For over 8 years I’ve been using gfns parameters (also known by “browse by name” by some plugins) as my default search engine in Chrome/Firefox/Safari. It enabled me to search for a string and if Google could associate it with a specific url with a high degree of confidence it would just send me straight to the link.
Over the last couple of years that search parameter has become more and more unreliable and over the last few months has stopped working entirely.
I’m curious if anyone knows:
- why this happened
- if this functionality is still accessible, if so, how
- if it’s not accessible, if there are any alternatives that operate the same way
For 3, I’d like to maintain the same behaviour as now, so:
- Searches with high confidence url matches just get directed to (e.g. stackexchange superuser should just go to the website)
- Any other search falls back to a Google search
Anyone have any insights/advice?
