Super Direct Navigation

[NameDriver]

Look, I know I'm meant to know everything about the internet ....

But this just happened to me on a Thursday morning...

I was looking for the opening times of my local Kaufhof (big department store in Germany) and accidentally typed in "Kaufhof Köln Öffnungszeiten" into my Mozilla browser bar (instead of the Google search box on Mozilla) and I got taken to the exact page for my local Kaufhof's opening hours!
Is this direct navigation gone crazy?
I tried out a couple of other experiments:
"Chelsea Fixtures" takes me to the BBC fixture list
"Exotikka of India curry" takes me to my favourite curry house on 192.com
"Domain Parking" takes me, well, I have no idea what that is

Am I just very slow - did other people know about this? Direct navigation taken to a new level by Mozilla. It doesn't work with IE.

Sorry, I was so amazed that my first search gave me exactly what I wanted to find with a minimum of hassle that I thought I'd share it.

What does this mean for the domain world? Good thing or bad thing...?

Maybe I'm just a little over-excited about Christmas. Please excuse my ravings.

Ed

 

[mreeves]

Been like that for a while. Basically its powered by google and is basically the same a going to google, typing in your search query and clicking on "I'm Feeling Lucky".

Regards
Martin

 

[stevie]

What does this mean for the domain world? Good thing or bad thing...?
Ed

great if you have a nice domain with good SERPS...

the feature is off by default.. & most punters use IE.. don't think there's too much to get worried about.. "yet..!!"

browser stats..
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

 

[aqls]

I think on one word entries in the URL bar it takes you direct to the .com by default in Mozilla.

 

[mreeves]

I think on one word entries in the URL bar it takes you direct to the .com by default in Mozilla.

Not true. At least for me, having just run some tests using the lastest version of firefox.

 

[Fishfinger]

Good thing or bad thing...?

It shortcuts all typos and most parked generics, including domains such as *candy.com*

So is it bad? No. It is worst than that.

 

[retired_member27]

Well if I type "custom software" in the url bar of my browser (IE6) it takes me straight to "http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?srch=105&FORM=AS5&q=custom+software" with all search results showing for that term (we are at number 7). I'm not sure if my browser is specifically setup to search msn or if it's actually programmed into IE6 itself.

 

[Fishfinger]

In Firefox, if I type "custom software" I go direct to 1stcustomsoftware.com and I didn't change the default settings.

 

[stevie]

In Firefox, if I type "custom software" I go direct to 1stcustomsoftware.com and I didn't change the default settings.

I'd be interested to know what your default search is under your preference settings in firefox.. the only way that your browser will do that is if your chosen search engine uses "smart keywords"

 

[Fishfinger]

I'd be interested to know what your default search is under your preference settings in firefox.. the only way that your browser will do that is if your chosen search engine uses "smart keywords"

Where should I look? I can't see anything in the options menu.

 

[stevie]

Where should I look? I can't see anything in the options menu.

I'm not sure.. running mozilla on solaris..

Type about:config in Firefox location bar and press Enter
this should bring up your firefox config & under browser.search.defaultenginname should say what the default is..

 

[Fishfinger]

Impressive stuff

The browser.search.defaultenginname value is just google but browser.search.defaulturl is http ://www. google.com/search?hl=fr&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=

Would that explain it?

 

[stevie]

Whats your keword URL??

I think your safe, but there are a number of spyware porgrams.. including some popular IM clients that will change your keyword URL to exploit advertising..

If you want to restore the Google "I'm Lucky" search then perform this simple steps:
1. Type about:config in Firefox location bar and press Enter
2. Type keyword in Filter textbox and you will see only the preference keyword.URL.
3. Double-click on keyword.URL and change the value to:

http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=

 

[Fishfinger]

:smile: :smile:

 

[stevie]

the plot thickens..

just been messing with my settings & stuffed everything up... so used the very intructions I supplied to you to retreive defaults & guess what..

my browser does exactly what yours does.. enter a keyword eg: acorn domains & it takes me directly to the url that is number 1 on google for that keyword.. cool... mmmm or not

Any valid URL may be specified. The keyword will be appended to the URL and then the user will be redirected to the new URL.

The default value is http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q= in most Mozilla products; in

Firefox and Sunbird the default is http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I'm+Feeling+Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=.

check this out.. it explains all
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keyword.URL

 

[aqls]

Not true. At least for me, having just run some tests using the lastest version of firefox.

In my Mozilla 5.0 there is a default preference under browser settings that says add www and .com to any word if url isn't found.

Maybe this is no longer default in more recent Firefoxes.

All this puts much more pressure on everyone to get to the top of Google - their algorithm had better be *perfect*.

-aqls-