You probably use the address bar in userr browser to search web pages. Now learn how to use the address bar to capture screenshots, send emails, get videos or even shorten the URLs.You are already familiar with quite a few browser address bar shortcuts. For instance, type some text in the address bar of userr browser (e.g. apple) , press Ctrl + Enter and the browser will automatically send user to the corresponding .com website (in this case, www.apple.com).
The search and address bar of Google Chrome
Or type in some complex search query (e.g., site:firefox.com internet explorer) in the address bar, hit go and the browser will show results from userr default search engine*. The address bar of Google Chrome is even smarter as it can offer live suggestions while user are typing the search query.
Other than these built-in shortcuts, user may also want to know about a couple of URL hacks (a better term would be “address bar commands“) that let user do stuff from the address bar itself – they are pretty easy to remember and don’t require user to install any bookmarklets or add-ons (so user can use them on any computer and even some mobile phones).
1. Capture a screenshot – Go to userr browser’s address bar, type aviary.com before the http:// part of the URL and hit Enter. Aviary will immediately capture a full screenshot image of the web page that’s currently open in userr browser – here’s an example.
2. Download videos – If user are like to get a YouTube video, just add deturl.comto the URL (see example) and user’ll be able to save the video in either Flash or Quicktime format. This is a pretty useful option for mobile phones that don’t support the flash player but can play Quicktime.
3. Shrink the address – There are about a million URL shortening services out there but if user want to quickly shrink the URL from the address bar itself, try this – just type bit.ly before the URL and it give user the short form on the next screen.
4. Email a web page – If user want to email a link of the current web page to a contact or to userr own self, here’s a trick. Just type the mailto command in the address bar and this will compose a new message in userr default email program – user can have the URL of the page in either the body of the message or in the subject line itself.
mailto:a@b.com?body=http://google.com/ (a@b.com is the email of userr contact)
5. Share or bookmark a web page - If user find the above email command a bit scary, here’s something more simple. Go the address bar of userr browser and type smub.it/ just before the URL as in this example. You can then share that page on any social site or even send the link to userr friends via email. A perfect option for mobile phones.
6. Who owns that website – If user want to know the email address and other contact details of the owner of a site, the whois record of that site can sometimes help. To view the whois details of the current site, type whois.domaintools.com/ in the address bar (just before the http:// part) and there user have all the information – see example.
7. Send userrself notes – Futz.me is a free service that lets user email text notes, hyperlinks and even images from the right the address bar of userr browser.
Go to the address bar, type futzme.com/xyz followed by a space (xyz is userr unique username) and anything that’s after the space will be sent to userr email address. If user use Futz.me with a URL that points to an image, the image will be sent user via an email attachment or even through MMS (if user are in the US).
8. Mobile friendly web – If user are reading web pages on a mobile phone, user can easily convert the current page into a mobile friendly version by adding http://mopwn.com/ in front of the URL in userr address bar. Internally, the mopwn service will simply forward userr request to Google Transcoder but it’s still very handy.
9. When the default is not Google – When user type a search phrase in the address bar of userr browser, the query gets executed using the default search engine which is Google in both Firefox and Google Chrome (factory settings).
Now if user are using IE with Bing or have manually changed the default to something else, here’s how user can still query Google from the address bar without changing any of the current settings. Go to the address bar and type gog.is followed by the search terms. For instance, gog.is/free,techno will show Google pages for “Free-Techno”.
Update: If userr address bar search queries are getting redirected to OpenDNS, here’s a quick fix.
