I'm using Firefox 3.6, and when I type "amazon harry potter" into the awesome bar, I arrive at the destination in the same two-step process that Entogo promises in the "old vs. new" example on its homepage.

So ... why would I switch to Entogo?

I don't understand this at all. Especially not installing a browser toolbar.

I competed in a "business plan competition" called Venture Cup here in Sweden a few years ago (it didn't give me much, it's very focused on business plan and not so focused on actually doing, but it was started by McKinsey so what can you expect...) and one of the competing teams did pretty much what you're doing. I didn't get it then (back then, Epiphany had this and no other browsers that I knew of, but it was a pretty obvious browser addition) and I don't get it now.

Nowadays, I don't even bother adding keywords to the browser since Google directs me to the correct page anyway when searching for "amazon|wiki|ebay something" directly in the address bar.

The team that did that (or at least some of them) went on to do better things and created SoundCloud so I have my hopes for you too!

that's a tough market to crack, but props for attempting!

i'll tell you from experience that affiliate revenue does not amount to much unless you have thousands & thousands of visitors.

what are example instances when i would use entogo over google, yahoo or bing?

I think it's possible to do, but you need to differentiate yourself from browser keyword search and DuckDuckGo-like !bang searching more in order to get me to use it.

In Firefox (and I'm assuming other modern browsers) I can right-click on a search field to make it a keyword, and then do essentially (as far as I can tell, at least) the same thing as you're doing.

DuckDuckGo makes this easier for me because I can just use its !bang search syntax (http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html) to do the same thing. I now much prefer using DDG's method over manual keyword searches since I don't have to set them up and they work on all of the computers I use.

I understand that you having the keywords all set up already is a convenience, but (at least for someone who already uses things that do this) I think that the added value is not immediately obvious.

I don't think this is really a viable startup. There are so many ways to do exactly that, and in lots of the cases they're better. You can do that with other browser plugins, you can do that with chrome automagically, and there also Quicksilver and Alfred (this is the one I use) type of quick launch app that integrate this. I honestly don't want to have to install anything on my browser when it does it already out of the box and for added speed and productivity it's also hooked into my application launcher. And lets not even go into the profitability part! If you're planning on doing it as a hobby, I reckon I'd rather do something a bit more unique. If you're planning on doing this for money, how the hell are you going to monetize this, specially with a customer base thats already broken into a gazillion little niches?

I've been using yubnub.org since it was created (edit: 5 years! http://jonaquino.blogspot.com/2005/06/yubnub-my-entry-for-ra...). I see the value in just "discovering" new keywords (rather than having to create them in my browser), which is why I use it.

Not sure you can convince me I need to install a plugin though.

So you can do this in all modern browsers without installing a toolbar or jeopardising privacy. What's the benefit?

The first thing that popped into my mind as a user is what about my privacy? Can you assure me that my data will not be seen or used in any other way than helping me out?

I like the fact that you executed and completed, that's more than most people do.

But. What problem is this solving?

I actually quite like this - the keywords and the ability to add your own is pretty cool.

You have a typo on the homepage (desitination).

clickable: http://entogo.com