The quickest way to search

Alfred's been asking what's the quickest way to search for stuff online. Putting aside the debate of which search engine you prefer, there are some really neat shortcuts you can use to reduce the time from 'query to answers'.

If you use IE7 there's a handy search bar in the top right corner. You can tweak this to use your favourite search engine by default. Typing your query in this box will open a new browser tab containing your search engines answers to your query.

Faster still you can type " ? raspberry sauce" (or whatever you're trying to find) in the normal address bar. Again, Internet Explorer will see the "?" as an instruction to launch your favourite browser and rapidly report its findings.

Even faster still if you use Windows Desktop Search you can type your query and simply hit SHIFT+ENTER. This will launch your browser, access your default search engine and report the results in a new tab.

Anyone know a faster way to get search results?

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2006
  When Google Desktop installed just press CTRL twice and a nice bar will launch where you type in what you like. If you type an URL it will go there immediately after your press enter...
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2006
  if you check out http://www.OpenSearchList.com, you can easily add your own custom searches to IE7 (or even firefox 2).  Or browse the hundreds of searches that are already there.