Skip to main content

OpenDNS ShortCuts Make Your Browser Address Bar More Powerful

Do you use the browser address bar as a Google or Yahoo search box ? Here's a much better and more useful solution from OpenDNS.

Long time readers of Digital Inspiration may know that we are big fans of OpenDNS service as it makes our internet much faster and more secure with a very simple tweak.

Just change the default DNS server address provided by your ISP with the following DNS addresses and you may immediately notice that websites load much faster on your computer:
     208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
The DNS server can be changed from the TCP/IP Properties section. [Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Local Network Connection -> TCP IP Properties]

OpenDNS Browser Shortcuts
OpenDNS today launched another useful service today called OpenDNS shortcuts that make your browser address bar more useful and somewhat intelligent - you can control how the address bar reacts to your commands.

With OpenDNS shortcuts turned on, the address bar of your Firefox, IE or other browsers can be used to launch websites via shortcuts (like c for cnn.com or m for gmail.com) or web queries with parameters (like g for google.com/search/q=%s).

It is also possible to start your favorite messenger clients like AOL or Google Talk from the address bar and chat with buddies quickly. Haven't tried yet, but should be fairly simple to launch iTunes music software from the browser bar now.

A lot of IE and Firefox users set their address bars to behave as I'm Feeling Lucky feature of Google. OpenDNS shortcuts, that will be switched on in few hours, will offer a more functional address bar not just limited to Google or Yahoo search.

Update: Though I am still waiting for an official confirmation, it should be possible to use the OpenDNS shortcuts feature with the modified keyword.URL property of Firefox.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Download Contacts from Facebook To Outlook Address Book

Facebook users are not too pleased with the "walled garden" approach of Facebook. The reason is simple - while you can easily import your Outlook address book and GMail contacts into Facebook, the reverse path is closed. There's no "official" way to export your Facebook friends email addresses or contact phone numbers out as a CSV file so that you can sync the contacts data with Outlook, GMail or your BlackBerry. Some third-party Facebook hacks like "Facebook Sync" (for Mac) and "Facebook Downloader" (for Windows) did allow you to download your Facebook friends' names, emails, mobile phone number and profile photo to the desktop but they were quickly removed for violation of Facebook Terms of Use. How to Download Contacts from Facebook There are still some options to take Friends data outside the walls of Facebook wall. Facebook offers the Takeout option allowing you to download all Facebook data locally to the disk (include

Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts for Power Users

All features in Mozilla Firefox browser are accessible through the use of the keyboard. You can use shortcut keys to view and save Web pages, search the web, open new webpages, work with bookmarks, or find text on the current webpage. Some of the most common keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox are Ctrl+N (to open a new Firefox window), Ctrl+T (to open a new tab), Ctrl+F4 (to close the current tab) and Ctrl+S to save the current webpage. Mozilla Firefox supports many more powerful keyboard shortcuts. For instance, by pressing a simple key combination, you can manually delete autocomplete entries from the Firefox location bar or Web forms. I am sharing a list of my favorite Mozilla Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts that make web browsing with Firefox even more fun . And you also save your precious time as navigating through several layers of Firefox Toolbar menus is no longer necessary. 1. Web Search Ctrl+K moves the cursor to the Search Bar. You can then type in the terms you wish to fin

Digital Inspiration

Digital Inspiration is a popular tech blog by  Amit Agarwal . Our popular Google Scripts include  Gmail Mail Merge  (send personalized emails with Gmail ),  Document Studio (generate PDFs from Google Forms ) and   File Upload Forms ( receive files  in Google Drive). Also see  Reverse Image Mobile Search , Online Speech Recognition and Website Screenshots , the most useful websites on the Internet.