Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash instead of query string?

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by exodust on Monday January 09, 2017 @01:47AM (#13354521)

On a related note, and probably obvious to many, I've just discovered I can make a nice little link to a one-result search, handy for a bookmark.

Things like current temperature and forecast I don't want a dedicated app for when a simple search is more efficient...

https://www.google.com/search?num=1&q=temperature+london

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by piyush_soni on Monday January 09, 2017 @03:43AM (#13354918)

Yes, and if you're using Firefox, you can this with the knowledge of its Smart Keywords to create super quick shortcuts!

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-search-from-address...

For example, I directly go to Wikipedia's page on "India " by typing wp India in my address bar using these search keywords, or search images of birds on google by typing gi birds in it.

(There's a rather cumbersome way to do the same in Chrome as well)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by notzorbo3 on Monday January 09, 2017 @03:57AM (#13354988)

It's not that cumbersome in Chrome. Right click the URL bar -> "Edit search engines" -> Find the search engine you'd like to easily search, double click the second column and enter a keyword for it. For example, for wikipedia, I have "wp" as a keyword. In the URL bar, you can just type "wp<tab>" and you can search wikipedia.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by notatoad on Monday January 09, 2017 @04:38AM (#13355166)

you don't even have to do any configuration. after you've used a search box that's correctly formatted (like wikipedia's is) chrome automatically offers you the option to "press tab to search" when you start typing that's site's url.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by Ajedi32 on Monday January 09, 2017 @09:59AM (#13356736)

Yep, I use this feature all the time and I think there's only ever been one or two sites I've had to set it up for manually. For most sites, Ctrl+T <First 2-3 Letters of Site Name> <Tab> <Search Query> <Enter> works just fine without me having to configure anything.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by MiddleEndian on Monday January 09, 2017 @09:33AM (#13356528)

The level of customization offered in Firefox is a nice benefit though, as you can add a wildcard to any portion of a URL.

I have some specific shortcuts like wdir (walking directions from my home address) and some shortcuts that allow me to quickly jump to subsections of specific sites.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by zer0t3ch on Monday January 09, 2017 @07:31PM (#13361407)

You don't even need to use the tab key. It automatically works for me just from pressing space after the keyword in Chrome. In the end, the usage is identical to FF.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by Vinnl on Monday January 09, 2017 @04:25AM (#13355109)

Set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine and you don't even need to do any configuring. You can then just type `!wiki India` or `!gi birds` or any other !bang: https://duckduckgo.com/bang

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by shezi on Monday January 09, 2017 @06:01AM (#13355454)

I've tried that, and while it is nice and useable it is also significantly slower, going through DDG for one more complete roundtrip, than it is going directly to a URL you already know.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by roddux on Monday January 09, 2017 @07:57AM (#13355995)

I've had one of these for YouTube for years, really excellent feature.

Opening a new tab with yt <songname> is such a habit now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by piyush_soni on Monday January 09, 2017 @08:04AM (#13356023)

Exactly the same for me!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by notriddle on Friday January 13, 2017 @12:11PM (#13392455)

https://www.google.com/search?num=0&q=temperature+london

it's pretty funny

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by ww520 on Monday January 09, 2017 @02:15AM (#13354599)

That's pretty neat. Didn't know that. Thanks!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by chrisb on Monday January 09, 2017 @02:53AM (#13354742)

And if you set num=0 then it returns the normal "did not match any documents" page: https://www.google.com/search?num=0&q=temperature+london

Which seems like it could be used to fool someone into thinking there really are no results for a subject.

Or to pretend Google search is broken ;)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by roberthensing on Monday January 09, 2017 @03:20AM (#13354831)

Or tell the truth about the truth ;)

https://www.google.nl/search?num=0&q=the%20truth

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by kevin2r on Monday January 09, 2017 @12:58PM (#13358203)

You still get the google "applet" + 1 search result, any ways to get only the "applet"?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by Dragonai on Monday January 09, 2017 @11:05AM (#13357305)

Very cool, thanks!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why does Google put the query in the URL hash ins... by _andromeda_ on Monday January 09, 2017 @03:36AM (#13354892)

So cool.

[ Parent | on HN ]