Search For Highlighted Text With Context Search X For Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 30, 2012
Firefox, Firefox add-ons, Search
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6

I sometimes see phrases or words on a page that I need to look up. Sometimes, those phrases can also lead to additional resources about a certain subject that I'm researching. While I could highlight and right-click the phrase to search for it on the default search engine, I do not have options to search other search engines directly. For that, I would have to highlight and copy the phrase, open a new tab, and use keyword searches to run a search on the topic. Firefox users with the search form displayed in the browser interface can alternatively paste the phrase in the form and select a different search engine from the list.

The Firefox add-on Context Search X adds additional search engines to Firefox's right-click context menu to run searches right from there.

Once you have the extension installed in the browser, you can start firing away searches with a right-click on the highlighted phrase and the selection of the search engine that you want to search on.

context menu search

A list of all available search engines currently configured in the browser are displayed for selection. A click opens the search results page of the selected search engine in a new tab in Firefox.

You can click on Manage Search engines to change the order of search engines in the context menu, remove engines from the listing or modify the extension's behavior further.

One interesting option is the ability to configure search engines to appear in the root context menu instead of the extension's submenu.

manage search engine list

This is done with a click on the Context Menu button in the interface.

context menu

Select the Outside Submenu option to have the selected search engine appear in the root context menu.

If your favorite search engine is not installed in the browser, you can do so by visiting Mozilla's Search Tools page which lists hundreds of different search engines that can be added with a click. You can alternatively check out Add any Search Box to Firefox Search if your favorite search engine is not listed on the page.

Context Search X is a fork of the popular Firefox Context Search add-on which has not been upgraded for over a year. Firefox users who like to run searches from their context menu should take the add-on for a test drive. Those who are just looking to replace the default search engine can look at Replace Firefox’s Right-Click Search Engine to find out how to do that.

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Comments

  1. pd said on January 31, 2012 at 10:52 am
    Reply

    Context Search has been around for years. It should be a native option in Firefox however they no doubt refuse to implement it because it would contradict their Google preference deal.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/context-search/

  2. berttie said on January 30, 2012 at 11:18 pm
    Reply

    Ah, the beauty of Opera is that this is built in, no add-on necessary. Merely, right click and select ‘Search’ (with the default engine), or ‘Search with..’ to select an alternative.

  3. Robert Palmar said on January 30, 2012 at 10:54 pm
    Reply

    I have been using these extensions with the version
    of Context Search that Context Search X is based on.
    I’ll have to check this out. The modifications look good.

  4. Crodol said on January 30, 2012 at 8:56 pm
    Reply

    Or use
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quicksearch/
    if your Italian is not that good ;-)
    Thanks for the tip, ciao!

  5. Marco said on January 30, 2012 at 12:10 pm
    Reply

    Another great extension for this purpose, that I install everytime, is Quick Search Bar: https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/quicksearch/

    1. anakaneh said on January 30, 2012 at 1:15 pm
      Reply

      i’m just about to say the same thing.
      +1 on Quick Search Bar

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