More Firefox + Wowhead goodness
by Natalie Mootz 
Jun 24th 2008 at 8:00PM
Am I a Wowhead guru? Oh, pshaw! Please. Your fan-mail flattery embarrasses me. I mean, really, it embarrasses me. I'm as far away from being a Wowhead guru as... well, some simile that means "really, really far away." But hey, just because I may be dippy doesn't mean I can't keep offering up more Firefox + Wowhead love. Behold, Dictionary Search! This Firefox addon adds other "Search for" options on your context-sensitive menu (the one that comes up with you right-click your mouse). Dictionary Search allows you to highlight a word on a web page, right click it, and search for that word or phrase on any custom site you choose. Don't be fooled by the addon's academic (and thus, to me, scary) sounding name. You don't need to search a dictionary website; you can choose Wowhead as one of your four customizable search "dictionaries."
Read more about how to install Wowhead on the Dictionary Search addon for Firefox.
To add Wowhead to your custom dictionaries, install the addon and restart Firefox. Click the Tools menu and choose Add-ons. Scroll till you find Dictionary Search on your list and click Options underneath it. Type in what you see in the red box in the image below.
Now, whenever you want to see something in Wowhead -- no matter what site it's on, even in your email -- all you have to do is highlight the item's name, right click, and there you have it in a new tab under the page you're clicking from. Works with both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3, but hey, upgrade to 3.0 while you're at it, okay? This is your guru talkin', after all.
[Thanks, peteb!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eternalpayn Jun 24th 2008 8:09PM
First off, FF 3 == No flash. Unless that was changed in the last week?
Second, I've had this forever, and love it. There's a thottbot one, too.
K Whitt Jun 24th 2008 8:39PM
Funny, I've had flash from day one in FireFox3, I had it in Beta and RC even. Heck I even had the FlashBlock plugin. Where did you get this idea that there is no Flash for FF3? You might have an old (pre version 9) version of Flash Player plugin that is not compatible with FF3. Try grabbing an update to it and it will likely be fixed.
jbodar Jun 24th 2008 9:18PM
I haven't really had problems with FF3 and Flash, though I suspect it didn't like USA Today's site for this reason.
Anyways this might help -- http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=70775&forumId=1
Eternalpayn Jun 24th 2008 10:21PM
I tried upgrading Flash on my Firefox 3 after the security scare. It worked fine before that, but I can't update it.
Natalie Mootz Jun 25th 2008 4:57PM
Not sure how Flash got into this discussion. In my past programming days "==" meant "not equal to." So my translation of your comment is: "FF 3is not equal to No flash." Does that mean you're saying that FF3 DOES have Flash? Plus, my post didn't say anything about Flash. I'm confused.
jbodar Jun 25th 2008 10:37PM
@Natalie
You recommended upgrading to FF3 and Eternalpayn objected to this based on his experience with it having problems with Flash, which is a fair warning. Like I said, haven't run into many problems since I updated the day FF3 was released. I'm running Flash player 9 on my work and home PCs.
tehvoid Jun 24th 2008 8:30PM
ugh... you don't need any add on nor some complicated settings
Just go to http://www.wowhead.com/ , click over to your search bar (top right corner) and just choose to "add wowhead" as search engine... then, you can highlight any text, right click, and choose "search wowhead for"...
why bother installing an add-on when you can do it simply? ^^
Oh! And don't forget to update to Firefox 3 ;)
tehvoid Jun 24th 2008 8:41PM
and that works for any site with some search engine, so you can do the same with allakhazam, wowwiki, curse and facebook for example
Neil Jun 24th 2008 10:06PM
The benefit to the addon is not that it unlocks previously nonexistent search capabilities. It is rather that you can have multiple search options simultaneously in the context menu, rather than a single search option dependent upon which search engine is currently selected.
Yes, I can do Wowhead searches as described in this article without installing that addon. But I need to have the Wowhead search plugin (a must-have in its own right, to be sure) installed, and I need to have it selected as well.
To each his own :)
pb Jun 25th 2008 11:30AM
@Neil
BINGO!
Kryptonls Jun 24th 2008 8:56PM
Been using the Thottbot one for ages already... not much point taking my 'business' elsewhere given they are all owned by the same group!
vlad Jun 24th 2008 10:45PM
LOL, firefox is a ripoff. luckily they have great marketing. us folk that use opera have been able to use this hot "new" search feature for years. same with the "new" ff3.0 features.opera creates new features and mozilla just imitates a year later and people think its new and inventive. pretty soon firefox will have a speeddial front page too.
vlad Jun 24th 2008 10:46PM
LOL, firefox is a ripoff. luckily they have great marketing. us folk that use opera have been able to use this hot "new" search feature for years. same with the "new" ff3.0 features.opera creates new features and mozilla just imitates a year later and people think its new and inventive. pretty soon firefox will have a speeddial front page too.
Shadowfury Jun 24th 2008 10:56PM
Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.
-Pablo Picasso
vlad Jun 24th 2008 10:46PM
LOL, firefox is a ripoff. luckily they have great marketing. us folk that use opera have been able to use this hot "new" search feature for years. same with the "new" ff3.0 features.opera creates new features and mozilla just imitates a year later and people think its new and inventive. pretty soon firefox will have a speeddial front page too.
Anorol Jun 24th 2008 11:34PM
hmmm ..does opera also cause you to post the same comment 3 times????
I think I will stick with FireFox.
vlad Jun 25th 2008 10:24AM
nah, i was at work using IE.
thanks for dimming out all my comments though fuckholes :)
vlad Jun 25th 2008 10:34AM
have fun with addons and plugins to achieve all the features opera has built in and standard.
Salty Jun 25th 2008 11:15AM
Pointless troll is pointless. All browsers are copies of each other because *gasp* web protocols, content languages and correct rendering are all standards! Browser loyalty on an aggressive level is akin to calling a group of strangers a bunch of idiots because their coffee cups weigh 0.05oz more and use less recycled paper with a plain brown design.
As long as Firefox has web developer toolbar and a fine-tooth javascript debugging engine Opera is just another "test" browser I check for W3C compliance.
Sargentd Jun 25th 2008 12:56AM
I have the addon and wrote the stuff in the red box. Where do I go to use WoWhead. I thought it would be in the drop down menu underneath the Google "G"