Opening searches in a new tab

search box

When I search I have an inefficient habit: Ctrl-T + google.com + enter + type query + enter.

When I thought about it, I realized my habit exists because when you search using the search box Firefox provides, it opens the results in the current tab, which causes you to lose your place. So, since I had to open a new tab every time anyway, I would do it manually and skip the search box.

There is a pref browser.search.openintab that, when set to true, forces search results from the search box to open in a new window. Dolske pointed this out to me today in IRC because I didn’t feel like Googling it and he was nice enough to help me. Thanks, Dolske.

This helps me because:

  • I typically don’t ever want to leave the page I’m looking at when i’m looking up a definition or term on Google or Wikipedia.
  • To avoid losing my place, I would always Ctrl-T then search.
  • I hardly ever used to use the search bar because it was arbitrary to Ctrl-T + google.com + enter + type query + enter, which I can do in less than ~1.5 seconds.

I will use Google before asking dumb questions. I will use Google before asking dumb questions.