Shortcuts

When you simply want to find something very specific on the web, loading up a web site, clicking a few times to find the right form, then filling it out, and clicking the button, can be a little cumbersome.

To relieve the burden a bit, I’ve created a handful of useful shortcuts that you can type directly into your browser’s address bar —or if you have the address bar placed on your Windows task bar, you can just enter them there, at any time.

They all work like this: You type in pinds.com/f/<i>(type)</i>/<i>(search term)</i>. For example, if you want to search for a word, instead of <i>(type)</i>, you say word or simply w. The search term is the word you want to find. Oh, and for the record, the initial /f is for “find”.

So think of this as “pinds-dot-com-slash-f(ind)slash-w(ord)-slash(whatever)”. And you don’t need to type in http://www.. The www. part isn’t necessary, and your browser should supply the http:// part automatically.

Here are the ones I have at the moment:

Word lookup in an English dictionary (W)

To find the definition of an English word in Merriam-Webster, try this:

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/w/definition">pinds.com/f/w/definition</a>

Book lookup on Amazon.com (B)

To find out about a specific book, try this:

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/b/steve jobs second coming">pinds.com/f/b/steve jobs second coming</a>

Google search (G)

Google’s front page is pretty small and fast, but given how frequently most people use it, that one page load saved is still something:

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/g/shortcuts">pinds.com/f/g/shortcuts</a>

Krak’s map of Denmark (K)

This one’s a big winner, if you happen to need maps of Danish addresses. Krak’s own web site is so terrible, it takes several big page loads and clicks of obscure buttons to get to a map. And they require you to manually separate the address in street name, street number, postal code, and city, even though doing so automatically is a five-minute programming task. Sigh.

You can now simply say something like this:

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/k/oesterbrogade 119, 2100">pinds.com/f/k/oesterbrogade 119, 2100</a>

Everything before the comma is interpreted as the street, everything after the comma is interpreted as the city.

For the street, you’re free to include the street number (house number) or to leave it out, as you see fit.

And for the city, you can use either 4-digit postal code, city name, or both.

One caveat: You must use oe in place of ø, ae in place of æ and aa instead of å, or my web server will mess up.

More examples:

• <a href="http://pinds.com/f/k/toldbodgade">pinds.com/f/k/toldbodgade</a>
• <a href="http://pinds.com/f/k/,ringe">pinds.com/f/k/,ringe</a> (note the comma before the city name)
• <a href="http://pinds.com/f/k/a.p.moellersvej 35, svendborg">pinds.com/f/k/a.p.moellersvej 35, svendborg</a> (note the “oe” instead of ”ø”)

Movie on IMDB (M)

Want to find out about a movie?

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/m/reptilicus">pinds.com/f/m/reptilicus</a>

Map of New York City (N)

If you happen to need a map of some place in New York, it’s even easier:

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/n/10 christopher">pinds.com/f/n/10 christopher</a>

Danish Word in “retskrivningsordbogen” (D)

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/d/regn">pinds.com/f/d/regn</a>

Post Denmark Tracking (pdt)

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/pdt/CU299600286DK">pinds.com/f/pdt/CU299600286DK</a>

All About Copenhagen (Alt Om København) (aok)

<a href="http://pinds.com/f/aok/bopa">pinds.com/f/aok/bopa</a>