Have you ever attempted to change Google as your default search engine in Safari 4.0? It is not easy to do, unless you have some Unix programming skills and can use the built in Mac OS X Terminal application with a vi editor, to manipulate the default Google search engine, to a search engine of your choosing, it isn't easy at all.
Knowing the majority of us are not programmers and do not intend to be, why even try to attempt and change Google to some other search engine in Safari 4?
You gotta admit however, if were possible, that would be kinda nice, right?
Well before you throw your hands up and call it a day, there is a nifty way to work around obstacle in Safari currently has built in, that normally makes Google appear nearly impossible to change its default position, with another search engine.
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Let me show you how its done. There are alot of nice pictures in this tip, so it should be easy for you to follow:
First make sure you have downloaded and installed Safari 4 on your Mac.
• Next download a free plug-in called
Inquisitor.
Link:
Download Inquisitor• Make sure to quit out of Safari before you download and install the
Inquisitor plug-in.
• Once Inquisitor has been downloaded to your desktop (or Downloads folder), you will see this zip file (left). Double click it and it will reveal the package file for the Inquisitor plug-in (right).
Double click the package file and it will open to this window
Just keep clicking the Continue button, until you reach the
"Install Inquisitor" window.
Note: You may see a window with the icon of your hard drive
before you reach this window. Just select your hard drive
and continue until you reach this window.
Start the installation.
As is the case with most applications that you download
to your Mac OS volume, you have to provide your
User Administrator password in order to complete
this installation.
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If you have forgotten your User Administrator password,
click this link to the Apple Support page for the
process of resetting your User Administrator password:
Resetting your Administrator Password in Mac OS X -----------------------------------------------------------------------
* If you know your Admin password enter it in the
password box and click the OK button.
What follows is the installation of the Inquisitor plug-in.
Close the installer.
Now launch Safari, click on the Safari name on the menu bar
and select Preferences from the drop down menu
When you are in the Preferences window, if you are familiar with the Safari >Preferences tool bar, there are only 8 toolbar icons.
Now with the Inquisitor plug-in, there should be a 9th toolbar icon, the "Inquisitor Search" toolbar icon.
From here, it is as simple as clicking the Search icon which will open
the main window for the plug-in settings.
What is really great about this plug-in, is that you can now customize
the Safari search bar with various settings and auto features
for your web searching experience, that weren't even available before
in Safari.
Now the default search engines within Inquisitor, are Google
and Yahoo!
But... that is Google and Yahoo! worldwide.. You have access to
Google and Yahoo! search engines from other countries from around the world!
For example, if you can see the blue highlighted bar, I have selected Google Australia as my default search engine to replace Google US
in Safari. All I have to do is select it close out of Safari Preferences and
go to the Search engine bar in Safari's open browser window.
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Let's say for sake of example, that I want to find a listing of grocery stores in Australia:
And Viola! The top listings for Grocery Stores in Australia, via my newly configured Google Australia search engine.
But wait, what if you are ok with Google and Yahoo! BUT, would like to have a wider range of search engines to set and choose from in Inquisitor ?
Well that option is available in Inquisitor as well.
Just go back into Safari>Preferences and Search and you can go to the check box near the bottom of the window and select Display links to additional search engines
Now click the "Edit Sites" button
You will now have a window displaying the current search engines currently available besides Google and Yahoo! Inquisitor has provided
Amazon.com and Flickr for examples to let you see how easy
it is to setup your own customized list of your favorite search
engines.
This is the last part of these features I want to show you, but a
necessary one, especially for those of you, who fancy having multiple options in your selection of search engines.
It is really simple to do.
First click the + symbol with the disclosure arrow near it
This is will reveal a menu of more specific categories and the recommended search engines you can choose from.
But in the example, go ahead and click the
"New custom search shortcut" line.
This will open a new line in the list above, so you can now enter the Site Name.
I use Microsoft's new search engine Bing, to demonstrate how to
set a custom search engine in this list.
I continue by completing the Site name and URL for Bing.
To select each field just double click each box and fill it in.
If you notice, I still have the Shortcut box blank.
I create a keyboard shortcut for the custom Bing
search engine addition using the Apple command key
and the 1 key on my keyboard.
Now my custom search engine addition is complete.
Let's see how it works.
Once again, I go into my Safari search engine box and I type Grocery Stores but this time I also use my new keyboard shortcut -
⌘1And look at the results now:
Not only is the Bing search engine present,
but Amazon.com and Flickr as well.
Inquisitor allows you to change your default search engine, but it also
allows you to see your other search engines and chose the one you want to commit a web search through.
Now you have more search options in Safari 4 than just Google!
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This marks the end of my FixYa tip to help empower you to know how
to change Safari 4's default search engine from Google, to Google & Yahoo! worldwide search engines and any other established search engine you want to use.
Thanks for reviewing my Tip!
Regards,
-Mactechtrainer
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