Yes actually, and not just at the desktop, these hot keys work no matter what app you are in at the time.
A couple of lines in the .xbindkeysrc is all it takes to define a shortcut for any program you want.

For example I use "conboy" all the time for making notes. I have the keyboard shortcut Function + Shift + c to open it.
Lines for that in .xbindkeysrc are:
I have a couple of spreadsheets I work with all of the time, and by specifying the program and the path to the file gnumeric will open up ready to work with instead of browsing for the file everytime I open it.

That looks like:
If you need more examples or want an example .xbindkeysrc file posted let me know.

All in all it greatly decreased the time I take navigating to things on the phone. The app-search-app is just a bonus for anything I use infrequently enough I don't need a specific shortcut assigned to it.