Shortwave adds your shortcut commands to browser

Shortwave is a bookmark that adds quick-search and shortcut capabilities to your favorite browser. You can add any command to your list of Shortwave commands by simply editing a text file. Commands consist of predefined trigger and optional search term. For example, you can add a command to launch Google homepage when you type ‘g’ or search for a word xxx when you type ‘gs xxx’.

At the core of Shortwave is a bookmarklet that you need to add to your browser. When you click this bookmarklet, you will see a JavaScript prompt asking you to enter the command. You type ‘g’ to launch Google or any other command you have in the command file to trigger the specified action.

You can check the default commands on this help page. If you want to add, change or modify the default commands, you have to download the commands file from the website and modify it using the instructions provided on the file itself. Once you have modified the commands file, you have to upload it to a website to use it. If you don’t have a website, upload it to the Windows Live SkyDrive or Dropbox’s public folder and get the public URL. Paste this public URL of your commands file in text box on Shortwave website and get the new bookmarklet.

You can add shortcuts to your Firefox bookmarks and launch them easily by typing it in the address bar. Then what are the advantages of Shortwave ?

• Not all browsers support shortcuts. If you use Google Chrome, you are out of luck. Shortwave works with all browsers.
• If you use multiple browsers, syncing the browser-specific shortcuts is difficult, if not impossible. As all your shortcuts are in the commands file and not stored in the bookmark itself, Shortwave bookmarklet on all your browsers is always in sync.
• Shortwave shortcuts are not associated with your bookmarks. So, you can launch and do other actions with any site even if it is not in your bookmarks list.

Shortwave is very useful to launch your frequently visited websites and also to do quick searches on any site. I have been using it for a while and found it very useful.