A really nifty feature that is supported by IE6/IE7 is the SearchURL registry "hack" that allow you to use a mnemonic for URL's. It also supports the ability to substitute a specific escape sequence with another value as well as include escaping for characters that may be substituted.
Enough of trying to put that into meaninful words, and on with an example. By simply typing in :
g what is the answer
you can get IE to rewrite the address as
http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+answer with only some minor registry entries.
I've included a copy of some entries that are useful. Copy the text, and put it into a file called SearchUrl.reg. Save it, and open it using regedit.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\a]
@="http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=web&q=%s"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\g]
@="http://www.google.com/search?q=%s"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\gg]
@="http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%s"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\gn]
@="http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=%s&scoring=d"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\id]
@="http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=%s"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\j]
@="http://www.jsiinc.com/asp/reghacks.asp?tipnumb=%s"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\kb]
@="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;%s"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\ms]
@="http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?Query=%s&KeywordType=ALL&maxResults=150"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\sb]
@="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/%s.asp"
" "="+"
"#"="%23"
"&"="%26"
"?"="%3F"
"+"="%2B"
"="="%3D"