Tip: tuning up Google Chrome / Firefox to search @ our help and support web sites faster

Both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox support search shortcuts (or custom search providers): if you prefix an URL you enter by one of keywords, the browser transforms the text behind that keyword to URL by a customizable rule, and opens it.

I'm going to show how to tune up Chrome to add a set of useful search shortcuts for help.x-tensive.com and support.x-tensive.com. Steps for Mozilla Firefox must be very similar.

Open "Options" page in Chrome, and click "Manage" button at "Default search" section there:

You must see nearly the following page. I already configured 3 custom search providers in my browser:

To add these 3 providers, click on "Add" button and fill the form as follows:

Repeating this once more:

And finally (full URL here is "http://support.x-tensive.com/search/?q=%s&t=question"):

As result, you'll be able to search through our help and support web sites faster.

Type "xh " in address bar:

Then, type a keyword to find in help index:

And hit "Enter". The result:

Adding similar search shortcuts for StackOverflow and MSDN is a good idea as well :)