FireLuckyBox

FireLuckyBox is an extension for the Firefox web browser that adds a keyboard shorcut to the Firefox search box which automatically sends you to the first web page that Google would return for your query. With FireLuckyBox, the power of the I'm Feeling Lucky button is a mere keystroke away from the Firefox search box.

Download

Just click the Install FireLuckyBox button below to install FireLuckyBox.
You will have to restart your browser for the installation to take effect.

Usage

Using the keyboard (control+K on Windows, control+J on Linux), you can move the cursor to the Firefox search box in the upper-right-hand corner of the browser (just clicking the box works fine, too, of course). Type your query into the box and then hit control+rightarrow to go directly to the web page of the first Google result for your query.

Note: Alternatively, without even installing FireLuckyBox, you can just type goto here-is-my-query in the location/address bar to go to the first Google search result for here-is-my-query. This may not work if you deleted the Quick Searches bookmarks that come with Firefox.

FAQs

Why did you choose such a lousy shortcut?
Because all of the good shortcuts were already taken. I really wanted to make it control+enter, but Firefox automatically does a regular web search when enter is pressed in the search box, and unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to override it.

Can I choose my own shortcut?
Not at the moment. If enough people protest, then I'll make the shortcut configurable through the preferences dialog. I was really hoping to make this the smallest Firefox extension ever, so I'd really like to avoid any paths that could lead to feature creep.

Can I get the source code for FireLuckyBox?
Sure. It's available in both tar and zip formats. You can build the extension yourself using Ant.

Is adding a keyboard shortcut really all this extension does?
Yes. I also tried to package an overaly that would make the search box resizable; however, I was unsuccessful in doing so. I find the narrow search box quite frustrating, and I believe that Jakob Nielsen would share my woes (see Designing Web Usability, page 233).

Related Work

I am also working on a Firefox extension called Google Dominoes that functions as a special type of Google toolbar. Please feel free to try it out and let me know what you think.