Firefox Urlbar Filter

[kami]

1. Using pre-defined characters

To filter the results type the character and the search term in the urlbar with a space between. The search will include the url, the title and the tags. For example typing "+ youtube" in your urlbar would bring up every tagged website that has the word "youtube" in its url, title or tag.

 

The Characters are the follwing:

*    Limits the results to only those that are saved as bookmarks.

^   Restricts the outcome of the search to those in your browser history. In the standard settings this will be a 90 day period. This is useful if you have many old bookmarks saved that will be filtered out by this.

%  Will only show currently opened pages (not including those in the private browsing mode). In case you have many tabs or windows open this can increase your chance of finding the right one.

+  Filters the results to only show bookmarks with tags.

~  Restricts the results to websites that have been typed into the urlbar. This will filter out any website that was visited via link.

 

Additionally you can use the following characters to only search the url or the title. These can be used separately or in combination with the ones mentioned above. Expanding on the previous example, "+ @ youtube" would search through your tagged websites and only listing those with "youtube" in the url.

#   Limits the results to those that title matches the search term.

@  Only shows results which url matches the search term.

 

2. Customizing

Caution: This involves the usage of the about:config page in Firefox. It can compromise the stability, security and speed of the application.

 

To customize the characters type "about:config" in the urlbar, pressing enter and then confirm that you're going to be cautious. Now you should be able to search for the preference names. The main columns you have to be aware of is the aforementioned "Preference Name" and the "Value".

These are the different preference names with their default settings (in the same order as in the first part of this tutorial):

 

Preference Name                            Status     Type      Value

browser.urlbar.restrict.bookmark     default    string     *

browser.urlbar.restrict.history          default    string     ^

browser.urlbar.restrict.openpage    default    string      %

browser.urlbar.restrict.tag               default    string      +

browser.urlbar.restrict.typed           default     string     ~

browser.urlbar.match.title                default    string      #

browser.urlbar.match.url                 default     string     @

 

To change the character of one of the filters just double click on the corresponding line. A dialog should pop up letting you change the default. You can use characters, letters or words as a trigger as shown in the picture below.

With this change you'd need to type "tag youtube" to get the same results as described in the first example of this tutorial.

To revert the setting back to the default just go to the preference in the about:config page, right click on it and select "Reset" in the drop-down menu.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Fearless Staff