One of my favorite features of Internet Explorer for Windows (4.0 or later) is not widely known. You have the ability to do your own searches from the "Address Bar"--that is, the place where you normally type URLs.

For example, on my PC, I can type "y mozart" and I'll get the Yahoo search results for "mozart", just as if I'd gone to Yahoo and typed "mozart" in the search box there.

It doesn't have to be just a generic Internet search engine, either. I can also type "eb mozart" and it searches the Encycopedia Britannica online!

This ability, which Microsoft calls Quick Search, is built into Internet Explorer, but you need to download a tool from Microsoft to configure it. Click here if you have IE 5.0 or here if you have IE 4.0.

You can load my personal search entries by loading this file. This is a Windows registry file. Save it as srchurl.reg and then double-click that file in Windows file explorer.

Here are some of my search entries:

av
AltaVista Search Engine
ava
AltaVista Advanced Search Engine
Example: ava (Brooks near Wilder) and Frankenstein
ex
Excite Search Engine
google
Google Search Engine
nl
Northern Light Search Engine
y
Yahoo directory/Search engine
dmoz
Open Directory
quote
Yahoo stock quotes
deja
DejaNews Usenet search
Example: deja Hermione and pronounce
eb
Encyclopedia Britannica
imdbt
Internet Movie Database Title search
Example: imdbt midnight run
imdbp
Internet Movie Database Person search
Example: imdbp Kevin Bacon
dict
Dictionary.com
mwdict
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
amazon
Amazon book search
bn
Barnes & Noble book search
unct
Search my university library
whois
Internet Whois service
Example: whois etoy.com
jargon
The Jargon file
Example: jargon copious free time