to enter words in the location bar which will be checked against the history and bookmarks on the fly. This is a new feature of Firefox 3. The order of the words is not relevant for matching results which means that “ghacks technology” and “technology ghacks” will have the same results, as do “ghacks tech”, “gha tech” and every other form that matches a bookmark or entry in the history.

The yellow star on the right side of the results is indicating that the website is located in the bookmarks. A site that would not be in the bookmarks would be displayed with a white star. A click on the white star would give the user the opportunity to bookmark the page. All bookmarks are automatically added to a new bookmark category called unsorted bookmarks. If you do not want this you can click the star, which should be yellow by now, a second time to place it in a folder in your bookmarks.

The above image is showing another new feature called tags that has been introduced in Firefox 3. Every bookmark can be tagged – with one or multiple words separated by comma – and those tags can be entered in the Firefox 3 location bar to list all sites with that tag. You could tag your five favorite online game websites with games and they would appear when games would be entered into the location bar. Basically another way of organizing bookmarks into logical groups. One should not confuse tags with keywords that immediately open one bookmark when entered.

Another new feature is the ability to identify websites by left-clicking on its favicon.

Mostly secure websites are displaying additional information in this first box. If a website provides identity information the favicon button will turn blue and green on sites that tell the user who is running that website.

A click on more information provides additional information like stored cookies and passwords for that website on the local computer.

Last but not least I would like to recommend a useful Firefox 3 add-on that adds search directly to the location bar in Firefox. Awesome Search is the add-on that does that which in my case made the search form in the main Firefox toolbar dispensable.