/omnibang

Probably the fastest chromium extension for DuckDuckGo bangs.

Primary LanguageJavaScriptGNU General Public License v2.0GPL-2.0

Omnibang

Omnibang is probably the fastest chromium extension for DuckDuckGo bangs. It doesn't rely on redirects, but instead sends you directly to your desired website. All processing is handled client side.

Demonstration

It is based on elboza's "bang-chrome-extension". Without him, this extension wouldn't be possible.

Usage

! {abbreviation} {search term}

NOTE: Make sure to put a space or press tab after the exclamation mark!

For example:

! yt wintergatan

A full list of websites and their abbreviation can be found here. Please note that this file is really long (about 13k websites). Search using Ctrl + F.

Installation (Works for both Chrome & Edge)

I'm planning on publishing the extension to the chrome web store. As of now, though, you'll have to install the extension manually.

  1. Download zip file from Github. Extract to a location where it won't be deleted.
  2. Open the Extension Management page by navigating to chrome://extensions.
  3. Enable Developer Mode by clicking the toggle switch (upper right corner for Chrome, lower left corner for Edge).
  4. Click the Load unpacked button and select the extension directory.

Benefits

I previously used a bang chrome extension that was really slow. Here's how it worked:

  1. I typed in a !bang in the search bar.
  2. I would then be sent to google.com/search?q=!bang
  3. The extension would analyze the url and determine if I had typed in a bang.
  4. If I had, it would then redirect me to duckduckgo.com/?q=!bang
  5. Finally, DuckDuckGo itself would redirect me to my desired website.

As you can imagine, this took a lot of time. In comparison, here's how my extension works:

  1. You type in a ! bang in the search bar.
  2. The extension looks at the bang and compares it to a local database of bangs.
  3. If there's a match, you'll get sent directly to your desired website.
  4. If the abbreviation isn't found, you will instead get a normal google search.

Bugs

This extension is really bodged together, so there might be bugs. Please let me know if you find any.

Author

  • Original extension by Fernando Iazeolla. Copyright 2014.
  • Edited and updated by v0iden. Copyright 2021.

License

This software is distrubuted under the GPLv2 license.