GoMarks Help

Simple shortcuts | Smart shortcuts | Smarter shortcuts | Reserved action keywords
GoMarks as your search engine | GoMarks for iPhone | Fallback search engine


GoMarks let's you create shortcuts/bookmarks/aliases that redirect to websites.

It is a similar concept to go links, smart bookmarks or bangs.

Usage

Shortcuts are triggered via a keyword. You also need a destination URL.


To use your shortcuts, you can either:

1. use the search box in the GoMarks webpage

2. call the URL https://gomarks.example.com/go/?q=your_keyword directly

3. RECOMMENDED: make GoMarks your browser's default search engine and pass your keywords directly in the browser URL bar.

On iPhone, you can create an automation and widget.


Simple shortcuts

A keyword bbc can take you to the destination URL https://www.bbc.com.

Simple shortcuts can't take options (like bbc europe) because they are simple, not smart.

Smart shortcuts

Smart shortcuts use a placeholder %s in destination URLs.

With this destination URL https://www.bbc.com/news/world/%s, I can now search for bbc europe or bbc australia

Smart shortcuts require an option. You can't use bbc alone because the placeholder expects an option.

Smarter shortcuts

We can improve bbc further by searching in BBC's articles. Let's search the terms "open source" on their website.

The resulting URL https://www.bbc.com/search?q=open+source&edgeauth=eyJhbGciOi... ➡️ Your destination URL https://www.bbc.com/search?q=%s

⚠️ Queries are traditionally passed behind q=, query= or search= arguments but nothing prevents a website owner to use banana=.

You can sometimes remove a lot of garbage from the URL, like &edgeauth=eyJhbGciOi in the example above.

Searching for bbc open source would take you to a list of BBC articles about open source.

Some websites do not pass searches in arguments but rather directly in the URL. Find some examples below.

Single or Multi Words Placeholder

When adding or editing a shortcut, there's a "Force 1️⃣ single word placeholder" option.

This option only works with placeholder URLs. The checkbox is only active if your destination URL contains %s.

This option helps GoMarks choose the best solution between the destination URL or the fallback search engine.

To illustrate the concept, let's take queries around the Docker topic.

You want to be able to find Docker images in Docker Hub by using docker mariadb (destination URL https://hub.docker.com/search?q=%s).

You are also likely to search for docker versus openshift or docker compose syntax.

In that scenario, if you don't enable single world placeholder, you're going to ask for "versus openshift" on Docker Hub, which is probably not what you expect.

Single word placeholders detect when your request contains more than one word and take you to the fallback search engine, instead of throwing an error.

When single word is enabled, an icon 1️⃣ appears next to the keyword.

Examples

Description Link
Find Docker images https://hub.docker.com/search?q=%s
Search in author's Github repositories https://github.com/sebw?tab=repositories&q=%s&type=&language=&sort=
Search a Fedora Linux package https://packages.fedoraproject.org/search?query=%s
Compare Amazon prices https://keepa.com/#!search/4-%s
Find a Python Library https://pypi.org/search/?q=%s
Wikipedia Search https://en.wikipedia.org/?search=%s
Eggtimer. Query "timer 5m" to set a 5 minute timer. https://e.ggtimer.com/%s
Unsure about your pronounciation? Query "say miscellaneous" https://www.google.com/search?q=pronounce+%s
Check movie rating https://www.imdb.com/find?q=%s
Check HTTP status code for cat lovers https://http.cat/%s

Reserved action keywords

Some keywords are reserved to perform GoMarks actions without necessarily using the web interface.

Action keywords do not appear in the list.

You can reconfigure reserved action keywords in the administration section if they conflict with your workflows.

Usage Action
!add myshortcut https://www.example.com adds a simple shortcut
!add myshortcut https://www.example.com/%s adds a placeholder shortcut
!add myshortcut https://www.example.com/%s 1 adds a single word placeholder shortcut
!mod myshortcut takes you to the edit page for the shortcut
!del myshortcut takes you to delete confirmation page

Making GoMarks Your Default Search Engine

By making GoMarks your default search engine, you can type your queries and actions in the URL/search bar for faster access to your links.

GoMarks won't leave you hanging if you make a request that doesn't match any keyword, it would just redirect to the fallback search engine.

Chrome

In the address bar go to chrome://settings/searchEngines

Search Engine > Manage search engines and site search

Site Search > Add

Add Site Search and use this URL https://yourGoMarks/go/%s

Click on the hamburger menu for your new search engine > Make default

Start searching

Firefox

Go to your GoMarks instance > Right click on the URL > Add "GoMarks"

Go in Firefox settings > Change Default Search Engine

Start searching

Firefox - Alternative Way

If the method above doesn't work, use this add-on.


iPhone Shortcuts

You can't change the default search engine in Safari on iPhone.

You can use an iOS shortcut and use the action button or widgets to call GoMarks.


Fallback Search Engine

If your request doesn't match any shortcut or if you use single word placeholders, GoMarks can send your request to the fallback search engine.

The fallback search engine is configurable (Google, Duckduckgo, your own self-hosted solution, etc.)




















































































































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