Comments on: Firefox Tip: Quick Complete URLs

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:51:37 +0000

Grab the Add-on called “URL Suffix” at,

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/443

works a treat. :)

By: Maharajan

Maharajan — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:29:27 +0000

I want to keep the .com, but instead change the .org default crtl+shift+enter.

Couldn’t find any way to do this in the config though – do you know if it’s possible?

By: NJ

NJ — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:48:46 +0000

Ray,

I’m looking for a similar thing as MJ, however I want to keep the .com, but instead change the .org default crtl+shift+enter.

Couldn’t find any way to do this in the config though – do you know if it’s possible?

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:22:39 +0000

Thought that I had best post the answer to MJ’s question for those searching for it.

To change default for pressing Alt+Enter in the address from .com

Type about:config into the address bar and press enter.

Scroll to or type browser.fixup.alternate.suffix into the filer bar, double click on it and change the value to co.uk or whatever you wish.

By: ben

ben — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Actually on a mac, just hit Apple-L to highlight the address bar, type “yahoo” (no quotes) or whatever you’re aiming for, and hit return. No need to “quick complete” or some such silly thing.

This works in Safari and Mac IE as well. Has for years and years. Happy browsing.

By: Nate Koechley

Nate Koechley — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Ben, thanks for the comment. Actually, that works on the PC too in many cases. The downside to letting it “guess”, is that it’s slower. What I think happens in that situation is it performs a quick websearch on the query and takes you to the first result. So, it’s as much slower as running the search would be.

In contrast, if you ask to go to a fully qualified URL (http://www.yahoo.com), then no search or lookup (besides DNS) is needed, and it will be somewhat faster.

Thanks again for the comment.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That is what Win IE seems to do, and it always annoys me. Here’s what happens on the Mac clients:

1) First and foremost, the browser trusts you. In my example, it tries to resolve http://yahoo/ first. (This is nice if you’re on a private network and those addresses are valid. eg at my office http://web/ and http://finance/ are valid web pages).

2) Failing that, it will immediately try adding a www. and a .com. Voila, you’re there.

Under no circumstance will Safari, Mac FireFox, or Mac IE do a web search on your address bar entry.

By: randy

randy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To summarize and add a few more:
– Ctrl+L selects URL line (same as Alt+D from IE)
– Ctrl+Enter adds .com and goes
– Ctrl+Shift+Enter adds .org and goes
– Shift+Enter adds .net and goes
– Throw Alt in and it opens in a new tab for any of the above

By: justaguy

justaguy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

All of these browsers handle incomplete URLs more or less the same way: they just go to a website and grab the first match. Firefox uses google, IE uses some MS thing.

To prove this, type “http” in Firefox and press enter. A Google search of the same will explain the result.

By: Joe Cheng

Joe Cheng — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ben, this technique really is noticably faster than letting it guess.

Unfortunately, on Mac, Firefox doesn't support .com or .org, only .net. Check out the reference; the "Complete .com" and "Complete .org" commands say "Win/Linux" next to them. I actually found this blog while googling for a rationale.