Create your own shortcuts on Yahoo

Yahoo extended their Search Shortcuts that allowed you to go to trigger shortcuts to special searches (news, video, image), simple answers (zip code, weather, calculator, definition) or interesting facts (information about patents, vehicle history using the 17-character Vehicle Identification Number, book price finder using its ISBN, manufacurer of a product using its 12-digits UPC code).

Now you can define your own shortcuts. Open Shortcuts are custom keywords that take you directly to a site, a search, or start a task right from the search box. In Unix speak: if the search box is the command-line of the web, shortcuts are aliases.

To use an Open Shortcut, you type ! (exclamation point) followed by the name of the shortcut in the Yahoo! Search box. For example, type: !ebay lamps. This takes you directly to www.ebay.com and searches for lamps.

You can create your own shortcuts to:

* Instantly navigate to any URL on the Internet
* Easily recall common searches on Yahoo!
* Quickly search favorite sites
* Jump start frequently used Internet applications

To create a navigational shortcut, use the keyword: !set with your shortcut name and destination URL.

!set shortcut_name URL

Try this
!set gops http://www.google.com/search?&q=%s+site%3Agooglesystem.blogspot.com

to set a shortcut for a search in this blog.

Some cool examples:

!mail sergey@google.com -- Compose a mail to Sergey Brin.
!wiki Sergey Brin -- Find information about Sergey Brin from Wikipedia.
!news Sergey Brin -- Search latest news about Sergey Brin.


The complete list of shortcuts.