If you love searching Google from the official Firefox search bar on the top right of Firefox, now you can search our site Quick Online Tips direct from the search bar. Though I had mentioned about the Mycroft project earlier, I finally managed to use Mycroft to get my own first firefox search plugin.
Creating your plugin
They have detailed steps on how to create your first firefox search plugin. Just follow each line of code they describe and switch their text with your own settings as per your blog settings. Save it as a text file with the extension .src (e.g. blogname.src) using any text editor like your Windows Notepad. Create and save a 16×16 png or gif image with the same name as the .src file (e.g. blogname.png) – I just grabbed a cropped snapshot of my favicon. The .src code does the job for you while the image files displays your logo.
Testing your plugin
Before you submit, you need to test if it works on your computer’s firefox before submitting to Mycroft. Copy both these files (blogname.src and blogname.png) to the Searchplugins folder located in my computer here
C: > Program Files > Mozilla Firefox > Searchplugins
Now restart firefox and you should see your own search plugin in the drop down list. Select it and directly search the site.
Submit your plugin
Now is the time to submit to Mycroft. In a multi step process you need to upload your .src file and .png file; it automatically verifies if the basic code is working well. Finally someone approves your plugin and it goes live in the Mycroft directory of thousands of plugins. You can find Quick Online Tip search plugin in the News/Technology section. Just click the link and it autoinstalls itself. You can then offer plugins to visitors from your site. Get the Quick Online Tips Firefox search plugin.
The Mycroft Advantage
The advantage of using Mycroft is that they host your search plugin, and it is available via their extensive directory for the world to download and use. People can find your site and add it to their search engine lists on Firefox. You can later update your plugin code too and users can ‘judge’ that it works well and a tested and working tick will appear. You can select a Wordwide or country status, useful for those advanced plugins searchers. Mycroft is officially linked from the add more search engines page and is a respected resource.
Alternatives
I did that in 20 minutes. If that sounds too complicated, you can do it in 2 minutes by using a cut and paste code for the favourite site you want to search, or make the files yourself and offer visitors to download and install in the search plugins folder (like Lifehacker).
Or forget about all this and do it in 2 seconds using the Google site-specific shortcut in your Google search box every time like
site:quickonlinetips.com "search term"
Removing Plugins
Just in case your plugins list gets too long. You can easily remove firefox seach plugins using the SearchPluginHacks firefox extension. Simply right click and delete.