Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Firefox and URL

What's the best way to deal with Outbrain links in Firefox?

straight — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:49:43 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension or something that will change Outbrain links into the regular links they appear to be when you first mouse over them? I've got something (Adblock Plus, probably) that blocks them from working, but that means I can't follow such links at all.

I don't want a solution that just allows the links to work the way Outbrain intends, I want to go to the link directly without their mediation.

Mimic Firefox address bar behaviour in Chrome

jontyjago — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:55:03 -0800

In Firefox I can easily find a site I've already visited by typing part of the URL and I get a list of URLs containing that string in a dropdown beneath the address. Can I get Chrome to do this? For example, typing "min" into my Firefox address bar is a quick way to find all the URLs I have visited with the word "minecraft" in them - the most visited one at the top.

This does not work in Chrome, or if it does it's very hit and miss because it seems to search the page content, not the URL itself. For example typing "flood" into the address box (omnibox) brings up two totally unrelated sites but not the one URL in my history with the word "flood" in it.

I'd like to use Chrome more, but this really is a dealbreaker - is there any way round this?

Search only URLs on a page?

BeerFilter — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:31:50 -0800

Using FireFox, can I search the link text (the URL) on a given page instead of the anchor text? I want to search a big MeFi thread for the video ID of a YouTube vid to see if it's been posted already. I know how to use Find-As-You-Type to search the page for normal text (/) and only anchor text ('). I want to search the URLs linked from the page, since the anchor text could be anything.

Example (caution Rickroll): LOL Check this out

Can FF search this very page for oHg5SJYRHA0 inside that HTML tag, short of viewing and and searching the entire page source?

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL?

farmersckn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:20:02 -0800

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL? This askmefi post has some potentially useful info but it does not apply in my case.

In Firefox 3.06, if I type a bad URL into my address bar, such as http://blah/ and instead of doing a google search or an error page, or showing me a url that I might have been attempting to reach, like blah.com, it takes me to this spam search page: "http://hwerror.hwpub.com/?ck=esb02oob60&et=1".

I have modified "keyword.url" in my about:config to do a google search on keywords (different than the default I'm feeling Lucky Search), but it has no effect when I type only a single word into my address bar and hit enter.

I have tried to disable "keyword.enabled" and that has no effect on this problem either.

I have run firefox in safe mode and it has the same result.

I have already switched my DNS server to OpenDNS and confirmed that it is working, so I do not believe that my ISP is re-routing my request.

It is interesting to me, that if I view source on the page, it shows a frameset, and only within that frameset does it pull in the url for the search page referenced above.

I believe that somewhere inside the code or configuration files, or possibly an extension, Firefox has been tweaked to do this to me. Is it possible for me to reconfigure it so that it does not happen?

I am already aware that I am causing this by typing a malformed URL, and that I can do keyword searches if I type two words into the address bar, and also that I can hit CTRL+ENTER to magically append ".com" to a single word in the address bar.

I just want to know if there is a way to put this intercept this redirect and put in my own to google or whatever I desire.

Thank you all.

Making Firefox Copy and Paste HTML Code?

WCityMike — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:25:47 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension — preferably a Firefox 2 extension — that will alter Firefox's copying behavior so that, when you copy something, it is copied to the clipboard (or pasted from the clipboard) as its HTML, instead of plain text? For example, if I were to copy this text:

I usually use Google as my search engine.

to the clipboard, it would be pasted as:

I usually use Google as my search engine.

Is there a Firefox extension that would result in the pasting instead being:

I usually use <A HREF="http://www.google.com">Google<A> as my search engine.

I know there are a few Windows-only Firefox extensions out there. Ideally this'd be a crossplatform extension: I use a Windows Firefox on a thumb drive and a Mac Firefox at home, and would like this functionality in both places.

If I get the option of being really picky, this would preferably replace the functionality of copy/paste as opposed to requiring me to learn a new keystroke ...

Firefox extension for long URLs?

neustile — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:29:14 -0800

Is there a Firefox extension that will let me edit long URLs on multiple lines, or do I have to keep editing them in text editors and copying them over? I work with some web services that have huge URLs. Scrolling horizontally in the URL field is a nightmare, especially when everything looks the same. I currently compose my testing URLs in a text editor and copy them over, but it would be nice if I could do it in the browser. I'm looking for something that expands the URL field to multiple lines and then it'll parse out tabs and newlines when I finish the request.

Using Firefox with Yahoo mail: How do I make "clickable" a url that is pasted into the body of an email?

bbranden1 — Sat, 19 May 2007 09:59:15 -0800

Using Firefox with Yahoo mail: How do I make "clickable" a url that is pasted into the body of an email? This happens when I use Firefox (1.5.0.11) to send urls in emails via Yahoo web based email: upon pasting a url link into the body of an email, the url doesn't appear highlighted/underlined. The problem: when sent, the recipient cannot click on the link to open the page which the url refers to, but rather has to manually copy the url and paste the link into the address bar. This doesn't happen when I use IE.

Why does this happen in Firefox and not IE? Is there a Firefox plug in that would make these pasted urls "clickable"?. Thanks.

Why can't I view this website?

mule — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 16:16:21 -0800

Why can't I view/load this website? For some reason which totally confuses me, I am unable to access this url from my home network.

I can go to the site succesfully at work and from a relatives PC, but whenever I try to connect at home I get a timeout error. I've tried connecting on both PC and Mac using Safari, Firefox and IE.

There is nothing in any firewalls/browser preferences that should be preventing acces to this site, both on the computers and on the ADSL router.

I'm at a total loss. Can anyone offer any helpful hints?

Highlight and click?

zardoz — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:21:50 -0800

I'm looking for a simple plug-in/extension for Firefox that will allow me to highlight a URL's address on a webpage (simple text that isn't hyperlinked), then right-click and load that page on a new tab. Does this exist?

Help me fix my Firefox!

XiBe — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 05:20:34 -0800

A couple of Firefox questions, if you please... Mostly Flash-display related. I've googled a bit, but can't seem to find the right answer. I thought v1.5 would solve it all, but nope. So, I'm turning to you, fellow MeFiers...

1/ The drop-down URL list (from the URL bar) shows the most accessed URL at the bottom, not at the top, which seems illogical, Captain. How come ? Can't find a setting for it in about:config...

2/ Why won't Flash always show ? It works for some, but not all. For instance, the menus in http://www.macromedia.com/ are replaced by an empty space (not even replaced by JavaScript menu), http://www.hi-res.net/ is just a white page, as is http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/.
OTOH, the del.icio.us mp3 player plays, as does the fine French equivalent DewPlayer, or yet another one from, used by robotwisdom.

My wild guess is that the the ones that work do because they would use some kind of simpler markup, maybe, but I really can't tell.

I tried removing NPSWF32.dll wherever I found it, or putting suspect files in plugins_disabled, then reinstalling from Firefox itself, to no avail (what more, it only suggests to install Flash for the SWF that worked before).
My about:plugins shows this, among others (Quicktime, Java, Acrobat, MS DRM...) :

Shockwave Flash
Nom de fichier : NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave Flash 8.0 r22

And, finally : it only does this on my work computer (Win2k, IE6 and Opera play Flash fine), not my home one.

Any idea ?