How to Add Custom Search Engines in Google Chrome

You must first set up the Google Chrome address bar before you can configure it to search any page for a search term. This manual demonstrates how.

When you enter any search in the Chrome address bar, Google is automatically selected as the search engine. You must first visit the desired website in order to conduct a search on it.

To make your favorite websites’ searches quicker and easier in Chrome, you can add websites as custom search engines. The steps listed below can be used to add custom search engines to Chrome.

How to Set Up a Custom Search Engine in Google Chrome

If you want to set up a custom search engine in Google, you’ll need to modify your browser settings.

To set up a custom search engine in Chrome:

1. In Chrome, click the menu button in the upper-right corner (1).
2. Select Settings (2).
3. Select the Search engine in the left pane (1).
4. Click Manage search engines on the right (2).
5. Under the Keyboard shortcut, select whether you want to use the Space or Tab key or just the Tab key (1) when using the keyword you set up for your custom search engine.
6. Click Add to the right of Other search engines (2) to start creating your custom search engine.
7. Open a new tab and go to the site for which you want to create a custom search engine. For example, we’re going to set up groovyPost as a custom search engine.
8. Click the Search button on the site, type a search term, and press Enter. It doesn’t matter what you search for.
9. Select the URL in the address bar and copy it.
   NOTE: By default, Chrome doesn’t display the full URL in the address bar but selecting it and copying it will copy the full URL.
10. To create the URL needed for the custom search engine, replace the search term with %s. For example, “https://www.groovypost.com/?s=windows+11” becomes “https://www.groovypost.com/?s=%s”.
11. Now go back to the Settings tab—the Add search engine dialog should be open.
12. Enter a name for the search engine in the Search engine box. This name displays when you use the keyword to activate the search.
13. Enter a keyword you want to use for the search engine in the Keyword box. This will be what you type to activate the search.
14. In the URL box, paste the URL you copied from the site, changing it as described above.
15. Click Add.

How to Use Custom Searches with the Keyword and Tab

You can now use the address bar to search your favorite website using the recently added custom search engine.

1. Type the keyword followed by a space or a tab, depending on the Keyboard shortcut you selected when setting up the custom search engine.
2. The custom search engine icon will appear—type any keyword you want to search for and hit enter.
3. Your custom search engine will appear in the search bar (eg. Search groovyPost). Type your search term and press Enter.

The site’s search results will show up in the tab list below. After choosing one of these outcomes, your chosen website will load the pertinent search.

How to Make a Custom Search Engine Your Default Search Engine

You can set a search engine as your default if you frequently use one that you’ve added as a custom search engine. By doing this, you can search that website directly from the address bar without first entering a keyword.

Making a specific search engine the default means:

1. Open the Settings menu in Chrome using the menu icon in the top-right.
2. Press Search Engines > Manage search engines in Settings.
3. Click the three dots icon to the right of the custom search engine you created under Other search engines.
4. Select Make default.

The custom search is added to the Default search engines list and becomes the Default.

Now, the custom search you set as the default is used whenever you can type a search term in the address bar without typing the keyword first.

The same technique can be used to set any search engine as the default. The added custom search is returned to the list of Other search engines if you choose to make a different search engine the default.

Customizing Your Google Chrome Experience

You may simply add additional custom search engines to Google Chrome by following the above instructions and visiting any website. To make it quick and simple to search your favorite websites, you may install as many custom search engines as you like.

However, there are additional ways to alter how Google Chrome works. For instance, you might want to delete your browsing history before leaving. You might want to sign out of your Google account in Chrome if you want to increase your privacy.