Do More from your Browser Address Bar

You are already familiar with quite a few browser address bar shortcuts. For instance, type some text in the address bar of your browser (e.g. apple) , press Ctrl + Enter and the browser will automatically send you to the corresponding .com website (in this case, www.apple.com).

The search and address bar of Google Chrome

Or type in some complex search query (e.g., site:firefox.com internet explorer) in the address bar, hit go and the browser will show results from your default search engine*. The address bar of Google Chrome is even smarter as it can offer live suggestions while you are typing the search query.

Other than these built-in shortcuts, you may also want to know about a couple of URL hacks (a better term would be “address bar commands“) that let you do stuff from the address bar itself  – they are pretty easy to remember and don’t require you to install anybookmarklets or add-ons (so you can use them on any computer and even some mobile phones).

1. Capture a screenshot – Go to your browser’s address bar, type aviary.com before the http:// part of the URL and hit Enter. Aviary will immediately capture a full screenshot image of the web page that’s currently open in your browser – here’s an example.

2. Download videos – If you are like to download a YouTube video, just add deturl.comto the URL (see example) and you’ll be able to save the video in either Flash or Quicktime format. This is a pretty useful option for mobile phones that don’t support the flash player but can play Quicktime.

3. Shrink the address – There are about a million URL shortening services out there but if you want to quickly shrink the URL from the address bar itself, try this – just type bit.ly before the URL and it give you the short form on the next screen.

4. Email a web page – If you want to email a link of the current web page to a contact or to your own self, here’s a trick. Just type the mailto command in the address bar and this will compose a new message in your default email program – you can have the URL of the page in either the body of the message or in the subject line itself.

mailto:a@b.com?body=http://google.com/  (a@b.com is the email of your contact)

5. Share or bookmark a web page - If you find the above email command a bit scary, here’s something more simple. Go the address bar of your browser and type smub.it/ just before the URL as in this example. You can then share that page on any social site or even send the link to your friends via email. A perfect option for mobile phones.

6. Who owns that website – If you want to know the email address and other contact details of the owner of a site, the whois record of that site can sometimes help. To view the whois details of the current site, type whois.domaintools.com/ in the address bar (just before the http:// part) and there you have all the information – see example.

7. Send yourself notes – Futz.me is a free service that lets you email text notes, hyperlinks and even images from the right the address bar of your browser.

Go to the address bar, type futzme.com/xyz followed by a space (xyz is your unique username) and anything that’s after the space will be sent to your email address. If you use Futz.me with a URL that points to an image, the image will be sent you via an email attachment or even through MMS (if you are in the US). Thanks Veronica.

8. Mobile friendly web – If you are reading web pages on a mobile phone, you can easily convert the current page into a mobile friendly version by adding http://mopwn.com/ in front of the URL in your address bar as in this example. Internally, the mopwn service will simply forward your request to Google Transcoder but it’s still very handy.

Related: Browse the web faster on a slow Internet connection

9. When the default is not Google – When you type a search phrase in the address bar of your browser, the query gets executed using the default search engine which is Google in both Firefox and Google Chrome (factory settings).

Now if you are using IE with Bing or have manually changed the default to something else, here’s how you can still query Google from the address bar without changing any of the current settings. Go to the address bar and type gog.is followed by the search terms. For instance, gog.is/digital,inspiration will show Google pages for “Digital Inspiration”.

Update: If your address bar search queries are getting redirected to OpenDNS, here’s a quick fix.

Build a Wireless Home Network without a Router

Let’s say you have one internet connection at home that you want to share across all your desktop and laptop computers, your Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, media players (like the iPod Touch), video game consoles (like the Xbox), digital photo frames and any other wireless devices that you may have at home.

How do you do this?

The easiest way to setup a wireless network, as we all know, is with the help of a router – just attach a wireless router to your modem and any Wi-Fi enabled gear, that’s located inside the signal range of your router, will be able to connect to the web using that lone Internet connection.

Setup Wireless Network without a Wireless Router

Now consider a slightly different scenario – you have all these Wi-Fi enabled devices at home but there’s no router. Well, there’s no reason to buy one because you can still easily setup a wireless network as long as your computers have a wireless network adapter*.

[*] Most new desktops and laptop computers are already equipped with internal network adapters so you are ready to go without a router.

If your computer doesn’t have built-in wireless capabilities, you can either buy a USB network adapter that plugs into the USB port of your desktop or go for a wireless adapterthat directly plugs into your notebook’s PC Card slot. Desktop users can also opt for an internal wireless PCI card but you’ll have to open the computer case in order to install this network adapter.

Create a Wi-Fi Network without a Router

Now that you have everything in place to create a Wi-Fi network, let’s actually build one.

For Windows XP and Vista users

If your main computer, that is already connected to the internet, is running Windows XP, Vista or even Mac OS X, you can set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and the other wireless devices can then connect to the web via this ad-hoc network (also called a computer-to-computer network).

You can read the steps below or watch this excellent video that demonstrates how to turn your Windows Vista, Windows XP, or your Mac OS X laptops into a wireless hot spot via ad hoc networking.

Wired Connection In, Wireless Connection Out

It’s an easy process. To set up an ad-hoc network in Windows Vista, go to Network and Sharing Center from the control panel, select "Set up a connection or network" and choose "Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network".

Make sure you select "Save this network" option else the ad hoc network will be removed if no other computers / devices are connecting to the network.

 

Turn on Internet Sharing in the next screen and now your other home computers can connect to the ad hoc network just like they would connect to any regular wireless network. Setting up an ad hoc network in XP takes a couple of extra steps but also make sure the host computer is running at least XP SP2 or SP3.

For Windows 7 users

If you are on Windows 7, you can instantly turn your desktop or laptop computer into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without having to configure anything. All you need is a free software called Virtual Router and the computer connected to the internet must be running Windows 7*.

[*] Virtual Router works will all editions of Windows 7 except the Starter edition because Microsoft has disabled the Virtual Wifi feature in that particular edition.

Using the virtual router is simple – just run the program on any Windows 7 computer, assign a password and that’s it. In the above example, I used the Virtual Router to connect an iPod, an Ubuntu Linux laptop and a Windows desktop to the Internet via a Windows 7 notebook where that virtual router software was running.

As new devices join the Wireless network, their assigned IP and MAC addresses instantly appear in the Virtual Router window. And you can click the "Stop Router" button anytime to deactivate the hotspot and disable Internet sharing.

Virtual Wi-Fi vs Ad Hoc Wireless Networking

To set up Ad Hoc networking, your main computer needs to have an Ethernet based Internet connection as well as a Wireless (WLAN) network adapter. In the case of Virtual Wi-Fi, the Ethernet card is optional so you can turn a laptop into a hotspot even if your laptop itself is connected to a Wireless network and not to an Ethernet cable.

Computers and other wireless devices in ad hoc networks must be within 30 feet of each other but there’s no such restriction in the case of Virtual Wireless networks.

Ad-Hoc wireless networking is available on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 while Virtual WiFi, which is much easier to setup, is only* available for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008.

[*] Intel’s Centrino 2 processors include a new technology called My Wifi that can also turn your wirelessly connected laptop into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot but the interesting part is that this supports Windows Vista as well in addition to Windows 7. See video: