The same goes for any other functionality that keeps my mouse gathering dust. Google Chrome’s search engine management is one of them. If you use this browser, you have probably noticed that the most popular search engine on the internet is built right into the address bar—type whatever you want to know, hit return, and you’ll see pages of Google results.
How to set up new search engines on Google Chrome
Ironically, setting up the features that will allow you to keep your hands on your keyboard requires you to use your mouse. Right-click on the address bar and choose Manage search engines. If you prefer a more traditional route, you can always go to the main menu by clicking the three dots to the right of your avatar, going to Settings, clicking Search engines on the sidebar, and then finding Manage search engines. There, you’ll see two lists: Default search engines and Other search engines. The first one on the default engines list is, to no one’s surprise, Google. If you’re happy with the internet searching services of the big G, you can keep that there or click on Add at the bottom of the list. Here, you can add your Bings, your DuckDuckGos, and any general search engine you might want to use. You can even dethrone Google and make Yahoo the way you search the web by default. The sky’s the limit. When you hit Add, a popup window will ask you for three pieces of information: Search engine (the name of the website you want to add), Keyword (a word or letter combo that will summon said search engine), and a URL. You can literally type anything you want in the first field. Once you enter the URL, the list will automatically populate with the favicon of the site, which is usually the site’s logo, so you won’t mistake it for something else. The keyword may be the most important setting, as it’ll determine how easy it’ll be to summon your search engine of choice. If, for example, you’re adding Popular Science, having “popsci.com” as your keyword is not going to save you a lot of time since that’s a functional URL of the site. Choose something short and simple like “pop,” “ps,” or even “p.” Next time you want to search for, say the best way to reheat pizza or how to make oat milk with science, you’ll only have to type “ps”, hit the spacebar, and enter your query.
Suggestions to make the most out of your search engines
Having different search engines working from within Chrome can save you lots of clicking and typing, especially if you consult the same websites time and again. Below, we’ve included the correct URLs that will direct your search to several handy locations—just copy and paste them into your browser’s search engine list. URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=%s Pro tip: There are some pages in Wikipedia that only live in their native language, so if you’re constantly searching for region-specific articles, you might want to add the online encyclopedia in a different language, with a different keyword. For example, I use “w” for English and “wiki” for Spanish. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s (English), https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s (Spanish) URL: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%s, https://www.apstylebook.com/search?query=%s
