Last week we released a new Firefox extension named Keyword Box (we also submitted it to the addons.mozilla.org site, but it will take some time for it to be made available to the general public from there). What is Keyword Box? Quoting from the Keyword Box product page:
Keyword Box is a free (no cost) extension for Mozilla Firefox that adds a toolbar item which invokes a script or URL with the text you enter. The script can be customized to your needs or you can use one of the sample scripts provided by the extension. Keyword Box includes the following sample scripts:
* Web Dev Lookup
Look up CSS properties, HTML tags, JavaScript functions or PHP functions (useful for web developers).* Highlight Text
Highlight (and a yellow background) to each occurrence of a word or phrase on the currently loaded web page.* Go to Mozilla Bug
View Mozilla bug reports including those for Firefox and Thunderbird.* Weather
Get weather information for U.S. locations (useful for people who travel often.)* Map
Show information from Google Maps.
The screenshot below shows Keyword Box in action. In this case, Keyword Box was configured with the Map sample script, so entering “mountain view, ca” in the keyword box and pressing enter caused a Google Maps page to load.
Why Use Keyword Box?
Keyword Box provides capabilities similar to bookmark keywords in Firefox. We created Keyword Box because some people prefer to have a specific text entry field that makes the availability of a shortcut more prominent.
Originally, this extension was requested by one of our clients. But we think many people will find a use for it. So try Keyword Box and then let us know what you think.