Search For Highlighted Text With Context Search X For Firefox

I sometimes see phrases or words on a page that I need to look up. Sometimes, those phrases can also lead to additional resources about a certain subject that I’m researching. While I could highlight and right-click the phrase to search for it on the default search engine, I do not have options to search other search engines directly. For that, I would have to highlight and copy the phrase, open a new tab, and use keyword searches to run a search on the topic. Firefox users with the search form displayed in the browser interface can alternatively paste the phrase in the form and select a different search engine from the list.

The Firefox add-on Context Search X adds additional search engines to Firefox’s right-click context menu to run searches right from there.

Once you have the extension installed in the browser, you can start firing away searches with a right-click on the highlighted phrase and the selection of the search engine that you want to search on.

A list of all available search engines currently configured in the browser are displayed for selection. A click opens the search results page of the selected search engine in a new tab in Firefox.

You can click on Manage Search engines to change the order of search engines in the context menu, remove engines from the listing or modify the extension’s behavior further.

One interesting option is the ability to configure search engines to appear in the root context menu instead of the extension’s submenu.

This is done with a click on the Context Menu button in the interface.

Select the Outside Submenu option to have the selected search engine appear in the root context menu.

If your favorite search engine is not installed in the browser, you can do so by visiting Mozilla’s Search Tools page which lists hundreds of different search engines that can be added with a click. You can alternatively check out Add any Search Box to Firefox Search if your favorite search engine is not listed on the page.

Context Search X is a fork of the popular Firefox Context Search add-on which has not been upgraded for over a year. Firefox users who like to run searches from their context menu should take the add-on for a test drive. Those who are just looking to replace the default search engine can look at Replace Firefox’s Right-Click Search Engine to find out how to do that.