Try This Search On userscript Links To Other Search Engines

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 6, 2011
Updated • Mar 30, 2014
Firefox, userscripts
|
9

It sometimes happens that you cannot find the information you are looking for on a specific search engine. You try different phrases and word combinations but somehow the results are not satisfactory.

The best option at this point is to try another search engine to see if the results are better. It is quite possible to switch manually by entering the url of the new search engine in the address bar and searching there for the desired information.

Update: The Try This Search On script is no longer working and it has not been updated for a while. If you use the Firefox web browser, use the Context Search add-on instead which offers a similar functionality. Instead of displaying links to alternative search engines, it display them when you highlight text and right-click afterwards.

Another alternative is to use the DuckDuckGo search engine instead and its bang syntax to run the same search on different search engines.

Continued: Try This Search On optimizes the process by embedding links to other search engines right into popular search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo Search.

The links available are listed at the bottom of the search result page. This behavior can be changed to display them at the top instead. A click loads the results in the same tab, a middle-click in a new tab.

The userscript offers customization options to add or remove links from the default set. The list of search engines depends on the type of search. A general search displays different search engine choices than a shopping or video search.

this this search on

Search engines are identified by ID. A full list is available on the userscript profile page and the preferences help page.

Search engines are removed by deleting their ID from the preferences. Users need to make sure to include the underscore before and after the ID when deleting or adding search engines from the preferences. Failure to do so can corrupt the full listing so that it becomes useless until the error is corrected.

Try this search on is a handy userscript for Firefox users who sometimes want or need to search on different search engines for a search term.

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Comments

  1. Cartas Natales said on January 8, 2011 at 4:43 pm
    Reply

    Good post. Thanks for the useful tips.

  2. seenu said on January 7, 2011 at 8:32 pm
    Reply

    recently i saw an article about jump search results userscript in makeuse.com.
    The scripts are interesting to search results in other search engines from google

  3. kktkkr said on January 6, 2011 at 6:45 pm
    Reply

    I had to read the article name several times to understand it!

  4. Thomas said on January 6, 2011 at 5:34 pm
    Reply

    Hi Martin,

    do you know the surfcanyon extension? Is does a deeper look into the search results. Once clicked a link it refines the search. Maybe you will review it here too.

    My colleagues are asking me sometimes how I find things so quickly. ;-)

    1. Disclaimer said on January 6, 2011 at 7:04 pm
      Reply

      ref: comments by Thomas….

      Be careful of SurfCanyon’s search engine!

      It works by storing remembering your surfing patterns
      and is a threat to your privacy,
      (see their FAQ and “Privacy Disclosures” pages…).

      Just sharing the truth….
      PS: “Thomas”: do you work for SurfCanyon?

      1. Mark Cramer said on January 7, 2011 at 2:27 am
        Reply

        I work for Surf Canyon would like to point out that we do not store your search patterns. No registration, login or cookies are required to use our application. There are furthermore no user profiles or histories. http://www.surfcanyon.com/privacy.jsp is also very clear that we do NOT share any personally identifiable information with any third-parties.

        Our application is purely session-based. It helps people to find relevant results by re-ranking in real-time, thus there is no need to store information.

        Thomas – Thank you for the compliment and the support! We’re thrilled that you’re enjoying the fruits of our hard work. If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind contacting me directly at http://www.surfcanyon.com/contact.jsp?

        Thanks!

      2. Thomas said on January 7, 2011 at 12:23 am
        Reply

        no I do not…

        Thanks for mentioning. Unfortunately more and more addons seems to work like this. Ghostery should be such an addon too.

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