Another way to search the web using Opera
Published March 30th, 2007 2:59 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanWhen Opera 9.2 will be released, you’ll have another convenient method of searching the web. If you type more than one word in the URL address bar, it will do an automatic search on Google (or your default search engine) for those words.
Until now, Opera would display an error message when typing words containing spaces in the address bar.
This is something that has been available in Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox for sometime already, and I’ve long waited for Opera to add the same support.
Here’s a quick list of the various methods Opera gives you for web searching:
1. Type your search query into the integrated search field near the URL address bar, and hit the Return (a.k.a Enter) key.
Integrated search
2. Type your search term (more than one word) directly into the URL address bar (works starting with Opera 9.2).
Step 1: Enter a search query
Step 2: Your search query is forwarded to Google
3. In the address bar, enter the letter “g” followed by search query (i.e. “g opera mini” searches Google for the term “opera mini”). Opera provides shortcut keys for other search engines too, such as “y” for Yahoo, “b” for BitTorrent, “n” for Google News, etc. The full list can be found in the menu bar at Tools > Preferences > Search.
You could also create your own shortcut keys for the search engine of your liking, simply right-click on text input field on the search page and select “Create search” from the menu.
Example 1: Search on Google for ‘opera mini’
Example 2: Search on Yahoo for ‘opera mini’
Other Opera search shortcut keyword
Create your own custom search
4. Select text on a webpage, right-click with mouse and click on “Search”.
Search directly from a webpage
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for some reason I unable to perform the second method. I receive a “opera:illegal-url-763″ error.
Any ideas how to re-able this option?
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suribe, that will come with version 9.2. I’ll add a note.
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Nice… That’s why we love Opera
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The second method is sweet. But I doubt I’ll make any intentional difference between entering one or two terms.
I think I’ll end up with entering “g ” all the time because this works for all terms.
But it can help in case I forget to enter the “g ” (which happens sometimes).
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I forget the ‘g’ all the time, and most often when I have a nice long query in the address bar. This is very welcome indeed.
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I’m glad they finally added the ability to search without typing the ‘g’. I often forget, and have to re-type my query.
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Those are some nice new features.
using
“Those are some nice new features.”
But most of them have been there since version 7.
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Hooray!
That error message has been my biggest frustration using Opera.
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You forgot the search on the Speed Dial page. BTW, is it meant to be possible to add your own search engines there too? By now I have only been able to change it to Opera Search, Translation, Encyclopedia and so on.
- ØØ -
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It would be nice if ” searchterm” (without quotes obviously), would search with my default search engine, instead of trying to look up http://searchterm/ , then http://www.searchterm.com . The criteria for deciding to use default search engine should then be:If the searchterm(s) start with a spaceIf the searchterms are multiple words
using
I have Opera 9.1 for Linux. When typing in the address bar, if I type words which are not previously in the “Typed In Address” menu below the address bar, the “Typed In Address” menu automatically comes up “g” plus whatever I am typing. If I drop down to the drop down menu I get the google search.
I have just looked at my Mac and 9.1 for Mac does this too.
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Øyvind Ø, yes - you could add your custom search to Speed Dial too.
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Jadd, that’s a good point. If you disable the automatic server name completion (www. and .com), the browser should perform the search, rather than show the error page.
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Borg explained how to enable it for single words in the desktop team blog
In case your too lazy to click that you need to enable this:
opera:config#Network|EnableHostNameWebLookup
and then put http://www.google.com/search?q=%s (if you want the default google search) in here:
opera:config#Network|HostNameWebLookupAddress
don’t forget to click save
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my adress bar has gone since i made the update.. even trough i do ctrl+F8.. it doesnt change anything…
Do someone know how to fix it?? thx
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Ashen, the address bar is most likely there, however you probably removed the URL field from the address bar.
Here’s the solution:
1) Go to View > Toolbars > Customize
2) If the “Address bar” is not selected, select it. However if it is selected, unselect it, then reselect it (this will make sure that step 4 is restoring the defaults to the correct toolbar).
3) Click on the “Buttons” tab
4) In the “Category” section, make sure that “Defaults” is selected. Click on the “Reset toolbar to its defaults” button on the bottom.
Hope this helps.