How can I make Safari's search box more customizable, like Firefox's search?

February 8, 2007 5:06 PM

I've switched to Safari from Firefox and am looking for the fastest way to search something on Wikipedia. Is there any way I change my search engine from Google on-the-fly and easily switch it back?
posted by metacort to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Use firefox bookmark keywords instead of the search box.
posted by aye at 5:17 PM on February 8, 2007

I don’t know if it is possible to change Safari’s built-in search behaviour, but if you use Quicksilver, you can create triggers that allow you to easily query Wikipedia, IMDB, Google, or any HTTP GET-based service.
posted by ijoshua at 5:18 PM on February 8, 2007

Oh, I misread. I believe someone did hack Safari to support bookmark keywords; I will try to dig around.
posted by aye at 5:19 PM on February 8, 2007

aye is probably thinking of Sogudi, which gives Safari the keyword search capability of Firefox.
posted by danb at 5:22 PM on February 8, 2007

SafariKeywords can do it, and there's SafariStand just to change the quick search.
posted by aye at 5:23 PM on February 8, 2007

I just use Safari's native search capability to search for "wikipedia foo". I haven't yet had that not bring up the Wikipedia article on foo on the first screen of search results, usually as the first hit.

Sogudi does look cool, though; thanks, danb.
posted by bac at 5:28 PM on February 8, 2007

Best answer: I'm a big fan of Inquisitor. Neat on-the-fly drop-down results for your main search engine and handy key commands for other search engines. For me, a quick Command+Shift+W will search Wikipedia. I have other ones for Google News and VersionTracker that I use often.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:42 PM on February 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all, my life is already so much easier!
posted by metacort at 5:59 PM on February 8, 2007

I think that SafariKeywords is better than the menu thingies, since you can probably type "wiki word" faster than you can choose wikipedia from a menu, click, and then type "word".
posted by rokusan at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2007

Saft has bookmark/search shortcuts that sound similar to how rokusan described SafariKeywords. It also has an excellent ad blocker.

For my most common searches, I cobbled them together into this multitool and set it as my homepage. (Then I just ⌘-T, shift-⌘-H to open it in a new tab.)
posted by metaly at 6:46 PM on February 8, 2007

I use Acid Search to customize my Safari search box. It might be able to do Wikipedia searches via its custom search channel function, but I haven't tried it.
posted by statolith at 7:38 PM on February 8, 2007

Google for your search term, followed by "wiki". Faster than Wikipedia's actual search. ;)
posted by secret about box at 8:19 PM on February 8, 2007

Without loading any plugins or special software you can simply google for watever you're looking for and add the word 'wikipedia' and the article or articles about that topic will be in the top results.
posted by bcnarc at 9:40 PM on February 8, 2007

Another vote for Acid Search.
posted by -t at 9:56 PM on February 8, 2007

Google just released a new OneBox feature where if you type a search term followed by INFO, if it matches a Wikipedia article that will be the first (somewhat featured) link that comes.

An Example, Google search for a Wikipedia Article on Metafilter:

google for: metafilter info
posted by farmersckn at 10:14 PM on February 8, 2007