QuickSearch is a feature that makes it easy to launch searches from the address bar. Every day, I search NBCi, Google, MSDN, eBay, DejaNews... and its the same pattern... go to the search engine, locate the search box, plug in my search, and hit ENTER.

QuickSearch makes this process easier by allowing the user to create custom shortcuts that can be used to initiate searches directly from the address bar.

Replacement Variables

There are currently two replacement variables that can be used with QuickSearch.

• {url} - replaced with the full url of the current browser tab
• {domain} - replaced with the domain name of the current browser tab

The best way to describe how to use QuickSearch is to give you an example.

A QuickSearch Example - DirectHit.com

After Google, Direct Hit is my favorite search engine. The first step in adding DirectHit to QuickSearch is to visit the DirectHit web site and perform a search. If you search for 'netcaptor', you'll see the following URL in your address bar: http://www.directhit.com/fcgi-bin/DirectHitWeb.fcg?qry=netcaptor&alias=websrch

In order to work with QuickSearch, we need to replace the term we searched for ('netcaptor') with the generic term '%s'. Copy the URL above to Notepad or your favorite text editor, and replace the search term with '%s' to get this:

http://www.directhit.com/fcgi-bin/DirectHitWeb.fcg?qry=%s&alias=websrch

Copy this URL to the clipboard so we can paste it into QuickSearch.

In NetCaptor, select QuickSearch from the Options Menu. Click the Insert button. In the shortcut field, pick a 1 or 2 character shortcut (no spaces) to be used to represent Direct Hit -- 'dh' is a good one. Then, paste the URL we created above into the URL field. Finally, click the Insert button and OK to save your changes. You're all set.

Test it out -- put the cursor in NetCaptor's address bar (ALT + D). Type 'dh search' where 'search' is the target search term and then hit ENTER. Voila! You've got search results.