Tip: use custom search engines for efficiency

I don't need to tell you how search improves our efficiency on the web, but using custom search engines can make your day even more efficient.

Configuring your browser to use custom search engines is a massive time gain, and improves your work flow. When I used Firefox, I had set up search plugins for the stuff I needed, but it took screen real-estate (even with optimizations) and wasn't easily customizable or extendable.

With my migration to Google Chrome, I found setting up custom search engines a snap, no wasted screen real-estate, and using keywords improved my workflow.

Example: Search Wikipedia by typing alt+d wp<space>search_term

Adding custom search engines in Chrome

Click the spanner, choose options.
Click manage (next to default search).
Click add.
Create your custom search engine.

Custom search engines I use

Name                Keyword     URL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TurnKey Linux       tkl         /search/luceneapi_node/%s
Ubuntu Packages     pkgu        http://packages.ubuntu.com/%s
Debian Packages     pkgd        http://packages.debian.org/%s
GitHub              gh          http://github.com/search?q=%s
Wikipedia           wp          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s

Notes on package searching

I usually use apt-cache search search_term when I'm at the command line, but I find that using the Ubuntu and Debian web interfaces useful when exploring new packages and their dependencies while working on appliance development.

What custom search engines do you use?

Comments (3)

I wasn't aware of that, thanks for sharing

Reply 1 2010-07-19

I still use Firefox during web application development, and for certain plugin's which I have yet to find replacements for in Chrome - for example, chatzilla and firebug (I do use chrome's internal web dev tools, but I still find firebug superior in some situations).

I'll certainly take a closer look at the resources you mentioned.

Firefox supports search keywords too

Reply 2 2010-07-19

When I used Firefox, I had set up search plugins for the stuff I needed, but it took screen real-estate (even with optimizations) and wasn't easily customizable or extendable.

Firefox also supports search keywords in the same style as described above for Chrome. The visible difference is that it does not immediately replace the entered keyword by a string like "Search Wikipedia:" in the address bar — but the selected search engine is displayed in the suggestion list below it.

Search keyword configuration for Firefox:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Smart+keywords — easy configuration through the right-click menu on a search page;
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_keyword_searches — more details (you can just create a bookmark with %s in it, then add a keyword in its properties; the bookmark may be placed anywhere, even in the "Unfiled Bookmarks" tree, so it won't be visible directly).

With these keywords the search box is mostly unneeded and may be removed to leave more space for the address bar.

New TurnKey search engine

Reply 3 2010-12-31

The new search engine (lucene) integrated into the TurnKey website with the site refresh is much more powerful than what we previously had, so those who are using the tkl custom search in chrome requires an update:

before: search/node/%s
after:  search/luceneapi_node/%s

I've updated the post to reflect the new URL.