How to use any search engine from Google Chrome's and other Chromium browser's address bar

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 18, 2020
Internet, Search
|
15

All web browsers include a default search engine and a set of search engines that is supported by default. You search when you type anything in the address bar that is not an address, and will always use the default search engine for that.

Browsers include options to change the default search engine so that another one is used whenever you type in the address bar, but what if you want to use different search engines based on your queries? You could open the homepages of non-default search engines and start searches from there, but there is an easier option, and it is included in all Chromium-based web browsers including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, or Brave.

All of these browsers support the ancient keywords feature. Basically, what it does is associate a shortcut with a search engine URL to run searches using that shortcut.

Some browsers map single-letter shortcuts to search engines, e.g. Vivaldi does that.  Using Vivaldi, you can use the sequence B-Key, then Tab-key, to run searches using Bing, or D-Key then Tab-key, to use DuckDuckGo.

Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave support keywords as well, but the companies have set the keywords to the domain name. That's a nuisance, as you need to type Bing.com then Tab-key to run a search from Bing, or ecosia.org then Tab-key to use that search engine.

chrome keywords search

Users who would like to make use of the keywords feature in a Chromium-based browsers may run into the following two primary issues:

  1. How to add search engines that are not integrated in the web browser by default.
  2. How to make sure that "sane" keywords are linked to search engines to speed up the process.

Adding search engines to Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers

chrome search engines

Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers pick up search engines automatically. The best option is to visit the search engine's homepage, e.g. Startpage, and run a single search. It should be added to the browser's selection of search engines automatically at that point.

Load chrome://settings/searchEngines (note that the address may be different depending on the browser) to verify that the search engine is available. You may use the search on the page to find a search engine quickly if lots are listed on the page.

To get to the page manually, select Menu > Settings > Manage Search Engines (or Search Engines).

Customizing keyword shortcuts for search engines

edit search engine chrome

The browser lists the keywords on the search engine management page. You change them with a click on the three dots that are displayed at the rightmost location of the search engine's line on the page and selecting "Edit" from the menu that opens.

change keyword

You may then change the keyword (and other parameters). The new keyword is displayed directly in the listing, and you may use it directly in the address bar without a restart.

Just type the new keyword followed by a tap on the Tab-key, a search term, and Enter-key to run a search using the associated search engine.

Now You: do you use keywords in your browser? (via Deskmodder)

Summary
How to use any search engine from Google Chrome's and other Chromium browser's address bar
Article Name
How to use any search engine from Google Chrome's and other Chromium browser's address bar
Description
Find out how to run searches using any search engine in Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers without leaving the address bar.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Reply

    Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
      Reply

      Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.

    2. Leonidas Burton said on September 4, 2023 at 4:51 am
      Reply

      I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
      http://www.google.com/saved

  2. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
    Reply

    @Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!

  3. Karl said on August 17, 2023 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/

    Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.

  4. Anonymous said on August 25, 2023 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Omg a badge!!!
    Some tangible reward lmao.

    It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.

  5. Scroogled said on August 25, 2023 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.

    1. lollmaoeven said on August 27, 2023 at 6:24 am
      Reply

      This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)

  6. El Duderino said on August 25, 2023 at 11:14 pm
    Reply

    Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.

    And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.

  7. John G. said on August 26, 2023 at 1:29 am
    Reply

    First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[

  8. Kalmly said on August 26, 2023 at 4:42 pm
    Reply

    Yes. Please. Fix the comments.

  9. Kim Schmidt said on September 3, 2023 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.

    Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.

    The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.

    If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.

    And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.

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