Can I have a drumroll please (or maybe a dancing banana)…
Today we give you shortcuts, marking the first time you’ve ever had control over how your address bar behaves. Shortcuts are a cool way to use a short word for a long address.
Shortcuts will change the way you navigate the Internet. Unlike keyword-based systems in the past, shortcuts are yours. You create them and you decide where they go.
Without getting technical, here are some examples of what you can do with shortcuts. You can make a shortcut for “mail” go to gmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, your webmail or anywhere else you’d like. You can make a shortcut go to a website, start an IM conversation, initiate a phone call, and more. Our goal is to help you navigate the Internet in the easiest and fastest way possible.
Here’s how to get started:
- Make sure you are using OpenDNS.
- Create or sign in to your account.
- Set up your first shortcut for a common website you visit.
There are a few different ways to create shortcuts. You can create them in your account, you can create them on the OpenDNS Guide pages, and you can create them on any other Website using a bookmarklet.
We will continue adding new ways to improve your Internet experience and give your more control over your network.
Thanks for choosing OpenDNS. As always, let me know what you think!
ps, here’s the dancing banana: 
Bo Link
These work great in Firefox on a Mac. I was trying them in Safari, but I couldn’t get them to work since Safari automatically tries to make whatever is typed in the location bar a valid URL. Anyone know how to shut that functionality off?
posted on April 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Mark
Indeed, Safari automatically prefixes the ‘URL’ with www. and suffixes it with .com. Furthermore I’m still waiting for the shortcuts to work — still getting a search page.
posted on April 22nd, 2007 at 10:41 pm
David Ulevitch
I’ll check out Safari in the morning when I get back on my mac. I know we had them working in the office. Perhaps that was with advanced shortcuts, the kind that take a parameter.
I’ll update you here when I find out. John (our VP of Product) also uses Safari and can check it out.
posted on April 22nd, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Lon
David,
Any plans to add a simple REST API for developers to build some cool tools around this new feature?
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 am
timendum
A not so useful feature.
Firefox already do it and do it better.
If the shortcut is “wp” to “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s” and i type “wp OpenDNS” Firefox goes to “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS“, so usefull!
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 12:54 am
Daniel Aleksandersen
The Opera web browser already have shortcuts. You easily can create shortcuts for your bookmarks! Opera does the Firefox style shortcuts timendum explains too. I think Opera was the first browser to introduce address bar shortcuts.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 2:15 am
Josh
Camino on the Mac seems to have the same behavior as Safari.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 5:50 am
Brian
Nice to see you guys don’t just sit around and bask in the glory that is OpenDNS.
New features are always nice, regardless of who thinks that it is useful or not.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 6:29 am
David Ulevitch
Brian,
That is the greatest comic ever on your website.
And thanks for the comment. We’ll work out any kinks we find.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 7:06 am
David Ulevitch
Mark,
Safari appears to be working for me. Are you sure you are using OpenDNS?
What does http://welcome.opendns.com tell you?
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 am
El Salvador
Can I disable this feature? I prefer Firefox keyword.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 7:56 am
Lon
The advantage of shortcuts happening at the DNS level, not just in specific browsers, is that it drives towards platform and browser independent behaviour.
I just used the same shortcut in Safari, Opera, Firefox and on my Nokia N95 phone and it worked great.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 7:59 am
Mark
David,
Shortcuts don’t work in Safari, Firefox nor Opera.
I’m using OpenDNS via my router (welcome.opendns.com says ‘Welcome to OpenDNS!’) and do get the search page whenever I make a typo.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 8:07 am
Nick
Shortcuts seen to be operating file in Firefox 2. IE7 is having some issue though…seems to be performing a Google search on the shortcut. I’m sure this has something to do with it being the default search provider.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
OpenDNS introduces Shortcuts » @ YugaTech | Philippine Technology News & Reviews
[…] a simple but very useful way to expand on OpenDNS’s staple of services — address bar shortcuts. If you’re not yet familiar with OpenDNS and how it works, check out my previous post on how […]
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Kei
Very useful tool, accessible via your typically dead simple and optimally efficient UI style. Sweet
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I’m Using OpenDNS | Sam Harrelson
[…] seems to really speed things up, especially in Firefox. Plus, the shortcuts are awesome… I’m already using my toolbar […]
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Rob
The song I am am listening to while reading this post goes perfect with the dancing banana. Ghostland Observatory - Piano Man.
Thought I’d share.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Alex
What’s the latest with safari?
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Alex
Please consider providing a way to turn shortcuts off! They completely break Firefox’s built-in address bar search functionality.
posted on April 23rd, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Kernel Source » Blog Archive » Crea atajos a URLs con OpenDNS
[…] sistema para gestionar los servidores DNS en nuestra máquina. Recientemente han añadido una nueva funcionalidad con la que podremos crear atajos hacia URLs que visitemos habitualmente que podemos utilizar […]
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 5:01 am
Mark
OK, turns out Shortcuts were enabled in the settings but that no shortcuts were defined for the IP. Quite confusing that there are two ways to turn off shortcuts.
Firefox works fine now, Safari doesn’t.
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Michael Simmons
Shortcuts seem to work some of the time for me in Safari. Shortcuts with parameters never work.
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 7:37 am
John Roberts
@Alex - shortcuts can be turned off with a free account, just like other OpenDNS preferences can be turned on or off.
@Michael Simmons - Safari is erratic for me, too. We’re trying to determine the factors.
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Stephen Paul Weber
Seems like a complicated way to duplicate the behaviour of http://yubnub.org/
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Marco
Has anyone been able to make it work in IE7? I have disable the feature to do the Google search but it has not solved the issue. Any suggestions?
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Alex
Ah, thank you! I hadn’t tried adding a network. OpenDNS is rocking once again.
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
OpenDNS Blog » Saving time with shortcuts
[…] been about 36 hours since we launched shortcuts to the world and we’ve already had thousands created. One of the features that hasn’t […]
posted on April 24th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
sunnyidea
How about use the same account in different computers?
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 1:10 am
John Roberts
@sunnyidea - you can use the same account in different computers with no problem. It’s fine to sign in at other computers. You can also assign your shortcuts to a network within an account, so as long as you are on the network, you don’t even need to sign in on that computer. Two ways to accomplish the same thing: having your shortcuts with you everywhere you want them.
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 1:39 am
Ryan
dancing banana FTW!
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Sam
IE7 = no
Firefox2 = occassionally
Browzar1.2 = no
Deepnet1.53 = no
Opera9.20 = no
SeaMonkey1.1.1 = no
Very successful implementation this!
Was this tested before release!
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Ken
So far, so kinda good… Everything works fine when using Firefox. Safari results are mixed - some shortcuts work, some don’t. For example, I created shortcut “HTC”. Instead of taking me where I want to go, it goes to www.htc.com. Does this mean I can’t use a shortcut that already exists as its own URL? Strange that it should work in Firefox, but not Safari. Any thoughts?
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
OpenDNS Blog » Shortcuts in the news!
[…] Sure, we’re all a little tired after putting in long hours in the days leading up to the shortcuts launch. But the feedback is pouring in, and we’re lovin’ it. Shortcuts in the news ain’t […]
posted on April 25th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Ken
I take it back - it’s not working on Safari at all. The only reason my “nyt” shortcut appeared to work is because the New York Times had already registered “nyt.com”. So of course, my shortcut would go right to nytimes.com, but I nor OpenDNS didn’t have anything to do with it. So my original premise/question remains - when using Safari, does this mean I can’t use a shortcut that already exists as its own URL? If the answer is yes, then this severely limits the attractiveness of OpenDNS as it’s probably a good bet that many of the shortcuts people would come up with are already taken as URLs.
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 5:34 am
tim
Some shortcuts work in safari, a lot of them don’t. Argh!!!!!!!
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 5:41 am
Jacques
With all due respect, I don’t think that web shortcuts are something that should be handled by one’s dns service, something about the idea bugs the hell out of me.
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 8:55 am
John Roberts
@Sam - we tested lots of different situations and scenarios. I’m quite sure we did not test everything. I’ll admit to never even having heard of Deepnet or Browzar. IE 7 and Firefox work in most every case. Opera does not work, and we’re discussing our options here.
@Ken and Tim - the Safari wonkiness has nothing to do with the domain itself. We are still testing. Honestly, the same computer with the same browser works differently on different networks — I’m a prime case of this, and we’re still testing and digging. Not clear what the unique factor is yet.
@Jacques - I disagree, of course.
But you know what? We gave you control. You can use OpenDNS without shortcuts if you want, and still benefit from the safer, faster, more reliable DNS. Add a network to your free OpenDNS account, and make your own choices.
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Jason
This is a great little tool.
One question, though … are there any character or size limitations in the shortcut? I can see some prankster kids really fubaring their home network by changing a hotmail.com pointer to freesex.com
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
OpenDNS - shortcuts to the web « Brian Heys Writes
[…] Brian Edit | If you haven’t already heard about it, I wanted to bring a new service called OpenDNS Shortcuts to your […]
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Shortcutting Domains | Jason’s Random Thoughts
[…] all the ranting on OpenDNS’ blog for the feature, I think this is a great little tool. It will save a bit of time in the long run […]
posted on April 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
John Roberts
Safari users, we think we have a way to make shortcuts work every time. If you enter a search domain on your computer, any domain at all, then shortcuts start to work. Search domain is optional in most cases, so that’s why shortcuts in Safari have worked for some and not for others — and sometimes worked differently for the same person in different places!
Try it out, and let me know — this is in the Network preference pane.
posted on April 27th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Mark
@John Roberts:
Again with one ‘but’. If the shortcut exists in the search domain, e.g. your shortcut is ‘mail’, your search domain is ‘isp.com’ and ‘mail.isp.com’ exists, you’ll end up at mail.isp.com and not at whatever you had set as a shortcut.
posted on April 27th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Robert
I can’t seem to get it working. Vista w/ hughes satellite and Trendnet wireless router. 192.168.0.1 is the home page for the hughes box.
posted on April 27th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Jack
When I sign in, I check the box “Keep me signed in until I sign out”. That does not keep me signed in. So how do I stay signed in?
posted on April 28th, 2007 at 2:20 am
cocoy
hi. firefox on the mac works great with this. just tried it out. but on the same mac… i can’t seem to get shortcuts to work on camino.
posted on April 28th, 2007 at 5:05 am
Alex
@John Roberts
My shortcuts are working in Safari with the addition of the search domain. Many thanks!!!!
posted on April 29th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
John Roberts
@Robert - Hughes.net satellite is the problem: http://blog.opendns.com/2006/10/18/hughesnet-satellite-broadband-customers-cannot-use-opendns-at-this-time/
@Jack - do you have cookies enabled? What browser?
@cocoy - shortcuts do not yet work in Camino.
posted on April 30th, 2007 at 9:18 am
cocoy
@john, for shortcuts not working camino.
no problem. i use both firefox and camino anyway.
posted on April 30th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Napolux
OMG, this is amazing, thank YOU!!!!
posted on May 3rd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
imadork
The shortcuts work in Firefox on a PC, but it takes a really long time to access the page. I type g in Firefox and wait about 2 min. before I see the Google index.
posted on May 5th, 2007 at 8:23 am
jab
I’m not quite clear on this “enter a search domain” thingy to get shortcuts working in Safari.
Can someone please elaborate a bit, like what to enter, and where?
Thanks folks.
posted on May 7th, 2007 at 10:39 am
OpenDNS adding shortcut services to web address at AdGlobe Tech Blog
[…] , A Shortcut feature has been introduces to lets you visit URLs with short character and change the way you navigate the Internet. This […]
posted on May 8th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Devnull
good job.. made my browsing life faster.. keep up the good work.
posted on May 24th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
techlesia » OpenDNS Rocks
[…] the reason I wanted to post about OpenDNS today is this sweet new “shortcuts” feature they’ve recently added (actually about a month ago). As part of your account […]
posted on May 26th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
jtron
I know im bleeding edge here, but Safari for Windows shortcuts are not working for me.
It now has a drop down for search page options, and selecting neither google, nor yahoo will make them work. An e for engadget becomes http://e/
That is then looked up on OpenDNS search.
posted on June 12th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Seth
Uh, I feel like I’m going against the whole universe here, but am I the only one who thinks OpenDNS shortcuts completely suck? I mainly use Safari, and I can simply type “apple” in the address bar and end up at www.apple.com. Just the way I want it to work, and the way Firefox used to work. Now, thanks to the OpenDNS improvement, when I type apple in the address bar in Firefox I don’t go to Apple, I end up at the OpenDNS guide page. How could you possibly think I wouldn’t want to go to Apple if I type Apple, and why would you divert my “normal” page request to disturbingly misdirect me to the guide page?
I have nothing against using optional shortcuts, but your “feature” completely breaks the normal behavior of Firefox. Thankfully, the new “fix” doesn’t work in Safari so I can go about my business somewhat normally. Plus, I can’t turn it off because I’m on a dynamic IP address at home. Yeah, sure, I could sign up for a dynamically assigned static IP service, but now instead of making my life easier, the purpose of OpenDNS in the first place, now I’m having to jump through ridiculous hoops just to get back to the way my browsers worked in the first place.
Please, make it stop!
posted on June 18th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
John Roberts
@Seth - most have found shortcuts very useful. Our usage of our service and of shortcuts demonstrates that. I’m not offended if you don’t like the service, although I’d wonder whether or not examples beyond “apple” are so clearcut.
Note: to use an OpenDNS account, which is optional, with a dynamic IP service, you don’t have to sign up for any other service. You do need to run software to update us of the change in your IP. Details here:
http://www.opendns.com/account/dynamic_dns/
posted on June 19th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Lee Munsil
I’ve seen several comments about problems with shortcuts on IE7. I’ve had them also. I now have shortcuts working on a home network with 2 XP machines and 1 Win98 machine.
Without a logical explanation, my “work-around” is quite simple. But if you like to do google/yahoo/etc web searches from the URL address window instead of the new IE7 “search window”, forget it, as the solution means that your address window web searches will be done by OpenDNS. You can however still use the search engine of your choice in the new IE7 search window at the top right of the screen.
If you are interested, check out the “OpenDNS” forum on “shortcuts”. I will post my simple “work-around” there. (In a few minutes).
posted on June 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
OpenDNS: non “soltanto” un servizio di *FREE* DNS… « Panique Mdiatique
[…] Ad esempio, oltre a poter configurare un intero network per lutilizzo dei DNS, possibile creare shortcuts (peraltro “taggabili”) da associare ai siti web - visto che il servizio “sovrascrive”, ad esempio, la ricerca dalla barra degli indirizzi di Firefox -; funzione ampiamente descritta sul blog di sviluppo. […]
posted on August 9th, 2007 at 8:53 am
colin
The google trick works somewhat. If I use ‘home’ as the shortcut it takes me to the desired URL. However, using ‘mail’ as a shortcut should take me to the company webmail login. It doesn’t. Instead it enters a search string in google which brings back Gmail. Nice!
posted on August 12th, 2007 at 7:48 pm