This section is a continuation of a portion of the topic -- Bookmark Shortcuts, Keyword Shortcuts Creation and Keyboard ShortcutsGoogle will remove characters like # and - and . and treat it as a phrase. This has an advantage in that something that you don't know if it should be two words or one hyphenated word equate to the same search. In Firefox keyword shortcuts the # sign and the % sign are a particular problem since they can be in a url.
Some characters in searches are a particular problem because some can be used in a URL and may be replaced as follows: (“#”, “%23”), (“$”, “%24”), (“%”, “%25”). In addition Google's syntax for searches uses a plus (+) for required words, and a minus(-) for unwanted words, and a tilde(~) for synonyms. The words AND and OR can be used as well. Google does not appear to support parentheses. Asterisks for wildcards are only supported for the newsgroups at beginning or end and are not supported for other words in search (no word roots).The following are used in supplying parameters to the advanced search panel: q= for the search for all words, and ugroup= for the user group. To bypass the search panel and directly invoke the search use as_q and as_ugroup respectively.Message-id is the only real universal unique identifier that a news posting has.
Google has forced a Beta test on US Google Advanced Groups search which had caused all kinds of problems with anything with # in it - this has supposedly been fixed (Dec 10, 2004), but if you have problems with http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search you might want to also try http://groups.google.co.uk/advanced_group_search which is not currently forcing the Beta testing (Dec 21, 2004).
You cannot specify a url with a fragment-id directly into a Google search, you must use the panel. You can replace the # with a hyphen for a direct search.
The following will generate a direct search:
gg: Google Groups Advanced Search (*excel*)
[-- http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=*excel*&num=100&as_q=%s --]The following will bring up the advanced search panel:
gga: Google Groups Advanced Search (*excel*) Panel
[-- http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*+%s&num=100 --]It appears that the Beta version has been fixed and you can now enter something like:
gg: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#fixuszip5
though it should be noted that if you then click on the "Advanced Groups" hyperlink you will get the url as a phrase and the fragment-id as find all words, which will not be the same search. Also note this would be true with the non Beta UK search as well.Problems (#gg_problems)
The following problems appear using shortcut keywords, will enter solutions when found. Closing and Reopening Firefox had no effect. as f goo
- gga is not a registered protocol
- gga: print
- missing %s -- http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*num=100
- corrected with -- http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*+%s&num=100
There really aren't any firefox newsgroups as there are several places to direct actual questions more directly to those that can answer them. Nevertheless you will see an attempt at the Google Groups Beta to start one and which understandably has very little participation because anyone installing Firefox will see the better places.
- mozdev.org - www: community/irc, mozdev.org has an IRC channel: #mozdev on irc.mozilla.org. Stop by to ask question about Mozilla development, mozdev.org site issues, or to help other members of the community.
- Mozilla Tips :: View Forum - Firefox