Custom search engines are one of the coolest features of any modern browser. With just a few keystrokes, you can search Wikipedia right from your address bar, do a custom Google search for Lifehacker articles, or even get driving directions to a specific location. Here are five searches you should enable right now.
Custom search engines are a cool way to perform searches for any site right from your browser's address bar. For example, we've detailed how to create a site-specific search for Lifehacker before, which allows you to type lh security into your address bar in order to search Lifehacker for articles related to security.
These custom searches are very easy to set up. In Chrome, just right-click on the address bar and choose "Edit Search Engines." You can edit existing ones or add your own, giving them a name, URL, and a keyword that you'll type to initiate the search (like the example of lh above. Firefox users just need to create a bookmark with the necessary name, URL, and keyword, and it'll work like a custom search engine when you type that keyword into your browser. See the video above for an example of how this works.
Of course, there are some obvious uses for this, but we asked you what your favorite clever searches were and you responded with some great ones! Here are five that just about everyone can (and should) use to make their life easier.
Search for Pages Within the Past Year on Google
Ever do a search on Google, but come up with a bunch of old pages that aren't relevant anymore? Reader scottsmith7 has a way around this:
I have found with Google, especially when I search for tech-related things (Linux), I get a lot of out-of-date results. If I am searching to see if someone else is having trouble with CUPS, I don't care what was happening in Ubuntu 11.04. So, I added this as my default search in Chrome:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=1&tbs=qdr:y&q=%s
It searches for results in the past year, giving me recent, relevant results.
You can do this with any time frame you want, like one month, two month, or two years, as we've noted before.
Search Wikipedia for TV Episodes or Music Albums
Searching Wikipedia with a custom search engine is easy, but Wikipedia has a lot of cool stuff built-in that you can take advantage of, too. For example, Wikipedia has a list of episodes for just about every TV show out there. So, you can create a custom search just for TV shows with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=list+of+%s+episodes
Give it a keyword (like ep), then just type ep doctor who in your address bar to get a list of Doctor Who episodes right away.
Reader txhoudini took it a step further, and created a similar search for music albums:
Okay the TV show trick just blew my mind. This is probably 20% of my Wikipedia searches. I tried this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s+discography
And sure enough, this works for a list of a bands albums. Oh man, I am going to have fun with this.
You could adapt any other "series" of pages on Wikipedia with this same concept, which could be all sorts of useful.
Get Driving Directions to an Address
Reader ustice shared a bunch, but one of the ones we liked best was the ability to get driving directions from your house to any location. Just use this as the URL:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=from+my+home+address+to+%s
Replace my+home+address with your actual home (or work, or whatever) address. Give it a keyword like maps, then type maps 123 main street in your address bar to get immediate directions to 123 Main Street.
We've actually shared this one before, along with a number of other address bar "tricks" (that aren't exactly search, but are still insanely useful). Check out our guide to doing anything with your address bar for more fun, similar uses of custom search engines.
Search Whatever Site You're Currently Viewing
So you've set up searches for your favorite sites, but what if you discover a blog and you want to search its archives for something specific? Instead of setting up a custom site search for that blog right then and there, you can use a custom search engine that just searches your current domain:
javascript:location='http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:'%20+%20escape(location.hostname)%20+%20'%20%S'%20;%20void%200
Give it a keyword like cd, then run it like you would any other search. Go to a site, then type cd windows 8 into the address bar, and you'll get results from that site pertaining to Windows 8.
Search Any Site You Can Think Of?Besides the Obvious Ones
Most of the above searches use clever URL tricks that you might not have thought of yourself. However, it's also worth mentioning that you can still use this for just plain searching on any site you want: IMDB, YouTube, Wikipedia, Lifehacker, or anything else you can think of. Here are some of the more clever ones you guys mentioned:
Look up words in a Dictionary or Thesaurus: Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are extremely useful. To look up a word in a dictionary, just use:
http://dictionary.com/browse/%s
And to look it up in a thesaurus, use:
http://thesaurus.com/browse/%s
Translate words: A few of you mentioned using Google Translate, which is great if you're learning a new language. To do so, create a search with the URL:
http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|%s
This translates a word in another language to English, though you can tweak the auto|en part to fit whatever you want.
Use "I'm Feeling Lucky" on Google: If you know your search term will reveal a certain page, Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" is useful to have as a keyword. Just use this URL:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%s&btnI=Im+Feeling+Lucky
Find out if a site is down: ustice recommended a custom search for Down For Everyone Or Just Me that checks if a URL is down. You can use the URL http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/%s, but that requires you to type in the URL of the "downed" site yourself. I tweaked the javascript search from the "Search Current Domain" engine above to work for Down For Everyone Or Just Me:
javascript:location='http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/'%20+%20escape(location.hostname)%20+%20'%20'%20;%20void%200
If you use that, you can use it right after you visit the site. Say you visit Lifehacker and its down. You can just go to the address bar, type your keyword, and press Enter. Your browser will search for the current domain on Down For Everyone or Just Me so you can see whether the site's having problems.
Okay, so that probably ended up being a bit more than five, but these five general ideas can spawn all kinds of awesome uses for this feature. There are a ton of other great ideas out there, too?these are just a few of the best you guys shared with us. Check out the discussions on our original poll for more, and play around with your favorite sites and see what you can come up with. Armed with a few of these, you can reduce a lot of the typing you do day in and day out.
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