Bring back shortcuts
Not planned
When I started using OpenDNS several years ago, a shortcut function was available. I could enter a single word in the URL field of my browser and press the enter key to immediately go to the page represented by the shortcut word. I created several short 3-letter or 4-letter shortcut words for thinks like 'mail' for my online email account or 'bank' for my online banking account. I liked this simple feature but it has been removed so the shortcuts I created now open the OpenDNS search engine instead.
The workaround for the lack of the shortcut feature is to create a series of browser bookmarks which take longer to find on the bookmark list than simply typing a quick, short word on the keyboard.
Shortcuts always worked great for me and it gave OpenDNS an advantage over Bing, Google, Yahoo!, and other search providers. Please bring them back!
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To quote the original announcement on the end of life of shortcuts:
The unreliability of shortcuts near the end of it's feature lifespan can largely be attributed to how modern web browsers redirect URL strings to a default search engine and how some ISPs redirect DNS queries on some connections.
We feel that removing Shortcuts as a whole, until we can develop a new way for them to function properly, is better than tasking users to reconfigure their browser settings and contacting their ISPs - we want to create the best networking solutions we can and Shortcuts in it's final state was not a great representation of our product and services. -
Shortcuts were working fine for me until today on Chrome (31.0.1650.57.) Simply had search settings include "guide.opendns.com/?url=%s" for "o." All I had to do was type "o" and the shortcut in Chrome's omnibox. Now the guide no longer parses the shortcuts . . .
I understand the need to abandon support for a high maintenance feature, but can't those that don't require support still have access to it?
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To baart's point, what sort of 'support' do the shortcuts require? I accept that typing the first few letters of the shortcut may prompt Chrome to auto-insert a long URL string. I simply tap the DEL key to delete the appended URL and then hit the ENTER key. Simple. Easy. Did OpenDNS get a lot of complaints about this limitation? Anyone who thought this was an issue probably wasn't using OpenDNS shortcuts anyway.
To quote the original announcement on the end of life of shortcuts:
... "until we can develop a new way for them to function properly," ...
As far as baart and I are concerned, the shortcuts worked properly or at least well enough to be useful..
If the "Not planned" status means that no one is going to work on improving the function, at least bring back the old functionality. Don't let perfection be a roadblock to helpful.
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Ah, I apologize, I should have. It was somewhere in the getting started stuff, but I was busy getting started and read something about it. Then when I was all set I came here to learn how to do it and found this thread and was like wow, I can't do it after all. Next time, I will post any findings.
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