feature request for the deprecated chrome search engine shortcut feature

[popeliao]

Chrome stopped supporting omnibar url shortcut behavior

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1j4a4x5/chrome_site_search_with_no_s_in_url_are_suddenly/

I am wondering can vimium support this? (Or maybe it already support today?)

The feature we want is something like this:

1. press O so that the address bar shows up in vimium
2. type a pre-defined shortcut url, e.g. "fvz" for "http://finviz.com/"
3. type Enter
4. A new tab goes to "http://finviz.com/"

The total keystroke is "O" "fvz" "Enter"

[philg-dev]

Custom search engines in Vimium are supported even when no %s placeholder is present. The only "downside" for using them is, that you'll have to type a space character after typing your shorthand.

So if you add a custom search engine as follows:

fvz: https://finviz.com/ Finviz

Then you could go to finviz by typing Ofvz<space><enter>.
Alternatively since a static URL without a placeholder isn't really a search engine, you could probably also just create a bookmark. Maybe you can add a tag to the bookmark with fvz and that should probably make it easy to get to the desired site with the native Chrome URL bar or with Vimium's vomnibar in bookmark mode b (default to open bookmarks in current tab) or B (default to open bookmarks in a new tab).

[popeliao]

Thanks Phil!

A follow up question, what do you mean add a 'tag' to the bookmark?

Another question, is there a way to change the chrome URL bar behavior? I feel like chrome extension is good for manipulate chrome URL bar behavior, right?

[philg-dev]

I don't use Chrome, but I'm pretty sure it should support tagging your bookmarks as well...
Edit: I just checked in Chromium,... looks like there's no tagging option for bookmarks, even in the bookmarks management menu... I'll add that to the list of reasons not to use Chrome... Disappointing.

In Firefox you can create a bookmark and add tags to it. You might have to visit your bookmarks and choose the edit option on a bookmark of your choice to get advanced options like tagging. Tags are generally pretty useful to be able to find a specific bookmark more easily in the future, if you don't visit it as often.

I think Chrome in general is not very customizable compared to some other browsers... I'm not sure how much control extensions have over the native URL bar... Chromium based browsers like Vivaldi or Brave have some more options for customization, I think - but I haven't used those much either and I don't know what kind of URL bar behavior you have on your mind that you want to change.

Edit: in Vivaldi you can choose a "Nickname" for your bookmarks and add a description. Typing something in the URL bar that you've entered as a nickname or description for a bookmark will find that bookmark, just like tags in Firefox would do. I honestly don't know how a functionality like that isn't available in vanilla Chromium.