How to customize Chrome search engines to speed up searches

How to customize Chrome search engines to speed up searches

(Thanks to Nilesh Raghuvanshi and Jenny Magiera for their instructions and ideas.)

There a number of ways to create search engines that allow you to quickly look for something in your omnibox.

First way: Click here for instructions.

2nd way: 

If the first method didn't work, try these codes:

- Right click on the Omnibox

• Click on “Edit search engines”
• Under “Other search engines”, click on “Add a new search engine”.

• Add a new search engine: Enter a name for the search engine
• Keyword: Enter the text shortcut you want to use for the search engine (see below)
• URL with %s in place: Copy and paste the web address for the search engine (see below)
• Click “Done” and test it out. Open a new tab and type one of your keywords then spacebar. Then type what you are searching for.

Name	Keyword	URL for search engine
Add calendar event	cal	http://www.google.com/calendar/event?ctext=+%s+&action=TEMPLATE&pprop= HowCreated%3AQUICKADD
Search calendar event	cals	https://www.google.com/calendar/render?q=%s
gmail search	gms	https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/%s
Google drive search	d	https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=%s
Google translate (Eng-Fr/Fr-Eng)	gt	http://www.translate.google.com/#auto|fr|%s
Word reference (Eng-Fr)	wref	http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/%s
Word reference (Fr-Eng)	wrfe	http://www.wordreference.com/fren/%s
Images	i	https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1162&bih=549&q=%s&oq=%s&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1455.1974.0.2222.4.4.0.0.0.0.73.278.4.4.0.crnk_timepromotiona...0...1.1.34.img..0.4.278.fLrfwtKTamI
YouTube	y	https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s
Email contacts	contacts	https//www.google.com/contacts/#contacts/search/%s
Creative Commons search	cc	http://labs.creativecommons.org/demos/search/?q=%s
Wikipedia	wiki	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

More:

- Google Translate Eng-Fr: Keyword: gtef URL: https://translate.google.com/#en/fr/%s
- Google Translate Fr-Eng:  Keyword: grfe  URL: https://translate.google.com/#fr/en/%s
- Clipart:  Keyword: ca  URL: https://www.google.ca/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1162&bih=549&q=beach&oq=beach&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1455.1974.0.2222.4.4.0.0.0.0.73.278.4.4.0.crnk_timepromotiona...0...1.1.34.img..0.4.278.fLrfwtKTamI&gws_rd=cr&ei=wy4DVqKCHIL8yQSfl6CQAQ#q=%s&tbm=isch&tbs=itp:clipart
- Twitter: Keyword: t  URL: https://twitter.com/search?q=%s

Part 3. If you are unable to make Part 1 or 2 work for a certain website, try this

• Right click on your omnibox
• Click on “Edit search engines”
• Under “Other search engines”, click on “Add a new search engine”.

• Enter a name for the new search engine you want egs. Amazon
• Keyword: Enter the text shortcut you want to use for the search engine (egs. am)
• URL with %s in place: Enter the web address for the search engine. To find the web address:
1. Go to the website of the search engine you want to add.
2. Do a search on the website (assuming they have a search box).
3. Copy and paste the web address of the search results page into the URL field. For example, I did a search for “ipad” on Amazon and this is the URL I got:

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_4?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ipad%20air&sprefix=ipad%2Caps%2C197

4. Replace the search terms in the URL with %s

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_4?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%s%20air&sprefix=%s%2Caps%2C197

5. Click  “Done” and test it out. Open a new tab and type “am” then spacebar. “Search Amazon” should come up right away.
6. 

Part 4: Other cool stuff to do right from Omnibox

1. Driving directions in the Omnibox

Type “From:  (add address) to: (add address)”

2. Timer

Type “Set timer 10 secs” and see what happens!

3. Type in: George Clooney’s bacon number (or any other celebrity)

4. See more ideas from Jenny Magiera’s blog.

5. To tweet from your omnibox, install Chrome extension Chromnitweet (then use tw)