My life changed forever the day I discovered you can center click to open and close a Firefox tab. Just center click (click the mouse scroll wheel) a link on a page to open the link in a new tab, without losing focus on the current page. And when you’re done with the tab, just center click anywhere on it to close.

It’s a minor feature, but now I wonder how I lived without it.

Yesterday, I came across a few more useful Firefox features that I’ve already incorporated into my day-to-day repertoire. These tips center on getting more out of the aptly named Awesome Bar – a much-hyped feature of Firefox 3+.

1. Location bar search

All the documentation I’ve found claims that simply typing a keyword into the Awesome Bar (a.k.a Location bar) will, by default, search for that term via Google. This has never worked for me.

When I type Andrew Bird into the Location bar, I get re-directed to a OpenDNS page with a few awkward links. Certainly not the robust search I was hoping for.

Mozilla support says they use Google’s Browse by Name service for Awesome Bar searches, but the Google toolbar support page says “This feature is only available for Toolbar for Internet Explorer.”

Weird. I’m not really sure what this means…all I know is that it doesn’t work for me.

For the time being, I’ve simply altered Firefox’s keyword service to use Bing instead. Here’s how:

• Type about:config in the Firefox Location bar
• Click through the “This might void your warranty!” warning page
• Search for keyword.URL
• Click the URL entered under Value (probably says something like http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q)
• Replace this with the URL for the search engine of your choice, for example:
• Yahoo – http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=
• Bing – http://www.bing.com/search?q=

Now, just type a search term directly into the Awesome Bar and you should get search results from the selected search engine.

(You can also follow Mozilla’s directions for changing your keyword service)

2. Smart keywords

I use the built-in search (the search toolbar in the upper right corner of Firefox) hundreds of times a day. It’s an incredibly convenient to quickly search using Google, Thesaurus.com, or Wikipedia all in one place.

Still, I’m lazy and sometimes I get annoyed by having to switch search engines using the drop down list. Enter Smart Keywords.

Using Smart Keywords, you can assign a keyword to each search engine. For example, you can assign Wikipedia to the keyword wiki. Then simply type the keyword followed by your search term directly into the Location bar.

Simply entering something like wiki korngold will instantly bring up the Wikipedia entry on Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

To add Smart Keywords:

• Go to the search engine drop down list and select Manage Search Engines…
• Click on an existing search engine and hit Edit Keyword…
• Type in the keyword you want to use for that search engine and hit OK

That’s it! Don’t forget to add keywords for my personal favorites: Thesaurus.com and IMDB.

3. Bookmark keywords

The Awesome Bar relies heavily on your bookmarks and history to provide relevant site suggestions. For even faster access to your bookmarks, set up bookmark keywords.

Here’s how to associate the keyword alist with one of your bookmarked sites, A List Apart.

• Open your Library by going to Bookmarks > Organize bookmarks…
• Navigate to the proper bookmark and select it
• In the bottom pane (where it says Name, Location, Tags) click the More down arrow
• Type in alist as the value for Keyword

Voilà! Now just type alist into your Location bar and you’ll be taken directly to the fantastic design articles on A List Apart.

Of course, you can also improve Bookmark searches by adding tags to each bookmark (but I’m generally too lazy for that).

Have fun with your new-found productivity and Happy Thanksgiving!