Megan Ellis / Android Authority
There are a variety of ways I have been trying to improve my productivity on my browser, especially after making the switch away from Chrome. I’ve tried read-it-later apps, a new approach to bookmarks, and some useful extensions.
But recently, I discovered a tool that’s not only already built into browsers like Chrome and Brave but is also simple enough to fit seamlessly into my workflow. This feature is called custom search shortcuts, and it has been hiding under my nose for years.
What is your favorite built-in browser productivity hack? 9 votes Custom shortcuts. 44 % Tab management tools. 22 % The bookmarks bar. 33 % The AI assistant. 0 % Something else (Let us know in the comments!). 0 %
What are custom search shortcuts?
Megan Ellis / Android Authority
While I was aware that you could switch to custom search engines in most browsers, I didn’t realize that these came along with shortcuts that you could use to launch specific engines and websites from your address bar. This means that not only can you search within specific sites through your address bar, but you can also assign short text commands to access these sites and other bookmarks easily.
For example, if you like to use one search engine for research and another for shopping, you don’t need to change your default browser or first visit the search engine’s home page. With shortcuts, you can trigger the search engine from your address bar with a short text command. In addition, you can use text commands to act as shortcuts to websites in general with certain browsers.
You can set up these shortcuts in Chromium browsers (including Chrome, Brave, and Edge), as well as Firefox. Depending on exactly which browser you use, different options will already be built in — but you can easily add additional ones.
Chromium browsers like Chrome and Brave have these shortcuts built in, while Firefox has a slightly different spin on the feature.
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