Starting in Firefox 3, you can create "Smart Folders" in the Places Library. These folders are like saved searches that update automatically.

Current Smart Folders

After installing Firefox 3, you will already have some Smart folders:

• Most Visited - available from the Bookmarks Toolbar, this folder looks in your history to find which pages you visit most frequently.
• Recently Bookmarked - available from the Bookmarks Menu, this folder keeps track of the last several bookmarks you've added. Expand the Recently Bookmarked folder to see a list of sites.
• Recent Tags - available from the Bookmarks Menu, this folder keeps track of the bookmark "tags" you've used most recently. Expand the Recent Tags folder to see a list of tags, then expand each tag to show pages you've recently bookmarked using that tag. For more information on tags, see Bookmark Tags.
  
  

If you have accidentally deleted one of the default smart folders, see Restore the default Smart Bookmarks Folders.

Creating and using new Smart Folders

Smart Folders based on History

To create a new Smart Folder based on your browsing history:

1. Open the Places Library for History by clicking on the History menu and selecting Show All History
2. In the upper-right corner of the Places Library window, click in the Search History box.
3. Start typing a search term into the Search History box. The filtered list of matching sites will come up as you type.
4. Underneath the Search History box, click Save. The Save Search dialog box will appear.
5. Enter a Name for the new Smart Folder and click OK.

Smart Folders based on Bookmarks

To create a new Smart Folders based on your bookmarks:

1. Open the Places Library for Bookmarks by clicking Bookmarks menu and selecting Organize Bookmarks...
2. In the upper-right corner of the Places Library window, click in the Search Bookmarks box.
3. Start typing a search term into the Search Bookmarks box. The filtered list of matching sites will come up as you type.
   • You can narrow your search to a single Bookmarks folder by clicking on a bookmarks folder in the left half of the Window, and then typing in your search term.
4. Underneath the Search Bookmarks box, click Save. The Save Search dialog box will appear.
5. Enter a Name for the new Smart Folder and click OK.

The example below illustrates this process for a Bookmarks folder.

Example

To show how to use Smart Folders, let's look at an example. If you're interested in economics, you might use Firefox to bookmark and tag pages related to economics.

1. To find all your bookmarks related to economics, open the Places Library for Bookmarks - click on the Bookmarks menu and select Organize Bookmarks.... The Library window will appear, with the All Bookmarks folder selected.
   
   
   
   
2. Click in the top-right corner of the library on the Search Bookmarks bar. Type in econ. The Library will start filtering the list of bookmarks as you type, leaving you with a list of bookmarks with econ in the Name or Location, as well as bookmarks with tag names containing econ in them.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Save underneath the Search Bookmarks bar and you'll be prompted to save your search. Let's type "Smart Economics Folder" as the Name and click OK. The Smart Economics Folder will appear in the list of folders.
   
   
   
   
4. For easy access, we'll move the new smart folder to the Bookmarks Toolbar. Click on the new smart folder, drag it to the the Bookmarks Toolbar folder, and release it. The folder will be moved. Close the Library to go back to the Firefox window.
5. In the Firefox window, we see that the new smart folder is now part of the Bookmarks Toolbar. We can click on it to show its contents.
   
   
   
   
6. Now, we'll add more pages related to economics. Just visit some new sites, and bookmark a page with econ in the title or web address, or bookmark any page and add a tag with econ in it.
   
   
   
   
7. The folder will automatically update itself to include our new bookmarks.