I often check balances of Bitcoin addresses I find online (from news articles/organizations taking donations). Sure, you can just go to https://blockchain.info/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa or whatever block explorer you prefer, but I have a faster way. This guide is for Chrome, but it wouldn't surprise me if other browsers had similar features. Essentially all I need to do to load up that Blockchain.info link above is go to my omnibar (Chrome's search bar/place to enter URLs) and type in "addy <bitcoin address goes here>" and it will load up Blockchain.info.

1. Go to your Chrome settings (chrome://settings/ in the omnibar).

2. Under the 'Search' heading, click 'Manage search engines'

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the window that opens and fill in the textboxes with the following:

a) "Add a new search engine" textbox can say whatever you want it to, that's what will show up when you're entering an address

b) "Keyword" is whatever you want to type in to search for an address. For example, mine is "addy" but yours could be "address" or anything you want.

c) "URL with %s in place of query" should have the URL http://blockchain.info/address/%s.

Now to test it out, type the keyword you used in step 3b above in Chrome's omnibar and a space. If you did everything right it should say "Search <the keyword you put in part 3a>". Then paste the address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, or any other address, and press enter. Blockchain.info's address description page should load!

If you want to be able to look things up like transactions, hashes, block heights, and other bitcoin-related things (and not only addresses), you can make the URL https://blockchain.info/search?search=%s. This tip can also be used for other websites (like I personally use it for an English->French transaction, all I need to do is type in "enfr hello" and I get back "bonjour", and vice versa, I type in "fren bonjour" and get back "hello").

Sorry if this is confusing, let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Blockr URL: https://blockr.io/address/info/%s

SmartBit URL: https://www.smartbit.com.au/address/%s

Block Explorer URL: https://blockexplorer.com/address/%s

Blocktrail URL: https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/%s