Search Engine Bookmarklets

Last updated Jul. 12, 2023.
by Greg R.

To help searchers quickly switch to other search engines, select text to send to a search engine, or to otherwise expedite and help in the search process, here is a collection of bookmarklets. To use these, simply click and drag one to your bookmarks, links, or personal toolbar. You can rename any of them, as long as you know what they do. To fit more on the links or personal toolbar, change @Yahoo! to @y and Google Site Search to gs and more room will be available on the toolbar. When adding these in Internet Explorer, a message may pop-up warning that it may not be safe to use these. While these have worked for me with no negative consequences, there is no warranty that these will be completely safe or work for all other users and in all browsers. [Show me 1.1MB 2:32 Flash video]

Select Text and Send to Search Engine Bookmarklet

Use these when there is text on the current page you are viewing, and you would like to search that text. Select the text and then click the appropriate bookmarklet. If not text is selected, most of these will pop up a box for the search input.

Ask
Exalead
Gigablast
Google
Google Site Search (will search for selected text with a site limit of the site of the current page)
MSN
Teoma
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Site Search (will search for selected text with a site limit of the site of the current page)

Transfer Search Bookmarklets

After running a search in one search engine, these Transfer Search bookmarklets make it easy to send the same query to another search engine. For example, after searching at Google, just click the @Yahoo bookmarklet to see the results at Yahoo!.

Other Useful Bookmarklets

#G (Number Google Results)
#M (Number MSN Search Results)
Gf=0 (Turn Google site clustering filter off and change number of results to 100)
Yf=0 (Turn Yahoo! site clustering filter off and change number of results to 100)
Zap plugins (Removes Java, flash, background music, and third-party iframes)
Zap (Removes plugins, colors, cheap effects, event handlers, and timers to improve readability of page. Mozilla/Firefox only.)
Zapics (Removes images on page, replacing them with their alternative text)

Search Boxes

Use these to put a search box for specific search engines on a Web page.

More Information

For general information about bookmarklets, see Bookmarklets.com. For lots more bookmarklets, see Jesse Ruderman's bookmarklets site. And for more details of their use, see my column: Bookmarklets, Favelets, and Keymarks: Shortcuts Galore Online 27(4): 38-40, July-Aug. 2003. Most of these bookmarklets are based on those of others, especially the fine collection from Jesse Ruderman.