Use Chrome to Directly Search Any Engine

Have an API, documentation, knowledge base or any other resource you search regularly? Turn Chrome into a multi-engine search tool and save tons of time.

By default, Chrome's address bar doubles as a Google search engine, but what if you want to search, say, CoderWall instead? You can.

Chrome can add most search engines to it's list simply by right-clicking the search box and choosing 'Add As Search Engine…'

From there you can specify a keyword to use in Chrome's address bar to trigger the search engine.

Simply type the keyword followed by a space to trigger the engine.

Sometimes, though, the search engine you want, Drupal's API for example, does not provide that option.

Don't worry, you can still add it by following these steps:

1. Go to the search engine you want to add and search for something.

2. Copy the resulting URL.*

3. Open Chrome's settings (or preferences) and choose Manage Search Engines

4. At the bottom of the Search Engines list you can add your own.

5. The title will show in the address bar when you trigger the keyword, the keyword is the text you'll type to trigger the search.

6. Paste the URL you copied into the search string and replace your search terms with '%s'

7. Click 'Done,' close settings and type your keyword into the address bar followed by a space.

Now you can directly search any engine right from Chrome.

*To do this in Drupal, it's much easier to search for something you know doesn't exist. The resulting URL is much simpler.